The number of cell phones available all over the world is simply amazing. They have touch screens, email, cameras, MP3 players, GPS and tons of interesting apps for anything you can think of. Why the heck wait for something that is available now. Ahhh … the marketing powers of the fruity computer companies and cell service carriers.

If they had their way there would be an absolute ban on purchasing a cell phone without a 100 year service contract. They are pretty close. Almost 95% of phones sold in the U.S. are sold locked to one specific carrier. And good luck unlocking your own property!

Thanks to companies like WXPlanet it is now easy to acquire a top of the line cell phone from almost any manufacturer. WXPlanet doesn’t try to sell you service, just a good price on really cool phones. They strive to offer models not commonly available in the carrier’s outlets.

Oh sure, some big nameless fruity computer company has just announced a new and innovative cell phone to be released sometime this spring. Can’t wait!

So I didn’t! I bought an unlocked phone instead.

So when I got my new Motorola Ming I called Cingular for the configuration settings to get on-line. You would not believe how many times I was told that my phone would not work via the Internet in the United States. I guess Cingular has not heard of the World Wide Web … they must be using a “non-WWW” data network, whatever that is, oh well.

After some playing around with the phone, I found where to enter the config settings to get onto Cingular’s “non-WWW” data network. I entered the settings that they use for their phones that “do” work in the United States and whattayouknow, it actually does work on the World Wide Web. Thanks a lot for your help Cingular. I’m so happy to send you mucho dineros every month!

Frustration with my cell phone carrier aside, I have a phone with touch screen, tons of memory, video, web browser, email, maps, games, music, blah, blah, blah … and I didn’t have to wait for the fruity computer company to release something that is and has been available for a long time.

So the point of this article is … we actually do have really cool cell phones in America. We’re just not supposed to know about them.

Check out WXPlanet’s unlocked cell phones and please write me if you know anything about this “non-WWW” data network that only Cingular customer service seems to know about.

Roger Gimbel

http://wxplanet.com