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."

Can you say....

[metlin]

....Deja Vu?

Funny thing, back then Ma-Bell was broken down for anti-trust reasons, now all these giants are bigger than what Bell Labs ever was.

And they are all merging. That's a very scary thought.

I think a few years from now, almost all the business will be controlled by just a few corporations.

I personally am not sure if that would be a good idea, that would certainly put smaller companies and businesses out, and these would not stand a chance against the big corporations.

Not too sure how I feel about this.

EDGE

[Anonymous Coward]

What does this mean for the AT&T edge network? I still dream of having high speed wireless everywhere...someday. Oh, and not too expensive.

I for one welcome

[RealProgrammer]

..oh, I just can't do it. My wife and I use Verizon. It costs too much. We can call each other for "free" -- as long as we pay $100/month, combined. The coverage is ok.

Re:Can you say....

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. But unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the USA government is moving to break up these big guys.

Oil (and we see crazy prices), desktop OS (and we see crazy prices), cell phones now (really they are crazy prices), etc etc... ok I can't think of other examples, but you guys will help me out here.

When the number of companies providing service dwindles, the customer always will pay more, despite the company PR saying "oh this merger will improve service blah blah for our customers" OK, we know customer service sucks, so why not just make it cheaper for us?

Anyawy, I agree, monopoly = bad for us consumers.

Come on USA government, slow them down!!!

AT&T's idea of a network

[Faustust]

I live in a regular brick house (NOT in the basement or with my mom). I get zero-to-no service at all here. I have to walk two blocks down the street to get 1 bar, 4 blocks for two bars, and 5 blocks for full service.

My phone works fine everywhere else, but I swear AT&T hates me or my house. I've had them out to my house three times to check the signal and they always say it's fine. Maybe Cingular has a better network/customer service policy.

I WANT IN.. but the bluetooth!?!

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

How is Cingular regarding bluetooth? AT&T? Do they pull a Sprint-Bitch(TM) or Verizon-Bitch(TM) and purposely cripple bluetooth? As a GSM network, I'm hoping they leave their phones' bluetooth virgin and pure so I can sync, use in new bluetooth enabled car, etc.

The merger could mean I will, in New York City, be saturated with reception goodness. Each company on it's own was "ok to good" but overlap the two and Verizon IMO is shaking like the bluetooth criplin' bitch it is.

*hopes and prays*

Cingular already out to make $$$

[vlad_grigorescu]

"Q: Why do I need to get a new wireless phone when I want to get Cingular's current rate plans or services? A: Cingular's rate plans and services require unique software in your wireless phone to function properly. Unfortunately, AT&T Wireless phones are not equipped to support many of the benefits of Cingular's voice and data services. Therefore, to take advantage of the latest services Cingular offers, a new handset is required." Hmm... So Cingular has it's own OS running on the phone? Right... I would be more inclined to think that ATT has disabled several features of the phone (like #646#, which works on almost all other GSM networkds). I'm sure there's a way (probably easier than a ROM flash) to re-enable these. But Cingular refuses to do this... wonder why ($$$ ATT was kinda pricey). I wonder how long until there are sites up "Change your ATT F0ne to Cingular... Get Rollover Minutes!!" Hopefully this merger will clear up some issues I have been having while they were getting ready to merge. When I got my ATT phone, this July, I was told that if I saw Cingular on the screen, it was exactly the same as seeing ATT Wireless on the screen (after a $430 bill, I found out that this wasn't exactly the case) and that Cingular and ATT had started sharing towers. Only problem is that my ATT phone was programmed in a such a way not to choose the strongest signal, but to choose ATT first, and then if there was no signal on that, go to Cingular.

Re:Gains

[dala24]

Thin as A Q-Tip?? How is that a good thing, i for one have come close to snapping my LG 5350 and that's a hefty little beast... Maybe from an engineering standpoint that Razr is a good thing, but for public useability, i'll go for utility and longevity over pure "cool factor"

AT&T Wireless and Canada calling

[cswiii]

My wife (boy, it feels strange to say that) is from Canada, and before we got married, I used to call up there all the time. I recently renewed my contract w/ ATTWS, because as recently as Sept., ATTWS was the only mobile provider I could find that offered a plan allowing the user toll-free calling to .ca and no roaming while there, either. I didn't want to renew after the merger, and risk not having that option available to me.

It used to be an extra $20 a month, then when I switched to GSM, they'd lowered it to $10. Now I think it's only like $7/mo, which is a real bargain. I think it's called their "North America" plan or something, now.

Just a heads up for those who might find such a service useful. I've been asking for a few months now at both ATTWS and Cingular stores whether the new company would offer a similar plan, but no one knew for sure.

