Anyone travelled to Eastern Europe (Austria/Hungary) with Cingular's 7290? Any probs getting calls or mail?

Will be going soon and want to know what to expect?

Thanks

Go to www.gsmworld.com. Look at the roaming information. Then roaming partners. For Austria it looks like you will roam on "Hutchinson 2G Austria" and in Hungary "Vodaphone Hungary Ltd." Also try http://www.cingular.com/customer_service/roaming_we for Cingular rates in each country.

I am sure you are aware of this, but in case you are not, beware of the data charges while roaming anywhere overseas. Remember, becasue the BB is a push device you cannot control when you receive email data. Even though the charge for international data is only $0.0195/kb it will add up to big charges pretty quickly.

I have been searching myself for an unlimited worldwide roaming plan that is supposed to exsist at $69.99/month, but when I call Cingular they are clueless at the moment. It is mentioned on their website, but nobody seems to have a clue. It might be a migrated AT&T offering, but I am getting no help.

If you anyone knows of anything different, please respond.

Mitch

I took my Cingular 7290 to London and Ireland about a month ago and initially had no service in London (no voice or data). It took three rather expensive calls to Cingular to resolve the issue. Even though the phone is marketed as an international phone, before you leave, I suggest you contact Cingular to make sure that your account is set up to roam internationally. Apparently my account was not and the customer support people had to "flip a few switches" to make the voice and the data work. It was a frustrating experience to say the least.

Other than that, I love the 7290 and have generally been pleased with Cingular's service. I upgraded from a Handpring Treo 300 and there is just no comparison to Blackberry's superior push e-mail platform.

To get the intl. data roaming, you may have to first add intl. calling. These are two big "switches" to throw at Cingular. If they tell you that there is no intl. unlimited data, BS. Ask for someone else, we have it.

I was told by Cingular that there is a 6 months hold for new customers for international roaming. International roaming is by default turned off.

If you beg, I have been told that there is another agreement you can sign to get past the 6 month wait. Why would you get a cell phone if you have to wait 6 months to use it (total BS). Raise hell, you are the customer!