So what will this mean for the iPhone? Can-you-hear-me-now-that-I'm-not-really-cingular?

"Around the world, our customers recognize the AT&T brand for meaningful innovation, a commitment to customer service, high quality and exceptional reliability," said Edward E. Whitacre Jr., chairman and CEO of AT&T.

Actually, I always though AT&T had some of the crappiest customer service in the world. They fracked up my billing and calling plan every single time I ever moved, without fail, and it always took months to fix. So glad I finally dropped them.

Wow I never had too much trouble with Cingular but I absolutely hate AT&T... they swallowed up SBC here in Michigan, and their service has gotten even worse. Shouldn't have signed a damn contract!

I said goodbye to cingular in November. FYI, moving to an area without service no longer allows them to waive the ETF :(

Im still confused at how this all worked out. AT&T was bought by Cingular which has now been bought by AT&T huh?

I know that Cingular is a popular whipping boy, but I've never had any trouble with them. Can't say the same about AT&T. These corporations completely forget that they only exist because they provide a service. They're only about the cash. Kind of a shame to think the service I've been getting for about 6 years is most likely gonna go to crap.

I've had a mobile phone since 1988 and in the almost 20 years of headaches, the worst service ever was with AT&T Wireless. So far(fingers crossed), my best experience has been with Verizon for the past five years.

I'm a Cingular girl myself (not by choice--I'm a college student attached to a family plan that is, admittedly, pretty sweet), but I hate them so much that sometimes it's all I can do not to call up customer service and scream like a banshee until someone apologizes for the fact that their network drops a good 25% of my calls. Hate them hate them hate them. So really what I'm wondering here is, which is going to suck more, AT&T or Cingular?

falconfire - My understanding is that the CEO thinks the AT&T brand is worth more than the Cingular brand. So, even though Cingular bought AT&T, they're switching to AT&T branding. They've subtley been doing so for months now. The Cingular logo used to be orange and black, but they changed it to orange and (AT&T) blue a while back.

Your service fees hard at work, spending millions announcing AT&T Wireless' switch to Cingular, and now probably millions more to announce the switch BACK to AT&T.

So, did someone over there go 'Man, people really hate Cingular, don't they? Let's see if the AT&T branding does any better...'

Because, afterall, we're only sheep and we'll believe that it's a completely new brand even though they tell us up front that it's still Cingular, just under a new name.

I started seeing ads for Cingular-as-AT&T last week. I'm not surprised it's happening this fast.
I started being a Cingular customer back when they were CellularOne here, and I never had any problems with them. Even when I decided to get out of my contract early to go to T-Mobile (I wanted a Sidekick) the retention reps were really friendly and eager to get me what I want to make me stay, then when I found someone to take over my contract they bent over backwards to make it happen.
That said, I've also had pretty great service with T-Mobile. All of these companies have flaws in their customer service, and some people are lucky to not encounter them during their time as customer. The ones who do, however, get really screwed, which is totally unacceptable.

I was originally an AT&T Wireless customer who was pushed to Cingular during the earlier merger. I have an older phone still locked to AT&T that I'd really like to use again (it's not an easy unlock, requires a cable, the whole bit).

I'm wondering..now that I'm being switched BACK to AT&T, will the phone work? :)

I started seeing the ads for Cingular's transition to AT&T this week and I would have to say that I really enjoyed seeing the little orange blob thingy swept away "Twister-style" to form the bands of the AT&T logo. I hate that little orange splooge. Never has there been a more annoying character/idea since the old Neon "Beep. Beep. Hi!" campaign.

Ugh, AT&T, not again.... I thought I escape that monster years ago. The monster of billing overages, hassles, cursed at on the phone by a manager, and aggravating and frustrating hold times, lack of any connectivity, and the good ole AT&T Way.

Kill me now...

Falconfire says:

Im still confused at how this all worked out. AT&T was bought by Cingular which has now been bought by AT&T huh?

To answer your question:
1) AT&T spun off AT&T Wireless to Cingular (2001-ish)
2) AT&T buys Cingular (now)

The spin off was only for a portion of the company -- the wireless side.

Have they factored in the value of the brand that they are dumping? According to this article the value of the brand is worth $6B in Jun 2006. I'm sure after this week, the value has shot up significantly.

Also, given the choice between AT&T Wireless and Cingular, people would rather be associated with Cingular.

Hrmm, curious. Just as I read this my Cingular prepaid phone, which I had added more minutes to less than a week ago just informed me that it was about to expire and I needed to refill or lose my existing talk time. Fuckers.

Dear Cingular:

Thanks for changing your name back to ATT. I was wondering how long it would take you to completely transform back to the crappy service provider I fled from in 2002 after purchasing them.

(I was able to get ATT Wireless to break my contract due to horrible TDMA coverage in the Santa Cruz area during 2002. Now I get to relive those death star-emblazoned bills?)

I think people are a little confused about what it means to be calling Cingular AT&T. Cingular is not being bought by the people who ran AT&T wireless. Essentially, SBC acquired the AT&T name after their merger, then bought BellSouth. Now that they own Cingular fully, they can change the name to AT&T to have a unified brand. The old AT&T wireless is just as dead as it was when it became "Cingular Blue" after the first merger. These are just name changes, people. TDMA and bad billing are not coming back with the name.

"our customers recognize the AT&T brand for meaningful innovation"

More like "monolithic outdated big bell"

Isn't AT&T the phone company parodied in Crazy People where the proposed "truth-based " ad says "If it weren't for us you'd have no damn phones. At AT&T, we're tired of taking your crap."

That's about right.

AT&T Wireless = a separate company spun off frum AT&T in 2001

Cingular = joint venture between SBC (now AT&T) and Bellsouth

Cingular acquires AT&T Wireless in 2004

Cingular decides to use the AT&T brand in 2005

AT&T acquires Bellsouth in 2006 so it owns Cingular 100%

Here's what I think of AT&T.

"AT&T. Secretly giving the NSA full access to internet data without users' knowledge or permission. Then we lie about it. Homeland Security, yo!"

F off and wither.

People, please, what does this mean about the iPhone "saying Cingular on the screen at all times?"

Psychic-
It means that when the iPhone is officially released it will say AT&T on the screen at all times. Just like how every Cingular phone will start saying AT&T in whatever network identification field it has.

PsychicPsycho3 - AT&T is in the process of rebranding _all_ Cingular products as AT&T. That will include the iPhone. It's all just graphics and stylesheets, after all.

I was working for Cingular back in October 2004 when Cingular and AT&T Wireless merged. It looks like Cingular basically spent $42 million dollars for market confusion and a name that for the past 3 years they were trying to get people to forget.