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Cingular Wins bid for AT&T Wireless
Newer Guy writes "Cingular has won the bidding war for AT&T Wireless with an offer of $15 a share, or about $40.5 billion." This means Vodafone is out, and the number of competitors for wireless devices in the US is down by one.
I've been a customer of AT&T Wireless for about five years. Up until about a year ago, I never had a complaint about them and thought that they were a pretty tight service.
Then I moved and they renewed my contract without telling me. I didn't know until the end of the year when I called to renew and get a deal and found out that I wasn't up for renewal for another five months.
Over the course of the past year, my bill has been incorrect on three different occasions, two of them, I just paid because I had absolutely no desire to deal with the customer service team. Long hold tiimes, RUUUUUUDE people and some of the worst double-talk about their policies.
I just thought it was interesting how they started to go down the tubes and now this. I'm not saying that one less competitor is a good thing, but AT&T wireless customers really don't have anything to lose here. It can't get much worse...
albeit at frequencies incompatible with most of the rest of the world.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
So the question is will at&t's decent gsm network improve cingular's horrid coverage reputation or will cingular's bring down at&t's established services...hmm...
Not always. Sometimes when a weaker competitor leaves the market, it makes the existing competitor's stronger, and sometimes you get aggressive price wards. But most of the time it does mean higher prices. We'll just have to wait and see how this one pans out.
Also, with the new Cingular Nation plan - you roam all the available GSM network through out the US with 0 ( zero ) roaming charges. And not to mention the choice of handsets I get. I think this deal will benefit the customer more than it harms.
We do not have a history of profitable operations. Our future SCOsource licensing revenue is uncertain.
What happens to the regional AT&T Networks? In the South East, there is a company owned by Triton Communications called SunCom, and they PROUDLY state, everywhere that they are part of the AT&T network. Website Just look at their logo! I wonder what this means for companies like them? Will AT&T Wirless be mirged out of existence?
--sig fault--
Is it inherently a bad thing to have one less competitor? Isn't competition supposed to only be the path towards customer satisfaction? In the world of wireless, where the end is good coverage, an excellent infrastructure, and flexible plans, as long as competition fosters these things it's good to have one more carrier in the fray. However, AT&T has arguably the worst network and worst coverage of any provider. Having them swallowed into a much larger network with much broader coverage is not inherently a bad thing.
This is not to debate the merits of Cingular's network or to compare their coverage or plans with Verizon, T-mobile, or Sprint's--this is simply to say that beleagured AT&T customers serve to gain from the acquisition.
I'm a friend of a friend of the working class.
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This sig is inoffensive.
this would certainly be nice... On a trip to IL from MN in August I found that the roaming charges were just absolutely astronomical.
Perhaps they will also fix the horrible AT&T CSR attitudes and their insistance on hanging up on you when they don't feel like helping.
Or, maybe not.
I knew. They were advertising the same features I'd enjoyed on my Voicestream/TMobile service for years, included in normal service.
-N
I've nothing to say here...
why do they want AT&T? it used to be a massive monopoly, now its a bad third place, whats to gain? it's going to need a LOT of investment to get back off the ground.
> Beter yet whenever we travel abroad (to another EU country) we end up paying calls for about 1.2$ per minute.
I really hope that the European Commission cracks down on the operators over this. They need to get their act together. The whole mobile roaming thing is a serious impediment to the principle of freedom of movement in the E.U. In fact, I suspect that because of this it's only a matter of time before they do force the operators' hands.
I mean for crying out loud, I have to roam even whilst travelling elsewhere in Ireland. (N.I. is U.K. networks). Yet Vodafone and O2 are two major networks both sides of the border. Can ANY valid reason be offered for higher roaming (heck, ANY roaming) charges in the case of ROI/NI cross-over?
Even if there is higher costs involved, they could have roaming charges DOUBLE the normal charges and STILL be a fraction of what current roaming charges are.
GRRRR. Gnarg. BLEAH. Rant, rave, etc... Just don't get me started on BANKING whilst in other E.U. States - it's mental (and expensive) DESPITE the Eurozone!
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Perhaps this means that all of those AT&T Wireless customers (I was one - no longer am) will now get better service, both customer service and carrier service. Billing problems aside, trying to get ahold of the person in the current AT&T Customer Service to deal with a problem with either your phone or your bill is ridiculous. The Cingular people will likely do a MUCH better job than the behemoth that is AT&T. As far as coverage, AT&T coverage was great when I had it, but it was definitely oversubscribed. With the addition of Cingular towers to the equation, perhaps AT&T's customers will see some relief soon in major metropolitan areas.
