Goodbye Cingular, Hello AT&T

Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:40AM EST

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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.

Comments on Goodbye Cingular, Hello AT&T

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  • 2 Posted by chrisbfagan on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    The more things change, the more they remain the same.

  • 3 Posted by california_kahuna on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    Dumber than doggy doo. All this corporate kaka is enough to make consumers want to puke. I went though he** trying to decipher my cell bill from AT&T and then had to jump through another series of hoops whencingular had to have their fingerprints on it. Now its going back to AT&T aagain. Where does all this stop?

  • 5 Posted by sweetleaps57 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:52PM EDT Report Abuse

    I feel ya california_kahuna, and to add insult to injury, the attitudes of the customer service people change right along with the name change and are not very helpful and somewhat rude sometimes. It's almost like they don't wanna be at work... thus...customer service...without us, there is no them...

  • 6 Posted by ka7aok831 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:46PM EDT Report Abuse

    We started out as a AT&T customer (our Cingular page as a link for "former AT&T accounts." Now I guess I can call myself a "former Cingular, former AT&T, new AT&T customer." If I stay with the company.

  • 7 Posted by pk_imobile on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    I would have thought that being a communications giant, AT&T would have had things figured out years ago with their wireless carrier; in fact, it was so bad that my parents dumped it for Verizon. The marriage with Cingular didn't really help, and now that it's going back to ownership under AT&T, who knows?

  • 8 Posted by mcdchaz on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:13PM EDT Report Abuse

    heys guys i think you are all wrong.i was a att wireless cuctomer and service has improved since then.plus now that att is together we can have just one bill!! plus now that they can pool their r&d money together new stuff will come faster!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • 10 Posted by edula1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:52PM EDT Report Abuse

    I like the little orange x-shaped guy better!!!

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