Traveling Abroad This Holiday Season? Cingular Survey Finds American Travelers Want Their U.S. Wireless Service
December 11 2006 - 9:55AM
PR Newswire (US)
Whether by Land or by Sea, Cingular Makes it Easy to Stay Connected
When Traveling Abroad ATLANTA, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Many
Americans will hit the roads, the waves and the sky this holiday
season to spend time with loved ones or simply to enjoy a nice
vacation break. For those travelers looking for an international
holiday getaway, Cingular Wireless knows that the wireless phone is
the top communication choice for Americans who need (or want) to
stay connected when traveling abroad. More than one in four
Americans use their cell phone service when traveling abroad and
half said they are likely to use their cell phone when making their
next international trip, according to a Cingular survey on
international travel conducted by ICR (International Communications
Research). Sixty-four percent of traveling respondents prefer
traditional wireless service as their top choice of communication
because of its ease and convenience, easy access for others and
peace of mind in case of emergency. Although the majority of
Cingular survey respondents preferred communicating via wireless
phone over other choices in the survey such as stationary,
postcards or using a laptop computer, many still did not know how
to use their wireless service abroad. "More and more consumers want
to stay connected when they are vacationing near home or abroad,"
said William Hague, executive vice president, International Roaming
Operations for Cingular Wireless. "Many travelers don't realize
just how easy it is to use their U.S. wireless service out of the
country. Because Cingular operates on a GSM network, the most
commonly used wireless platform worldwide, our customers benefit
from the ease of use and seamless transition when traveling from
one country to the next." Cingular Wireless' International Roaming
features voice service in over 185 countries and data service in
over 120 countries. Cingular customers can also keep in touch with
folks back home by sending text and multimedia messages, which
comes in handy with time zone differences. The Caribbean is a
popular destination year round, but particularly during the chilly
winter months. With Cingular World Traveler for only $5.99 a month,
customers can enjoy great roaming rates in several Caribbean
countries: - $1.69 per minute in Aruba, Cayman Islands, Dominican
Republic, Jamaica, St. Maarten and St. Lucia - $1.99 per minute in
Antigua, Bahamas and British Virgin Islands In a separate survey
conducted recently by American Express, whereby 402 of their travel
agents were surveyed to identify patterns in travel plans for the
upcoming holiday travel season, it was revealed that about
two-thirds of those responding said the week between Christmas Day
and New Year's Day will be the busiest for travel this year.*
Cruise ship travel is also a holiday favorite for many consumers,
especially families who take advantage of the time off. Cingular
offers cruise ship roaming for only $2.49 per minute on Carnival
Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Lines,
Celebrity Cruises, Regent Seven Seas, and Island Cruises among
others. Cingular World packages allow customers to: - Receive phone
calls around the world when someone dials their local wireless
phone number - Stay connected to e-mail worldwide, using laptop or
portable data devices, just like at home - Avoid unfamiliar pay
phones or expensive hotel rates - Get unlimited e-mail at home and
abroad with Blackberry device "In addition to competitive wireless
calling packages, Cingular also offers the largest selection of
quad-band devices -- more than any other U.S. wireless carrier,
which allows our customers to roam virtually anywhere using their
same phone and phone number," said David Christopher, vice
president, Product Management, Cingular Wireless. "For business
travelers, we also recently introduced the Cingular 8525 Pocket PC,
the first UMTS/HSDPA-enabled PDA in North America. Now our
customers can enjoy wireless broadband connectivity in North
America as well as in dozens of countries abroad, including Japan
and South Korea." Cingular offers consumers the following four
travel tips for their cell phone abroad: 1. Make sure your cellular
service provider has roaming available in the country you are
visiting. This information is usually posted on their Web site. 2.
Make sure your phone is a "world" phone that can operate outside
North America. For the best international coverage, choose a "quad
band" world phone that operates on 850/1900 (North American) and
900/1800 (most other countries) frequencies. 3. Check with your
service provider to be sure international roaming service has been
enabled on your account. Typically, an additional feature must be
activated by your service provider. This can usually be done at no
additional charge, unless you choose a discount package. 4. Learn
how to make calls when using your cellular service in another
country. Using GSM service, you can place calls from any country
without knowing the international access code. Simply dial "+",
followed by the country code, then the number (the U.S. country
code is "1"). So, for example, to call home from France, dial:
+1(area code)(number). In most GSM devices, holding down the 0 key
will cause the + sign to appear. For more information on Cingular
World, visit http://www.cingularworld.com/ . Cingular Survey
Methodology: The survey was conducted during July 20-24, 2006 and
surveyed 1,071 adults ages 18+ with wireless service. The margin of
error for this sample is plus or minus three percentage points.
*American Express Holiday Poll results were obtained from press
release dated Nov. 17, 2006 and is posted on
http://www.americanexpress.com/ . About Cingular Wireless Cingular
Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the United States,
serving 58.7 million customers. Cingular, a joint venture between
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE:BLS), has
the largest digital voice and data network in the nation -- the
ALLOVER(TM) network -- and the largest mobile-to-mobile community
of any national wireless carrier. Cingular is a leader in third
generation wireless technology. Its 3G network is the first widely
available service in the world to use HSDPA (High Speed Downlink
Packet Access) technology. Cingular is the only U.S. wireless
carrier to offer Rollover(r), the wireless plan that lets customers
keep their unused monthly minutes. Details of the company are
available at http://www.cingular.com/. Get Cingular Wireless press
releases emailed to you automatically. Sign up at
http://cingular.mediaroom.com/. DATASOURCE: Cingular Wireless
CONTACT: Jennifer Bowcock, +1-404-236-6319, or , or Kelleigh Scott
Beal, +1-404-236-6321, or , both of Cingular Wireless Web site:
http://www.cingular.com/ http://www.cingularworld.com/
http://cingular.mediaroom.com/ http://www.americanexpress.com/
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