I switched from Cingular to Verizon some months back, and pay MORE for the "same service" under Verizon. Except I'm getting tons more service, the dead spots are almost non existant, and when they are, it's usually only for the span of 100 yards or so, not miles like Cingular.
Also, Cingular screwed up my billing on almost a monthly basis. They kept claiming that I was delinquent on my payments, only my payments go out automatically 5 days in advance (I never incurred extra charges, so it was a flat fee every month). I know they got the payments on time, but they'd feed me the "You have to allow us 5 business days to process your payment" BS. My bill is paid the day you receive the check, not the day you get around to telling your computer system that it's paid. Heck, they cash the checks before they enter them in to their system, all of my checks were cashed 1-2 days before the due date, but they still told me I was delinquent.
I'd call every month, and every month, they'd take off the late fees when I complained about it, but do you know how old this gets? Every single month calling them to get them to correct their errors. I switched off of them and evaluated AT&T and Verizon as potential new service providers, and decided on Verizon only because of the glowing testimony given by a coworker, who also lent me his phone for a day so I could check to see if those dead spots (eg, my house and my work) in Cingular's network were there for Verizon, when they were non existant under Verizon.
If I had switched instead to AT&T, I'd be canceling my service right away even if it meant I had to suck down the early termination fee.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
I'd like to know if Rogers AT&T Wireless will see any benefits from this purchase... We need better rates and better service in Canada. Maybe this union will trickle down *shrug*
How and where does any company come up with 40 BILLION dollars?!?
I turned down a job with those ATTWS clowns back in Feb. It just didn't feel right.
The worst part? As I interviewed numerous architects and asked the question "What do you worry about most?" EVERYONE said "more layoffs".
Those were mainly sr. contributors with 7+ years experience in the company. Normally, I'd expect concerns about not meeting schedule, etc.
Also amusing was that nobody knew (including the managers) who 'owned' system performance. These clowns had tens of millions of HP servers running customer service and they didn't even have a performance manager, strategy, etc.
And then they wondered why the system collapsed during the number portability fiasco.
Good luck to everyone at ATTWS.
Oh yeah.. They were also cheap bastards. The funny thing.. During the week of the interview I was staying in a $2M condo at Whistler that was owned by a VP at ATTWS.. I can assure you that those guys are doing Just Fine no matter how much they pressure their 'lackies'.
*heh* That's really funny, because I've got an AT&T cell phone, and it indeed does exactly that. I can always tell I'm getting a call three seconds before my phone actually rings.
...for a shitty company to get its customers back-- by buying the competitor the customers fled to.
I left Cingular two years ago because they kept not automatically billing my (unexpired) credit card like they were supposed to, and THEN sticking me with late fees on the unpaid balance, as if it were my fault that they didn't charge my perfectly valid credit card. After the third time I had to call them up and yell at them about it after opening the previous month's statement, I started looking at AT&T Wireless plans. Very soon after that, I switched. Took me about 30 minutes to cancel my Cingular service, they were throwing all kinds of shit at me to stay.. Free months, free additional services, etc. At the end of the conversation they asked me if I knew anyone who needed a mobile phone, so I could just transfer the account to them instead of cancelling it. A little desperate, are we?
And now I'm going to be their customer again, and there'll be one less place for me to go if their suckiness starts affecting me again.
~Philly
Actually the model which would benefit consumers the most would be to have one technology (can you say GSM?), one set of towers, and multiple phone companies providing similar services over the same infrastructure at whatever price they can get away with charging.
This isn't much different than the way the copper/fiber phone network runs now under the MFJ. Of course, from my perspective, the government should own the network but let the phone companies provide the service.
Next project: federalizing the railroads.
My other sig is a non-ascii symbol.
wherever I go, there I am.
Each competitor would one-up the other and would then become the flavor of the month. For us it was Aerial (which begat VoiceStream, which un turn begat T-Mobile). CSR's would flock to the competitor and take all of their acquired knowledge. The holes for our company were so bad at one point we resorted to exclusively hiring temps. Talk about a drop in knowledge!
I would be surprised if hardly any of these companies had typically outstanding CSR's. With industry turnover rates and outsourcing concerns it's unfortuntaly the lay of the land.
That's why if I have an imporant question or concern I call in about 2-3 times. That way I have an average answer that might be a little more correct than if I just called in once. Sad, but true...
