Cingular-AT&T Wireless Merger Complete

bigmase521 writes "PRNNewsWire, Phonescoop.com, and this thread on Howardforums.com, are reporting that the Cingular/AT&T Wireless Merger is now complete. Cingular bought out AT&T Wireless for ~$41B to become the nations largest cellular provider. Details of the merger, and full press coverage, including the audio of this afternoon's conference call can be found here, and Cingular and AT&T customers can see what is/isn't changing for them at newcingular.com."

In Soviet Russia...

[I'm not a script, da]

...Aye Tee n Tee Singularly completes you!

Cingular indeed

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I must cay, as an AT&T cuctomer, I feel ctrange today...

Re:Hmm

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

If Bell and Telus merged would you call it Belus?

who can Tell...

What's Frustrating for Me

[johnnyb]

What's frustrating for me is that a few weeks before they first announced this, I, having been COMPLETELY FED UP with Cingular and their terrible, possibly unethical billing practices, I decided to drop them mid-contract and signed up w/ AT&T.

I just can't win.

What does AT&T do anymore?

[Anonymous Coward]

They sold off their long distance service, then their cable and local phone service, now their wireless. Do they still do anything?

Great!

[jedaustin]

Now the largest and crappiest network ever!

I'd be rich if I had a nickel every time someone asked me to call them on a real phone when I was using my ATTWS cell phone.. 'You sound like you're in a tin can!'.

Lets hope Cingular can bring something better to their service.

Singular?

[Anonymous Coward]

How much longer until Cingular is Singular?

I know reading the article is bad form...

[philovivero]

...but I couldn't help it. I went to the website and clicked the "I'm an AT&T customer" (I recently left Cingular for AT&T).

They had a list of bullet points and then a whole page devoted to how much better my life is going to be after this merger. I swear, there were about 64 kilobytes of text devoted to listing all the positives of this merger.

That's when it struck me that companies really need to read the Cluetrain Manifesto. I really would be interested in the six worst things that are going to happen to me, so that I can be prepared for it.

Take, for example, when I first signed up with AT&T. Plan: $65/month all told. First bill comes. $300. WTF? Everything that could go wrong, did. They put me on the wrong plans. They didn't count my mobile-to-mobile minutes. They signed me up for about 17 extra plans I didn't need or ask for. Not to mention that "Federal fund recovery fee" which is essentially AT&T's way of saying "How come restaurants get to charge you 15% extra for tips, and we don't??? Oh, wait. We do. We'll just charge a tip on every bill. Nice."

Now Cingular is going to take this bumblefuck of a corporation and incorporate it into its everyday operations.

And things are going to go smoothly? I don't think so.

This is Tweedle-dee meets Tweedle-dum, and they're in charge of your critical wireless communications. Be prepared to be pissed off.