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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."
The rationale of this move, according to an analysis of the merger done by Businessweek at0 4/nf20041026_3765_db016.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct20
"The Atlanta-based carrier has landed exclusive rights to the new Motorola Razr V3 and the Sony Ericsson se710a. Both are high-end multimedia phones expected to lure sophisticated buyers. The Motorola Razr is a design triumph. It's just a half-inch thick when closed. Open, it's as thin as a Q-Tip. Yet it manages to pack in a VGA camera with 4x zoom, 3D graphics capability, and 22 kilohertz polyphonic speaker technology."
Its merger with AT&T Wireless will give Cingular 47.6 million subscribers, catapulting it past the 41 million customers that current market leader Verizon Wireless has. But that status might not last long unless Cingular can keep subscribers from bolting to Verizon and others. Cingular is plagued by above-average customer defections. [...] its churn rate edged up from 2.7% in the second quarter to 2.8% in the third, while Verizon's is hovering around a more wholesome 1.5%.
Mergers are dangerous : you gain benefits (in this case, exclusive handhelds and a big subscriber base), but can go wrong. Only time will tell if the benefits outweighted the disadvantages in this case.
Eureka Science News - automatically updated
Well, if you think a couple of cellphone companies merging constitutes anything like the ma bell monopoly, you must be smoking something good. It's not like Cingular has anything except cellphone service, and even then it's doesn't have even 80% of the market. There are currently about 4 other companies I can think of that are in the cellphone business. That's way too many as it is.
IT IS NOT AT&TS WAY OF SAYING THAT THEY JUST WANT FREE MONEY!
It most certainly is. Sure the costs are real. WalMart doesn't have $6.65 on the box, only to charge you storage fees, parking fees, retail overhead, "government regulation fees" (they pay money directly to Social Security and other fees directly to governemnts). They figure out the cost, advertise $9.88, charge $9.88 (plus tax, if you are in a taxed location) and pay all the fees without bugging you.
If I were in charge of the FCC (too bad I'm not a general's son), I'd order that all telecom companies include all static (either in $ or %) fees in the advertised price. They shouldn't be allowed to tell you service is $20, then charge you $40 because of all the fees they add in that they blame on the government. It is their cost of business, and the only reason they are separating them out is to be able to advertise or quote lower rates that they are not able to deliver.
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