No, AT&T networks are AMPS (for analog), TDMA (for 2G Digital), and GSM. AT&T Wireless has *never* run CDMA. NTT DoCoMo would never have invested in AWS if they had. Nor would there have been any interest by Vodafone as their technology would not have translated well. By the way, one of the biggest reasons that AWS operational costs were so high, reflected in their often poor EBITA, was the fact that they ran these three separate technologies. Field technicians had to know all three to maintain the network, engineers had to find ways to make them all work together, and all phones had to support at least two of the three signaling types. A very difficult mish-mash of technology to support.
AT&T sold off their cable TV and cable Internet to Comcast. Now they sold off their Wireless branch to Cingular. What do they have left, long distance plans?
Why would they leave themselves with only the things from the past that are likely to die out eventually, and ditch the new technologies?
no comment
I have my phone, long distance, DSL, and wireless with Verizon (that's one big bill).
For a while every time I sent them a payment they'd send me a check back for the same amount a couple of weeks later, along with a delinquient bill. Apparently they were crediting my payments to an old closed-out account I used to have a few months prior (funny - they accepted the first few payments just fine). They DID NOT return MY check (as if it had bounced or something) - they cashed my check and wrote me back a check of their own for the same amount. I guess the post office didn't complain (two people paying 37 cents each way to send the same money back and forth to each other). And yes - my NEW phone/account number was on my checks.
So, I went with automated credit-card billing. I figured that if I just give them a blank-check to take money from me they might just feel like taking money from me (as opposed to taking it and sending it back).
You can imagine my surprise when after getting the notice that I can stop paying my bill my next bill indicates that they charged my credit card about $3 and the rest is past-due. How do you end up with a past-due balance on an auto-pay account? Apparently when I had called to complain a few months prior about the delinquent bills that they didn't accept payment for they had put some sort of freeze on my balance so the credit-card routine wasn't charging me for the full amount.
The good news is that the last few months have been smooth sailing - you apparently only have to hassle Verizon for 6 months or so before they figure things out. And fortuantely I don't need to apply for a mortgage anytime soon (I'm sure all the 1-month-behind payments don't look good).
That isn't half as good as my brother's attempt to get a line installed at his new home. They wanted a deposit since he didn't have phone service with them in the previous six months (which they would hang onto indefinitely - not credit to the first few bills). He pointed out that he managed to qualify for his new mortgage, the phone company shouldn't have trouble trusting him with a phone bill. The rep replied that the rules said that you needed a deposit - unless you could document that you were low-income and couldn't afford it. Gee, that makes sense - you need a deposit so they can be sure you'll be paying your bills unless you can prove that you can't afford to pay your bills.
Must be some regulation...
"Roaming" means using another network, and because "national roaming" (i.e. roaming to another network in your home country) is usually not permitted for licensing reasons in the EU, roaming effectively means international use. I would be surprised if retail tariffs covering international use are free in the USA.
(IATE)
I guess it depends on where you are in Wisconsin. I have to travel up to Elkhorn from Illinois quite a bit for work. I take Route 12 to get there (major four lane highway that leads eventually to Madison). Within a minute of crossing the border AT&T drops off completely. Not a weak signal, no signal at all for miles and miles. It pisses me off because I got AT&T specifically because of these trips and their coverage map says that they cover the entire route. Cingular, on the other hand, has a nice strong signal all the way up so I guess this is a good thing for me. I know from experience that AT&T will charge roaming if you use the Cingular network. I do get a good signal along the Chicago-Milwaukee-Green Bay route with AT&T. Anything more than a couple of miles west of Interstate 94 though sucks.
I wouldn't say I'm a bad gambler but the last time I went to Vegas I even lost a buck on the soda machine.
I did have an interesting-weird experience:
The GF and I sat at dinner in a restaurant when she told me she had tried to call me from her Cingular Nokia digital phone to my Cingular Nokia combo GSM/Digital phone. She got voicemail, even though my phone wasn't in use. Both her phone and mine showed all bars on the signal display
I picked up her phone and verified that she had called me. I redialed my phone. I heard my voicemail on the first ring while my phone made not a peep. I tried again. Same thing.
Then I dialed her phone from mine and it rang. Then I redialed my phone from hers and finally my phone rang. In spite of the good signal displayed, I guess my the Cingular network never knew the location of my phone until I made a call.
Cingular has some software problems. I hope they get that working more reliably as they roll out more GSM coverage.