Nothing's changin

[Southpaw018]

"Cingular and AT&T customers can see what is/isn't changing for them at newcingular.com" It looks like for both services, nothing at all will change except a new name on the AT&T bills (the AT&T customers will get a change if they switch their calling plans). As an ardent cell phone geek, I've spent time with both companies - two years with AT&T, and now going on one with Cingular. Both companies were pretty much the same. Same service (great), same wonderfully geek-satisfying equipment (as opposed to Verizon with some really cheap crappy stuff, wholly absent of Nokia and Sony Ericsson), and almost same plans and prices. Very minor differences even there. The newcingular site claims that the end user will literally sense no change. If that's true, I'm staying with Cingular for a long, long, looooooong time. They already rock.

Re:Can you say....

[cubicledrone]

It's not like Cingular has anything except cellphone service, and even then it's doesn't have even 80% of the market.

Whew, not even 80%? That's a relief.

There are currently about 4 other companies I can think of that are in the cellphone business.

That many, huh?

That's way too many as it is.

Run 'em all outta business. That'll be great for consumers.

Re:Should have happened sooner

[tonsofpcs]

I had Voicestream/T-Mobile in a densly populated area in the East (Bergen County, NJ -- I live 10 or 15 miles from NYC, Paramus is here [I have been told it has the largest shopper to citizen ratio of any town/city in the US, and most of the stores are closed Sundays due to blue laws], and T-Mobile gave me the crappiest coverage I've seen. I stood in the middle of a major area highway (Route 4, it leads directly to the George Washington Bridge) and got nothing. Cingular used to use T-Mobile for east coast coverage, but they may be moving to AT&Ts towers. Also, AT&T Wireless was planning to move the whole system to GSM even before the announcement of the Cingular merger.

AT&T Wireless will re-emerge in the next 6-12

[ApheX]

Its worth mentioning that AT&T still owns the rights to the AT&T Wireless name and will re-emerge in the near future as AT&T Wireless but basically reselling Sprint's service.

Ah! The confusion!

Re:I WANT IN.. but the bluetooth!?!

[plover]

Because it is just the coolest use of Bluetooth ever.

You get in the car, and now your Bluetooth-enabled phone is using your car's stereo speakers for audio out, and a dashboard mic for audio in. It mutes the stereo when an incoming call comes in, then sounds the ringer. You can configure it to autoanswer or answer when you press the dashboard "phone" button.

If you press the phone button the stereo mutes itself and the phone goes into voice command dialing mode.

The phone never leaves your pocket, and everything just "works" the way you would want it to. No fooling around with a headset that needs to be charged every night, and clipped to your ear like some cheapo Locutus-of-Borg wannabee.

Re:Should have happened sooner

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's one (very long) experience.

I just signed up for a new phone with my carrier, AT&T. I chose a refurbished Nokia phone (a 6820, if it matters). When it arrived, two of the buttons were completely broken and one more was hard to push. This made using the menus (and thus the phone) pretty much impossible. I called in and after a brief discussion, they told me they were going to ship me a replacement phone of the same model (still refurbished).

It arrived the next day. This time, all the buttons worked, but when I tried to access the phone's IM (instant messaging) feature, it popped up a Java error. Now this is when I got a real taste of customer service.

I called them and explained the whole situation (how I just signed up and how the first phone I got was broken so I needed a replacement, and how the replacement was broken too). The guy then put me on hold (the first of many, many holds) while he looked into the situation. When he got back, he started to walk me through the AIM-via-text-message setup procedure, which is something completely different. I explained to him that I don't think he and I were talking about the same thing, and that the first phone I got did not have this Java error. But apparently, that info was all he could find. Apparently, their databases didn't even have an entry for the IM menu on my phone, so he had no idea what I was talking about.

I suggested to him that it seemed to be a software/firmware problem with the phone since the first one didn't have the problem, and I asked him if they could simply ship me another replacement like they did the first time. But he said no, they were all out of stock on that phone (but I just ordered it three days ago...?). After putting me on hold some more, he told me to go to a local AT&T Wireless retail store to "get the phone re-flashed".

So I did. I found an AT&T Wireless retailer, but the lady there had apparently never seen the problem before. When I explained that customer service told me to go and get it re-flashed at her store, she just gave me a blank stare and asked "Reflashed? What's that?". Then we spoke to another guy at the same store, possibly a manager, and he said "Oh, wow... you need some high-tech stuff to do that. USB cables and such. We don't do that here." The lady chimed in, "In fact... none of the AT&T Wireless stores do." Then I asked why Customer Service sent me to them, and they didn't know either.

