AT&T and Cingular Down?

Fewer bars in fewer places. According to unconfirmed reports out of New York City, AT&T/Cingular wireless service has been down for 2-3 hours, as of 12:50 PM EST.

Ah, the growing paigns of merging.

Let us know if this for reals. Just don’t call it in on your Cingular celli.

(Thanks to Bucky!)

UPDATE: Jennifer Brown writes, “Earlier this morning I checked my phone and there was a funny icon next to the bars. It looked like a receiver, but with a slash through it.I tried calling my phone and it went right to voicemail. The icon has vanished, but I just tried calling my phone from a land line and it still goes into voicemail. I can’t check my v.mail from my phone, or make outgoing calls either. Cingular has been “working on the problem.” Right.”

UPDATE: Jen Bekman (apparently Cingular doesn’t like Jennifers) writes, “Confirming that Cingular is indeed down since earlier this morning. If you call customer support there’s a pre-recorded announcment assuring us that they are aware of and working on the problem. The whole ATT/Cingular thing is a wretched horrible nightmare. I’ve spent hours upon precious hours on hold with them since I switched over my (better, more reliable, old school) ATT service to a Cingular plan back in the Fall.”

It’s not just the wretched iPod ripoff ads (instead of shadows, we’ll use reflections!) that suck cat pee through a glass of vermouth, the service sucks too!

UPDATE: Adam writes, “Thy’ve been down for my entire office here in midtown west. They”ve been down since I get in today at 10.” [sic]

So…Cingular is down. The question now is, why? And guess what? “We’re working on it,” doesn’t cut the mustard.

UPDATE: As of 3:35 PM today, we received a report that the service is back up and running. Yay. Now we can all go back to our regularily scheduled crappy service.

Image courtesy ScrewCingular.com.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.