Sasmung D528 no Cingular service

My dad recently purchased a Samsung SGH-D528 in China, and is able to use his AT&T SIM card in the phone as a Cingular user. I, on the otherhand, have a 64K Cingular SIM card and when I try to use the phone it says No Service. I was wondering what I could do to keep my plan and use the phone without paying any ridiculous fees.

One thing to note is when the beginning screen comes up it does say Welcome to Cingular, but that is it.

That makes no sense to me, the att sim is 850 band the cingular is 850 and 1900 but the phone is only capable of 1900

Samsung has the SGH-D520 as a triband (900/1800/1900) phone. Interestingly, China only uses the 900 band. It looks like this phone was made primarily for Europe & Asia, which the Samsung SGH-D520 page says as well.

Its weird that you two have different reception quality, having the same network, after all, just different logos on your chip. Have you tested the same location with one SIM & then another?

I would guess that the phone is the problem, and not the chip. It only uses one of the bands that Cingular offers, and not both. Granted, there shouldn't be any differences in network reception, but it would be worthwhile to bring up the issue to a corporate store (not just a kiosk in the mall). Or maybe better to call them from a landline.

Not much of a solution, but its all I have to offer. Please post when you things get resolved. It would be interesting to find out the root of the problem.

Respectfully,
Jacob

We have used my dad's AT&T SIM card and my Cingular SIM card in South Florida, and he was able to use the phone and I wasn't.

Today, when I went to Cingular to talk about it, we tried a 3G Cingular SIM card in the phone, and that showed the same "No Service" screen. He suggested I try to find a code online to unlock the phone because he thinks its locked to the Cingular network, but is it possible for it to be locked on the Cingular Network through Cingular SIM cards, but not AT&T SIM cards. Also, they have been pestering my dad to switch to an AT&T SIM card. WHAT DID THEY DO TO THE SIM CARDS.... GRRR!

Is it worth trying a phone unlock code? I really don't see how that would resolve the problem.

Another thing to note, I called Samsung yesterday, and they hadn't even heard of the phone... so it obviously is only used in Europe/Asia, but it doesn't explain why it works with the AT&T SIM. Thanks again guys!

It's not locked, there would be no possibility that it would be locked to att or Cingular, as those are american carriers, Try going to the network setup and manually searching for a network, they want your dad to switch from ATT to Cingular because Cingular now owns ATT and has different plans than the Old Att, basically you can upgrade your phone and sign a new 2yr contract with cingular, so you can get a new phone like a new customer would

I actually got one of the things I said screwed up. It turns out the SIM card (AT&T) worked in the phone when it was in China, but it can't find the network here either. Now does anyone have any idea what it could be. Thanks again for all of your help.

depending on where you live, there may be no 1900 band available, which means all you have is a pretty paperweight. a location and/or zip code may help us further diagnose the problem.

Exactly now that makes sense, the phone isn't capable of 850 so liek CD said, there may be no 1900 (the other cingular band) available in your area

Not sure if you got your problem got resolved. I had the same phone which was bought in Hong Kong and had the same issue. You have to go to Settings (Band Selection) and manually change it.

Sasmung D528 no Cingular service

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