usatoday.com — NEW YORK ? SBC, which closed its merger with AT&T on Friday, plans to sell Cingular Wireless under the fabled AT&T name, Ed Whitacre, the chairman and CEO of the combined company, has confirmed to USA TODAY.
Nov 21, 2005 View in Crawl 4
saifrcNov 21, 2005
You can't deny that, historically, AT&T has been an insanely strong brand. Ask anyone over the age of 35. AT&T trumps IBM, Microsoft, Apple, and pretty much any other technology brand in terms of recognizability and staying power.Personally, when I signed up with AT&T Wireless a few years ago, I did so because they got great coverage at school, whereas Cingular was known at the time for having notoriously bad coverage. The beginning of the merger coincided with my move back to Chicago, where I enjoy fairly good coverage (even though Verizon is king here in terms of coverage).There was a Wired Magazine "Infoporn" feature this past year that graphically describes the evolution of the baby bells, and how they're gradually coalescing once again. Can anyone find it/link to it?
Closed AccountNov 21, 2005
Um, Cingular isn't changing its name.<a class="user" href="http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000650069010/">http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000650069010/</a>
zenghostNov 22, 2005
i like the orange little guy better. its a pity. :[
zdigglerNov 22, 2005
Cingular is way better! Screw AT&T.
a99tandemJan 19, 2006
Why is this story on the homepage after 58 days? This was clarified by ME (A CINGULAR EMPLOYEE) on 11/21/05"NEGATORY! only 1/2 true. I work for Cingular- what's going to happen is that in some markets, if an SBC/Att Landline customer buys cell service from them, it will be custom branded as At&t-- Im sorry ---at&t no caps"
kiantechJan 19, 2006
my phone said att then when cingular bought it it said cingular, now it says "Att wireless" in quotes
phobetJan 19, 2006
I remember when Cingular was named "Cellular One", or just "Cell One". I had a prepay Motorola "brick" phone, they they charged 75 cents a minute *both* ways! And the minutes were only good for 60 days, or you would lose them. I was happy when I finally went to AT&T for cell phone service. I was rid of those green sucking monsters for good...or so I thought. "Cell One" changed their name to "Cingular", in order to hide the previous raping of their customers. Then they went about acquiring AT&T mobile. I thought I was cursed. I was lucky though, both my main phone, and backup phone, work just by switching the sim card from one to another. So I never changed my account over. Now Cingular has been bought, and that brand name will disappear. Now I'm a happy camper...
saegiruJan 19, 2006
Are you kidding me?! I work at RadioShack... and we JUST switched all the Verizon signing to Cingular 19 days ago! Now we are going to have to switch everything to "at&t". Wow is all I can say.
phoneguy1999Mar 7, 2006
Guys i known that this going to be a bit confusing but nothing different is going to change when cingular switches is name to at&t wireless. If your are a Cingular customer this moment, your plan, phone and service is going to be completely the same business as usual. Now if your are a former old AT&T Wireless costumer on the old TDMA or GSM technology and want to take advantage of rollover minutes new phones and promos your are going to have to switch your phone and plan and join the new at&t. So really not much change just a marketing thing.
sopredictable69Apr 8, 2006
Exactly, Cingular Customers will NOT be affected, however, cingular is now gonna be the "New Att Wireless" so old ATT wireless customers will be asked to SWITCH plans or they CANNOT extend or resign there contract for 2 more years