So when I got home, I called customer service again and explained the whole situation all over again. This time, the technician on the line didn't know what re-flashing was either. He said it was a very strange suggestion for the original tech to have made. Then I asked him whether he could just ship me a replacement. He said no, they were out of stock. Then I told him that they were still available at the webpage, so they did have some phones left, and I asked if he could please check to make sure. He put me on hold for a while to talk to his manager, and when he got back, he told me that they didn't ship replacements out like that. I asked him how I got the first replacement, then, but he couldn't explain it. He did suggest, however, that I can go online and order another phone and they would pricematch it after I was billed. I told him my credit card's limit wasn't that high and so that wasn't an option. Then he just told me to call Warranty Exchange. I just thanked him and gave up for the night.

Annoyed at the entire situation, I ignored it for few more days. I finally called back a few days later. This time, I was sick of explaining everything so I just asked the tech to look at my account notes. She did, and thought about it some. Then, to my surprise, she actually sympathized with the situation and offered to ship me a free replacement phone -- a new one this time, since the past two refurbished ones were both broken. I didn't ask for it; she just offered. I was glad, of course, but then she looked up the phone and foun

I love it when a plan comes together!

[vm]

Whatever happened to the reasonable sounding conspiracy theory [cio.com] that AT&T Wireless bungled their CRM upgrade last year in order to sell the company? Upper management overrode their IT dept's plan for a gradual, piecemeal upgrade that would allow fallback and concurrent use of the older rev of Siebel. Instead, they were ordered to whack it in across the board and grab the oh shit handles.

Rural area coverage

[mwooldri]

I hope that Cingular/AT&T accelerate the roll out of GSM 800 ... otherwise it'll end up being just a city network. One of the main reasons that attracted me to AT&T in the first place is the "old fashioned" TDMA digital network with analog roaming for one single reason: it's more likely to get a signal 'out in the sticks'.

Now what would be classified as 'out in the sticks'? Try Cherokee, NC. It's nestled in the Grreat Smoky Mountains, is home to a casino, what I would consider a major tourist center. GSM service stops (at least for Cingular) a little west of Asheville. At least I got a single analog dot on the AT&T in analog mode (though most of the time it did say no service). I think things were better with my wife's SprintPCS phone (analog & CDMA) last time she went over.

Another "Rural" area? Eastern NC and the Outer Banks. There's a whole stretch east of Rocky Mount and west of Manteo that have no GSM service from either Cingular, or AT&T. And Suncom haven't even built their licensed network yet! Down from Nags Head, NC to Ocracoke is another GSM blank spot.

So the strategy for Cingular/ATTWS IMO for these rural areas needs to be:

a) roll out GSM800 where possible.
b) Get a GSM 800/1900 phone with analog out there, and maybe even with CDMA 800/1900 also.

Mark.

Re:Cingular indeed

[d-ude]

My phone did that too for a few hours on 10/26. It eventually went back to it's normal AT&T Wireless though. Oh and my Ogo said it also when I checked it. I wonder why the switch, and then the switch back. I did call 611 for shits and it was the same IVR voice and menu stuff but it didn't pick up my phone number automatically...it asked me to key it in. I didn't go any farther than that.

Insider scoop.

[BrookHarty]

I run the SGSNs, GGSN's, DHCP and DNS, so I have a nice viewpoint of the merger.

AWS built out EDGE before Cingular.
AWS has the larger data network with more coverage.
AWS has more RAN hardware than cingular.
AWS launched UMTS, Cingular said they would continue it.
AWS launched global roaming before everyone else.
AWS has the largest wap/mmode content around.
AWS has location based services, wifi, and many other services.
AWS has many of the fortune 500 companies as customers.

AWS Hired an outsourcing VP 2 years ago, they ran IT into the ground, crippled customer support. Customer support use to be live, you could get people to fix your issues, it was going the way of automation and lower paid support centers. Then they started forcing contracts and fucked up billing for customers, no wonder usnet has tons of complaints.

The thing that pissed me off, they ran the company into the ground. Then the CEO's take almost 90 million each, while every employee that bought stock lost money. (Buy at 29, Cingular pays 15)

Our CEO's hired the worst marketing firm in history, fluffy sheep anyone? I wanted to see a damn van fully loaded with RF gear, pull over and leave the "Can you hear me now" guy in dust. We do drive tests all over. Cant hire enough people quick enough to expand the network. (BTS Vendors, thats a post in itself...)

Sad, it was a great company they ran into the ground to make CEO money and split. I started there 6 years ago after the mccaw buyout, been in operations ever since.

Top if off, Cingular has been calling our network substandard to theirs. Who are they joking? I talk to the same freaking vendors...

I'm not even going to post anonymous.

Can anybody translate this for me?

[Se7enLC]

Ok, here are two snippits from the article. Can somebody make sense of them for me?

