Goodbye Cingular, Hello AT&T

American wireless networks never cease to amaze and surprise, and starting yesterday, the latest twist in keeping up with the U.S. mobile industry started to spin: Cingular, a multi-billion dollar brand, is taking on the name of the company it recently purchased: AT&T.

IDG has the full story of how this all happened. Here's a refresher: A few years ago, AT&T spun off AT&T Wireless, which Cingular then purchased (roughly doubling its size overnight). SBC (which owned part of Cingular) bought AT&T, and changed its name to AT&T. Then the new AT&T bought BellSouth (which owned the rest of Cingular), and thus Ma Bell was reunited.

You may not even notice the change immediately, but ads touting both Cingular and AT&T have already begun to appear. There's no timeline for when the transition to the new name will be complete (or even if AT&T wired and wireless customers may someday start to receive a single bill), but most expect the work to be done by the end of the year.

This of course has some minor impact on the upcoming Apple iPhone, which is tied to the Cingular network exclusively. Since this is just a name change and not a technology change, this will really amount to little more than a logo change on the iPhone splash screen.

Nonetheless, expect years of confusion over this issue as you start to see AT&T bills in your mailbox, and that little orange X-shaped guy turns into a familiar old globe.

Update: Confused? Stephen Colbert has the lowdown.