My phone is obsolete

Smt5600_yFor the past six weeks, my phone has been displaying the roaming indicator.  It started to get a bit disconcerting because I would even see it here at my house.  It annoyed me a bit because like most of you, I had my ActiveSync settings tweaked so that it would only sync manually if roam was indicated.  No sense in jacking up the charges for a bunch of pesky email, right?

Well, I finally decided to call Cingular and ask them if my phone has an issues they can easily resolve.  I figured since I started the plan just before the AT&T Cingular merger, it was a SIM issue, back-end provisioning, or something simple. 

The lady I got on the phone looked at my account and said my phone was obsolete and would need to be replaced.

Does my phone look obsolete to you?

It works perfectly fine.  It has a nice 512meg MiniSD card.  It rings and I can answer phone calls.  Phones should definitely do that.  The keypad lock works better than most phones I’ve tried.  The form factor is very nice.  The screen is big enough to be kewl and by golly, you can almost read email.  The email delete button works perfectly.

So why in the world would my phone be obsolete?

It’s obsolete because my contract was for one year, and I’ve been month-to-month for a few months now.  Get it? 

Like many of you, I want the most value out of my hardware and software.  I pinch pennies, too.  I squirm thinking about spending $200 for a new phone.  Call me cheap.  Call me frugal. 

[UPDATE] I guess I wasn't the only person unhappy with my treatment.  Sounds like class action litigation may be coming.