2sonsandadaughter

Cingular Wireless, a venture of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., said it would start charging customers with older phones an extra $4.99 monthly fee as early as September unless they upgrade their phones as it moves toward using a single network technology.

The biggest U.S. wireless service, said the fee would apply to about 4.7 million subscribers, or about 8 percent, of its 57.3 million customer base unless these users upgrade their phones.

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It is part of Cingular's plan to phase out phones based on older TDMA and analog technology, the technical standard for the first cellphones produced more than 20 years ago.

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Cingular has been working for years to phase out these technologies in favor of GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications), a newer technology that is the world's most popular wireless standard.

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Cingular, which hopes to create savings by converging to a single network, said that it would risk an increase in customer cancellations for the rest of the year as it works to eliminate the older technology.