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View Full Version : AT&T To Replace Cingular Brand Monday


Rocco Augusto
01-16-2007, 06:04 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9007899&intsrc=news_ts_head' target='_blank'>http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9007899&intsrc=news_ts_head</a><br /><br /></div><i>"AT&amp;T Wireless was once an independent company that had been spun off from AT&amp;T Corp. Cingular Wireless LLC bought the wireless operator and eliminated the AT&amp;T Wireless brand. Then SBC, one of the owners of Cingular, bought AT&amp;T, adopting the AT&amp;T brand for its landline services. More recently, AT&amp;T bought BellSouth Corp., the other owner of Cingular, spurring the switch back to the AT&amp;T brand for the wireless service. Now that AT&amp;T is the parent company of several telecommunications brands, it is consolidating the branding under the AT&amp;T name as a way of cutting costs. AT&amp;T estimates that 20% of the operating expenses it expects to save through the merger with BellSouth will come from consolidating advertising."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/augusto-20071115-attcingular.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />I wasn't too attached to the Cingular name so I will not be heartbroken to see it fade away. The good news is, since all of the AT&amp;T Wireless customers were finally migrated to the Cingular billing system, there should be no interruptions in service. As much as I love Cingular's service, I don't think I could go through that much torture again. :)

Kris Kumar
01-16-2007, 12:45 PM
I wish they had kept the Cingular name.

I think Cingular had put in a lot of effort into establishing a brand name. Plus the effort involved and the money needed to change store signs, brochures, advertisements, labels on the phones and invoices etc is huge, its enormous.

I think the money paid by the subscribers is well spent on enhancing the network, I mean deploying HSDPA/3G network. :roll: :evil: I am sure this name change is going to affect the subscribers regardless of what AT&amp;T says. I don't think either name has a better goodwill than the other.

MitchellO
01-16-2007, 03:12 PM
I have to say that I think that the name Cingular is a lot nicer than AT&amp;T :p

dstrauss
01-16-2007, 03:43 PM
Personally, the name doesn't make any difference to me, but to a lot of folks, they "know" AT&amp;T but still wonder what "Cingular" is. It's kind of like Coke vs. RC Cola.

Jerry Raia
01-16-2007, 03:46 PM
I prefer the Cingular name and wish they would just put tthe ATT moniker to sleep forever. I also like the Cingular logo better too.

Jason Dunn
01-16-2007, 06:00 PM
Cingular: new, hip, cool
AT&amp;T: old, busted, '70s

The people making this decision do NOT understand branding. AT&amp;T might resonate with grandma, but are there more grandmas buying phones than younger people? Probably not. Cingular built up a lot of brand recognition over the past few years, and A&amp;T just screams "old school legacy".

Bad, bad decision that no doubt has T-Mobile giggling with glee.

macattack
01-16-2007, 06:29 PM
The people making this decision do NOT understand branding... Cingular built up a lot of brand recognition over the past few years, and A&amp;T just screams "old school legacy".

Bad, bad decision that no doubt has T-Mobile giggling with glee.

Here, Here! I couldn't agree more!

Jerry Raia
01-16-2007, 06:47 PM
Let's not forget the ATT brand represents failure. I remember when they didn't want to invest in cellular because they did think it would go anywhere. :lol:

dougben50
01-16-2007, 07:54 PM
I remember when I had service through Voice Stream in 2001. They were made to give up some of their area in Texas and I got AT&amp;T as my new service. They promised that no major changes would happen, but then everyone on Voice Stream was required to go the one of the AT&amp;T local outlets and turn in our phones for one of theirs. This would not have been a bad thing, but I had a phone that was a cut above what they were giving out. I was informed that if I wanted a different model, I would have to pay for it, which I did. The service was so bad, I closed my account within 2 months.
Saying all of this, I hope that they are smart enough to use Cingular's backbone and not make everyone turn in phones this time.

Jerry Raia
01-16-2007, 08:03 PM
No I think this is just a name change because they have some twisted fetish over the AT&amp;T brand. Still to me that brand represents dinosaurs and failure.

Rocco Augusto
01-16-2007, 09:32 PM
I'm surprised by a lot of the responses. When I was still working for Cingular we would constantly get complaints from customers left and right that they wished we didn't kill off AT&amp;T's name. The migration caused so many ill feelings from so many people in so many markets, I figured this was just a ploy to bring back all of those customers they lost. :)

amg212
01-16-2007, 11:47 PM
Personally, the name doesn't make any difference to me, but to a lot of folks, they "know" AT&amp;T but still wonder what "Cingular" is. It's kind of like Coke vs. RC Cola.

I know AT&amp;T... and I know that every time I've bought a service marketed under the name AT&amp;T (no matter what the legal entity) I've regretted it.

When I had AT&amp;T Wireless (I know, not the same AT&amp;T, but still the same crappy name), I switched to Cingular to escape horrific customer service. Once the AWS/Cingular merger came around, I was already on the orange side. Overall, I've been extremely happy with my wireless service since making that switch back in November 2004.

My big concern about the impending name change isn't the name itself - who really cares what the name is - but the resources that Cingular will have to expend in rebranding itself to AT&amp;T, and how that will divert dollars and other resources away from continued network enhancements.

If AT&amp;T will give Cingular the opportunity to maintain its momentum, this could be a non-event. But if changing signage at stores means that I will have to wait longer for additional towers in my area to get 3G turned on, I will be really ticked off...

WyattEarp
01-17-2007, 12:41 AM
My big concern about the impending name change isn't the name itself - who really cares what the name is - but the resources that Cingular will have to expend in rebranding itself to AT&amp;T, and how that will divert dollars and other resources away from continued network enhancements

If you are implying the resources meaning money, that will be balanced out by eliminating "unneeded" positions through out the company by AT&amp;T. I hope that is not the case but that always happend after a merger or buy out sooner or later.

Damion Chaplin
01-17-2007, 09:36 PM
My big concern about the impending name change isn't the name itself - who really cares what the name is - but the resources that Cingular will have to expend in rebranding itself to AT&amp;T, and how that will divert dollars and other resources away from continued network enhancements.

Actually, they say they're eliminating the Cingular name because it will save them money to only have one brand name (and envelopes, letterhead, business cards etc.).

Did anyone see the hilarious 'analysis' that Stephen Colbert did Monday? Arrows going this way, arrows going that way, all representing a time when someone changed their name to or from AT&amp;T. By the time he got to Cingular changing their name to AT&amp;T, the board was covered with so many arrows you couldn't see anything else. The funny part was it was all true. :D