Recently I purchased new mobile phone: a Nokia 8290. It's a great phone, with a lot of features. Of course to make a phone work you need a carrier, and in San Francisco, the only choice of carrier for a GSM 1900 phone like the 8290 is Cingular Wireless (what used to be Pacific Bell Wireless).
The good thing about Cingular Wireless is that it is a GSM network (well GSM 1900, it would be nice if it was GSM 900/1800 like the rest of the world, but let's not get started on that). Anyway the good thing is Cingular is GSM, and hence has all (well most of) the cool features of the GSM networks in Europe and Asia.
The bad thing is that Cingular Wireless has a very strange idea of customer service. They provide lots of information on how to buy network features, but no information on how to set those features up or use them.
Anyway, enough complaining. This page is kind of a 8290 on Cingular Wireless user manual. I hope it helps. NOTE: all the information here should be valid for the 8290's expensive big sister the 8890
You can sign up for Cingular Wireless service by calling 1-800-393-7267 or by visiting one of the million local retailers. I chose the first option and as a result I would recommend the second option. The 1-800 crew don't know anything about the equipment all they want to do is get you signed up. Plus it takes 2 weeks for your phone to arrive. So, get yourself a good local retailer with some smart people. If you are in San Francisco, I found this guy to have a clue:
|
Ronnie Fong Cingular Wireless Store 311 California Street, San Francisco 415-362-7900 |
The Nokia 8290 will cost you about $400, but if you sign up for 12 months they give you a $200 rebate, making the phone about $200. Cingular Wireless has rate plans that are much the same as all the other carriers, and like other carriers gives you a mix of included and optional features. Of particular note for the 8290 are the optional features Interactive Messaging and Cingular DataConnect. The first is what Cingular calls two way SMS messaging. The second is basically data calls - using your phone for data rather than voice (yes, you have to pay extra for this). Anyway, so here is what I signed up for:
| Carrier: | Cingular Wireless |
| Rate Plan: |
Cingular Home |
| Optional Features: | Interactive Messaging and Cingular DataConnect |
To setup the 8290 to work with the network, you need a bunch of information. I didn't get this information initially, and had to keep calling back as I discovered what I didn't have. Make sure you get the following information:
| Voice #: | voice call number | 1-999-999-9999 |
| Data #: | data call number (DataConnect feature) | 1-999-999-9999 |
| Fax #: | fax call number (DataConnect feature) | 1-999-999-9999 |
| PIN code: | security code used to unlock the phone | Initially 1111 |
| PIN2 code: | Cingular doesn't support this feature | |
| PUK code: | Used to unblock a blocked PIN code | you should ask for this |
| PUK2 code: | Cingular doesn't support this feature | |
| SMS Message Center #: | Needed for SMS messaging (Interactive Messaging feature) | +1 209 904 2030 Note (1) |
| SMS email address: | email address of the phone (Interactive Messaging feature) |
<telephone#>@mobile.mycingular.com <telephone#>@pacbellpcs.net Note (2) |
What Cingular calls Interactive Messaging is just two way SMS messaging, a standard GSM feature which has been mostly unavailable in the US (until phones like the 8290 were available).
The basic Cingular Home plan provides what Cingular calls Numeric Paging. This allows a caller to leave a number, and the number is paged to your phone. This feature is a simple application of one way SMS messaging.
The $2.99/month (and up) Interactive Messaging feature gives you two way SMS Messaging. This allows you to send and receive SMS messages with the phone. Over the SMS messages you can send messages to other users with SMS enabled phones. Using an email gateway you can send messages to regular Internet email address, and Internet mail users can send mail to you via your <telephone#>@pacbellpcs.net address, where <telephone#> is the full 11 digit number (14155551212@...). When the message arrives, your phone will beep and you will be able to read it. Easy.
To receive email you just need the Interactive Messaging feature turned on (that is pay money). To send email, you need to set the SMS Message Center # in the phone. See "Save Message Center Number" in the manual.
