The image above shows the Cingular logo which they maintained between 2000 and 2004.
History
Cingular's history can be traced back to Advanced Mobile Phone Service, Inc, a subsidiary of AT&T that was created in 1978 to provide nationwide cellular services in the USA. However, as part of the Bell System Divestiture in 1984 AMPS, Inc. was divided amongst the RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies — also known as 'Baby Bells'). It is interesting that during the formation of Cingular a number of these divested companies were involved (they are marked with an * below).
Cingular wireless was founded in 2001 as a joint venture of SBC Communications (now AT&T, Inc.), and BellSouth (which AT&T, Inc. acquired in 2006). Cingular grew out of a conglomeration of 12 regional companies with Bell roots which included:
- Ameritech Mobile Communications, LLC*
- BellSouth Mobility, LLC*
- BellSouth Mobility DCS, Inc.
- BellSouth Wireless Data, LLC
- SBC Wireless, LLC
- SNET Mobility, LLC
- Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, Inc.*
- Southwestern Bell Wireless, Inc.
- Pacific Bell Wireless, LLC
- Pacific Bell Wireless Northwest, LLC
Also included were some Cellular One markets, and Houston Cellular. The joint venture created what was at the time the USA's second largest carrier.
The majority of the network used the D-AMPS mobile technology (a TDMA or time division multiple access system) the Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS networks used GSM technology on the PCS frequency band (1900 MHz).
In 1994 Cingular entered a bidding war with the UK's Vodafone and in February of that year Cingular announced that it would purchase AT&T Wireles Services Inc for a total of $41 billion. The merger was completed on October 26th 2004 and resulted in a company with a customer base of 46 million people which made Cingular the US's largelest wireless provider by far. AT&T Wireless was then legally renamed New Cingular Wireless Services, Inc.
A sign that could be seen in many Bell facilities in 1983 read: 'There are two giant entities at work in our country, and they both have an amazing influence on our daily lives. . . one has given us radar, sonar, stereo, teletype, the transistor, hearing aids, artificial larynxes, talking movies, and the telephone. The other has given us the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, the Great Depression, the gasoline crisis, and the Watergate fiasco. Guess which one is now trying to tell the other one how to run its business?'
In California, Nevada, Northern New Jersey and New York City, Cingular and T-Mobile USA maintained and shared a GSM-1900 network prior to the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, through a joint venture known as GSM Facilities. The network sharing agreement allowed Cingular to offer local service in northern New Jersey and New York City and T-Mobile to offer service in California and Nevada. On May 25, 2004, Cingular and T-Mobile USA announced their intention to dissolve the agreement contingent on Cingular's successful acquisition of AT&T Wireless The Cingular network was transferred to T-Mobile, with Cingular continuing work on the GSM facilities at AT&T Wireless sites.
It has to be said that Cingular's wireless network is a bit of a hodge-podge. This reflects Cingular's position as a company formed mainly through mergers and acquisitions. As a result Cingular operates wireless networks using many different wireless communication standards. The most widely used of these technologies is called Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM. On top of its GSM network, Cingular operates a data network called GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and an upgrade for faster speeds called EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution). But Cingular also operates legacy D-AMPS networks and even analogue networks. But in March 2006 they announced that these networks would be shut down by February 2008. In 2002 Cingular anounced an initiative called 'Project Genesis' that involved a GSM/GPRS overlay of the entire wireless network and this project was completed in 2004.
In December 2006 Cingular lunched a high-speed network known as "BroadbandConnect," based on UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), [basically 3-G technologies] to counter Verizon Wireless and Sprint's EV-DO networks. The UMTS-based service was launched on December 6th 2006 n Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, San Jose, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Puerto Rico, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and Washington D.C.
In the same month Cingular Wireless also anounced that it was teaming with Cell Phone manufacturer, Nokia, and financial institutions Citigroup and MasterCard Worldwide to trial new phones that have MasterCard PayPass contactless payment capability. The participants in the trial will receive a Nokia handset with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and the MasterCard PayPass payment function built in.
Cingular and AT&T
Yet, AT&T was suffering from the acquisitions of the 1980s. There were few synergies between the company's communication and manufacturing businesses and the US was moving to re-writing its communications laws. It seemed as it AT&Ts businesses would increasingly become obstacles to one another. Therefore, on September 20, 1995 AT&T's CEO, Robert Allen announced that AT&T would be restructured.The announcement stated that AT&T was restructuring into three separate publicly-traded companies: a systems and equipment company (which became Lucent Technologies,) a computer company (NCR) and a communications services company (which would remain AT&T.) This was the largest voluntary break-up in American corporate history.
The tale of Cingular's name is a highly tortuous one which begins on November 20th 2005 with an anouncement by Ed Whitacre, CEO of the newly merged SBC/AT&T who announced to market Cingular's service under the AT&T brand. BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher countered that the terms of the joint venture allow either party to sell the service under another name, and that he believes they will be using the brand to market to business customers. Cingular president Stan Sigman concurred with BellSouth's position, indicating that the Cingular brand would continue but be sold under the AT&T brand where offered in packages with other AT&T services, such as data and wireline telephony.
But, on March 5th 2006 AT&T Inc announced that it would acquire Bell South. This acquisition was finalized on December 29, 2006 when the FCC gave its final approval. The company then announced that it will begin the rebranding of Cingular Wireless to "AT&T" (hence the new branding logo, above). This coincides with an announcement on January 12th 2007 by AT&T that they would be conducting a major rebranding transition campaign to transition Cingular to the new AT&T. The current Cingular stores, once rebranded to AT&T, will sell all AT&T products and services: wireless, landline, Internet, U-Verse, and more and AT&T will have all services under a single brand.
On April 15, 2007, AT&T Mobility began to introduce new AT&T branded mobile phones and devices. The alpha tag (portion of phone's screen which displays the name of the network on which the phone is connected) on new phone activations will also start being "AT&T". Phones which currently display Cingular as the alpha tag will also begin to transition to "AT&T", a process expected to be completed over the next six months.
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