Cingular no longer offering CSD service!? Are there no oth..

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Hi All,

I sent this post over 2 hours ago but it has not showed up for me yet; I
apologize if it appears twice for anyone.

So I got my phone hooked up to my computer and all ready to go to connect to
the internet by using it as a modem, so I could dial in to my ISP. Doing a
little research (I actually called Motorola, and they told me this), I
discovered that I had to call my provider (Cingular) and get them to add
"Data Services", or "CSD" to my account.

Ok, not a problem. Don't see it online, better call customer service... ok
great, talked to a rep and she said I was all set to go, it would be
$3.99/month to turn it on. Terrific, set it up, I told her.

45 minutes later still not working. Call Cingular back and ask them if the
CSD service has been turned on yet (rep said it would happen within 15
minutes). The new rep I'm talking to says "yes, I can see that there is a
note on your account to activate CSD... let me see why it was not
activated..." (puts me on hold).

Several minutes later she comes back and says "I'm sorry but we no longer
offer CSD on our phones, if you would like internet access through your
phone you will need to purchase one of our packages, the cheapest being
$20/month and providing 5 megs of download."

I politely said no and hung up... This seems outrageous to me. If I
understand all the technology correctly, they are actively choosing to
*block* access to the internet via other ISPs.

Is there really nothing I can do at this point? I'm no lawyer, but this
strikes me as the sort of anti-competitive behavior that caused the Feds to
break up Ma Bell way back when. They are prohibiting me from using someone
else to access the internet, and then charging me an outrageous amount of
money in order to access the internet via their service. Has anyone else
experienced this? What did you do?

-Josh