To send a message to another SMS enabled phone, just follow the menus to Write Messages (Menu/Messages/Write Messages (1-3)), type in the text of your message, then select Send from the Options menu. You will be prompted for a Number:, enter the phone number of the recipient. At this prompt you can also use the up/down scroller to search through your phone book for the number.
This is very convenient for sending quick messages to friends with SMS phones. You can send messages to other friends with Cingular phones, and to some phone users on some other networks. The list of other networks seems to be growing. Back when Cingular was Pacbell Wireless and I first had a GSM phone, messages were restricted to the Pacbell Wireless network, but now I am able to send SMS messages to friends in Australia, Singapore and the U.K.. You just need their international number and the '+' prefix (San Francisco information would be entered as '+1 415 555 1212').
In addition to sending SMS messages to other phone users, you can send messages to any Internet email address. This is made possible through an SMS to Email gateway that Cingular provides at the SMS phone number "121". You send an SMS message that includes the destination email address to the gateway, and the gateway forwards and the SMS message into Internet email land. From your 8290, there are two ways to make this happen.
The simplest way to use this feature is to set Messages sent as E-mail. That is, go through the menus, Menu/Messages/Message Settings/Email/Messages sent as (1-5-1-2) and set this setting to E-Mail. When you next send a message, you will first be prompted for an E-mail address. Enter the Internet email address of the recipient. Next you will be prompted for a Number. Enter "121", then OK, and the message is off.
The slightly more complicated way to send to Internet email is to leave the Messages sent as Text, and to enter the destination email address at the start of the message. Compose your message with the first thing in the message being the email address you wish to send to, then a space, then your message. With your foo@domain.com message.. composed, Send the message, and enter "121" at the Number: prompt. Presumably this routes the message to some Pacbell widget that parses the text message header and forwards it to email land. I have not worked out a way to send to multiple email address, in fact if someone knows what the full syntax (if there is any) of this message format, I would love to hear.
TIP: I send quite a lot messages to a couple of specific Internet email addresses, namely my djw@djw.org email address and my work email address. The biggest pain is entering the email address itself. I can whip through the text quickly, but the '@', the '.' and the non-word nature of email addresses means they take a while to enter. To make life easier, I created blank messages with the email address and a space, then saved these messages in my Outbox. When I need to send a quick note to myself to feed the cat when I get home, I simply go into the Outbox, find the message with the correct saved email address (and space!), and select Edit from the Options menu. Now I have a quick start on the message.
The Messages sent as menu of the 8290 suggests that in addition to Text and E-mail, you can send messages as Fax and Page. I have not been able to make either of these work. Presumably the Cingular widget at "121" doesn't speak the Fax or Page.
One of the best features of the 8290 is a built in, AT command set infrared modem. That's the red bezel on the left hand side. To enable this feature you need to have the Cingular DataConnect option (that is pay money).
I use the phone as modem with a laptop and (more often) with a Palm handheld. Configuration is mainly on the computer side. Once configured, you enable infrared on the 8290 (last menu item), point the computer and phone's IR ports at each other, and connect from the computer. The phone dials up just like a modem should. See the Palm handheld + Nokia 8290 page.
Many people have written to me asking why they need the DataConnect option to use this phone as modem feature. I don't know why, I'm not Cingular. Yes, it does seem like it's just another phone call, but it seems the phone initiates the call in a different manner, and Cingular bills this kind of call separately. Yes, it would seem that you should be able share your voice minutes with your phone as modem minutes, but as far as I know you cannot. The only way I know to make the phone work as a modem is by signing up for the DataConnect feature and paying the separate minutes for data calls. If you have better information, please write, I would love to use my plentiful voice minutes for data time.
Note 1. SMS Message Center #: Pacbell seems to set up the SIM card in the phone with +1 209 904 2010. This works OK for simple SMS messaging but not for the email gateway.
Note 2. SMS email address: The new Cingular email domain is mobile.mycingular.com, accounts established under Pacbell Wireless can also be accessed using the older pacbellpcs.net domain.