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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."
Its too bad this could not have taken place sooner. I dumped AT&T a few months ago due to very poor customer service and because AT&T had absurdly high rates for international calling when I travel (calls from New Zealand to the US were something like $8.00/minute with AT&T) I went with T-Mobile at the time and have been for the most part satisfied, although coverage in remote areas of the American West is weak due to a less well developed GSM network. After reading an article in the Wall St. Journal (not linked because its a subscription article) this morning, it turns out however, even if I had remained with AT&T nee Cingular I would have had to deal with the same coverage issues because Cingular will move their customers from TDMA phones to GSM phones.
So, just like when the TDMA markets were rolling out some years ago, it took a couple years to expand them to remote areas. I suspect fairly uniform GSM coverage throughout remote areas in the near future. Perhaps if Cingular provides better service and lower rates, they might win myself and many others back.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
I have AT&T, and the area I live in (Los Angeles County) has lots of Cingular zones. Whenever my phone in on a Cingular network, I have to dial the area code of people I am trying to reach who are in the same area code as me. If you try to just dial the number without the area code, Cingular says it cant connect.
This just happened to me again today, so this merger may be complete business-wise, but there are still bugs to work out of the network.
Vonal Declosion
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.
..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.
sigs, as if you care.
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
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 must cay, as an AT&T cuctomer, I feel ctrange today...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
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*
Nope.
Vodafone.
They're not in the US. About 6 billion people aren't either.
(Note: I *AM* in the US. I use Sprint. Commence mocking!)
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."
- Seneca
If Bell and Telus merged would you call it Belus?
who can Tell...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
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.
AT&T Wireless split from AT&T Corp back in the summer of 2001.
"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.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
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.
Engineering and the Ultimate
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.
Vodafone owns 44% of Verizon Wireless, so they are in the US. Sort of. In that half-assed sort of way.
...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.
fifth sigma, inc.
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!
-
aphex
I Steal Music!
My advice to Cingular on this buyout (if they'd have it?) Completely stomp all AT&T customer-facing EVERYTHING into irretrievable dust, and replace it with Cingular everything. Every drop of software, to the point of formatting any hard drive infested with any AT&T software or marketing. Drop every stupid, confusing plan, and replace it with an equivalent Cingular plan. Burn every marketing brochure, and hang on to the resumes of any former AT&T marketing executive just to ensure they're prominently featured front and center on your blacklist. "Unwanted" posters might not be going too far.
I have had the CRAPPIEST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER from AT&T Wireless. Bar none. I have gotten more useful, helpful, timely and factual information from a WalMart greeter. I can't blame the poor salescreature who I bought my phones from. It's their process that is the most horrendous piece of crap application ever devised by a bunch of marketing VPs. I tell you if any coworker of mine were to emit an application as unfriendly as that they'd be gone in a heartbeat, maybe less. This poor lady had to spend 25 minutes PER PHONE to enter a half page of customer information. Tough stuff, like name, address AND ZIP code. To do that, she had to click through literally dozens of pages of options she couldn't explain to me; she misunderstood (and misguided me) about their confusing plethora of plans, and to top it all off, she was one of two people in the store.
As it was, I waited over an hour just to get to her, then other people had to wait over 90 minutes before my transaction was completed. The reason I don't blame her is when she called the 1-800-DUH number to answer my questions, they couldn't help her either! And she's worked in the store for well over a year. How hard can it be to sell a goddamn phone??? "Push these buttons, pay this amount." God, I'm still burning over that waste of my life.
As far as customer service on their help lines? I don't think so -- I waited over three hours on hold one night to try to get them to fix the plan the saleslady eventually misclicked. If I wasn't locked in an old contract, I'd have dropped them for T-Mobile in a heartbeat. As it was, after all the headaches were added up it seriously would have been worth my time to pay the $174 they would have charged me for an early switch.
Technically, I've had very good luck with AT&T. I'd had steadily improving coverage with my PCS phone for the last three years, so I've no complaints with their network. That is, until I got sucked into their GSM plan ("mMode"). My coverage is now a tiny, tiny area immediately surrounding Minneapolis/St. Paul, although even that's been improving over the last four months. Now, if Cingular just has a decent GPRS plan ... well, a fellow can dream, can't he?
Anyway, when this AT&T contract is up it's "Hello T-Mobile!" and "good riddance to bad rubbish, AT&T Wireless." That is, if Cingular doesn't improve the situation considerably.
John
Turn off autoupdate and set it manually to the correct time.
You're not billed by what time the phone thinks it is, but buy by what time the telco computer says it is.
Rollover minutes are a fair, humane feature. The equipment both Cingular and AT&T offered has always had that certain geek factor not provided by most other providers (though T-Mobile looks pretty good in that respect).
The thing is, I've been at Verizon for over two years as a refugee from some truly horrible Cingular service. Specifically, I had terrible luck trying to find an optimal place to use my phone, a problem I haven't had at all with Verizon.
I'd love to get a Sony/Ericsson Bluetooth phone, something that Verizon just doesn't offer (their Motorola phones' Bluetooth implementation seems to be gimpy). But without decent reception, well, it wouldn't be much of a user experience. I'm going to be watching what develops here closely. If Cingular gets its act back together with regards to reception, sure, I'll go back.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
If I go GSM, I'm definitely going unlocked.
media girl
Whatever happened to the reasonable sounding conspiracy theory 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.
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.
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.
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)
Karma whorin' since 1999
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.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
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?
- 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.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.
media girl