Kyocera Phone DuraXE Model E4710

Bought new phone for use with Consumer Cellular account. I wish to use the internally stored contacts list described in the phone user instructions. Original "Contacts" defaulted to AT&T address book, leaving no option. Consulted this forum and followed actions presented to solve exactly this problem, not no avail.  Reset the phone and selected the phone's contact list, rejecting the AT&T address book. Now "Contacts" opens the AT&T address book. Is this phone irreversibly tied to the AT&T address book? If so I will have no choice but to return it to the seller. The phone is exactly what I want and I do not wish to do this. (I did commence to set up my contacts through AT&T, but found that there is an unacceptable delay of the better part of a minute for the AT&T screen to come up.)