#1

Plans are already underway to make Rollover Minutes available to you. Please check back on November 10, 2004 for an update. Our goal is to have this feature available to you by this holiday season. To get a plan with Rollover, you will need to change to a Cingular Nation® Plan $39.99 or higher. You will also need to get a new Cingular GSM phone.

#2

Q: What happens to my existing rate plan?

A: Rest assured, you will continue to enjoy the benefits of your current rate plan and features.


Ok, my question is - is it possible to KEEP my at&t plan and get rollover minutes? I don't see how they say I can keep my current rate plan and features when I would have to change plans to get the features they advertise (I would normally have no problem with switching to Cingular...but my att plan has 650 anytime minutes....and I don't think Cingular even offers that).

ALSO - why on earth do I need a new phone to change how they bill me? the PHONE doesn't bill me (and I'm sure if it did, people would have hacked/phreaked them by now to make free calls)

Hope Cingular realizes not to fuck over IT

[gatesh8r]

Remember kids! Never try to move your IT department to India while you're in the middle of a required upgrade forced by the FCC. AT&T Wireless Self-Destructs [cio.com].

...and I'm glad that some AT&T Wireless execs are out of jobs. Maybe they can become a contractor. :P

Cingular...pretty sweet, but they have dead zones

[MsGeek]

In Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Diego (the only places I've used my T-Mobile GSM phone) connectivity is pretty sweet.

If I have a T-Mobile GSM phone, why do I know about Cingular's network? Because T-Mobile has had colocation rights on Cingular infrastructure on the West Coast since forever, and because I have an unlocked Euro-Phone (Ericsson r520m) the display identifies the actual network I'm on, not the service provider.

The only annoyances are that my apartment is under a dead zone, and at the current place that SFVLUG meets, it's also under a dead zone. I have to take a short walk to get to the next tower to place a call.

You should see some improvement if AT&T starts taking advantage of Cingular's infrastructure. Verizon has a crappy "home" zone for its users (If you call in Santa Barbara and you are an LA user, you get hit with roaming fees) and cuts no deals if you are a Verizon landline customer.

If you want to switch, go T-Mobile. Easily the geekiest mobile company on the planet, with all-you-can-eat GPRS (mobile internet) or all-you-can-eat "Hot Spot" 802.11b service for $20/month ($40/month for both) if you have a mobile phone with them.

Why is the US mobile market so rubbish?

[seraphina]

This is a genuine question...

In the UK, calls have been getting cheaper and competition between networks is pretty intense. I think it's like this in most of Europe. So where has the US gone wrong?

AT&T Customer Service NIGHTMARE

[lfm_the_couch]

I originally switched to AT&T from Cingular because

• Cingular's coverage was spotty even in Los Angeles;
• Outgoing phone calls got dropped about 40% of the time without so much as an error message;
• Cingular's coverage did not extend north of about San Francisco;
• The last straw was when I went to a wedding in Arcata and everyone else has AT&T phones, which worked perfectly.

Technically, as someone else mentioned, AT&T is relatively problem-free. However, I recently got married, so I added my wife's line to my plan and got new GSM phones. WHAT A FREAKIN' NIGHTMARE! AT&T has separate "departments" for individual administrative operations. That is, they have:

• a "Customer Information Department" which could change her name and address but couldn't move her account under mine and forwarded me to the...
• ... "Change of Financial Responsibility Department" which could move her account under mine but couldn't sell me a phone so they sent me to the...
• ... "Sales Department" which couldn't sell me a GSM phone because I hadn't upgraded my account to GSM and forwarded me to the...
• ... "3G Upgrade Department" which upgraded me to "3G" (sales talk for GSM) and sent me back to the ...
• ... "Sales Department" which couldn't sell me a GSM phone because they were the "Wireless Sales Department", not the...
• ... "GSM Sales Department", which DID sell me a phone and to complete the process I was handed to the...
• ... "Customer Service Department", which could do NOTHING for me because they were actually the "Wireless Customer Service Department" and not the...
• ... "GSM Customer Service Department", where I at LONG FREAKIN' LAST completed what should have been ONE TRANSACTION WITH ONE CUSTOMER SERVICE REP.

I therefore heartily agree with the poster who urges Cingular to burn everything associated with AT&T Customer DisService.

Charged coming and going

[Media Girl]

Maybe I'm just too cheap, but $40 to be able to use the phone's full internet capability per month seems pretty outrageous to me, considering that's more than either my cable or DSL bill. Maybe I'm biased because I first saw T-Mobile's WiFi "deal" at a Starbucks in SF; $20/month in a city where WiFi is practically ubiquitous and free struck me as ridiculous.

If I were to open a coffee shop, the first thing I would do is install WiFi and offer it for free, just to help draw customers. I think Starbucks blew it on this one. All any competitor would have to do is offer free WiFi and Starbucks would lose a signficant part of their coffee-on-the-couch crowd.