Cingular To Acquire AT&T Wireless

[SU-News]

Industry news: Announced this morning, Cingular will be acquiring AT&T Wireless for $41 billion dollars. The buyout will make Cingular the largest wireless carrier, with 46 million customers. The deal is not expected to close until late in the year. Full story here (http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=16916).

[kamran23]

I cannot believe this… No way the worst carrier in the LA area buys the 2nd worst carrier… I was with ATT for almost 3 years they were bad. Customer service is horrible with AT&T and bad reception every one I know is leaving them. You cant believe it but before that I had CINGULAR (Pac bell wireless) and they had bad reception but the customer service was good. Is Cingular nuts??? Every one I know who has had AT&T is switching out to go some ware else I hope that the CS doesn’t get worse for the CINGULAR customers.

[mbrenner]

This is fastinating. A month back I left ATT. In So Cal their GSM does not have adaquate coverage. I was on TDMA for the last 4 years, and for three of those it was really quite good. In the last 8 months it had really degraded to the point where it just was not pratical to stay and the GSM network was not built out yet. So I had to leave.

I know 8 ATT users and 6 of them have left in the last 90 days.

So I figure that ATT is really going down the tubes. They dont have a usable GSM network and they have let their workable TDMA network slide into a unsuable state (unsuable in the opinion of 7 of the 8 people I know - the 7th is switching the end of this month likely to sprint).

Now you would think that the stock price would take a dive since they really messed up their network. Instead however they get 40+ billion for a company that must have a huge defection rate. Amazing those execs who screwed up the whole thing are going to make a fortune! Not setting a good example for others trying to run a business and serve customers.

I went to sprint by the way. I use about 80 minutes a day and have not dropped a call yet on sprint (driving in So Cal and inside buildings). Even the "toys" work most of the time. (toys being sending/receiving pictures and video and other web stuff). 4 of the ATT folks went to sprint, 2 to verizon. Verizon is really solid around here but more expensive than sprint, and the toys are much more expensive if you play around alot. (I have the 2,000 minute, 7pm nw, vision... with the sanyo vm4500).

[dougc]

I had exactly the same experience in the middle of the country! But you know, now I'm glad, because it got me to Sprint. I've had a good experience so far -- love the phone (a620) and the service! I just hope Sprint has learned from the MCI experience and doesn't end up in another "merger". I tried Verizon first -- can you hear me, maybe, and the data was way behind Sprint. The other partner I hear mentioned is Alltel. I was with them some years ago too, or rather was with a local that got bought by them. Here's hoping Sprint stays Sprint!

[DHS Tech]

I've had every carrier. From AT&T Wireless, SprintPCS, Pac Bell (Back when they were PacBell, and not Cingular/GSM Wireless), VoiceStream(When they were Voicestream and not T Mobile) and Verizon. A friend of mines got Virgin Mobile.

I, along with almost everyone I know in the state of Nevada, hasnever experienced a problem with AT&T, besides that they were slowly getting Expensive. I always hated sprint phones, But I do have to admit in California When I'd lose service on my AT&T phone I still had enough service range on my sprint phone to make a decent call. Cingulars whole service is whack. But they've got the best prepaid. Verizon is just to expensive. T Mobile, is hot right now. They've got the coolest phones, the best pricing, besides the fact that they made a stupid move when they dropped there "free text messaging and mobile to mobile for $10" Promo, they bought western wireless from AT&T (I live in the west...), so, right now, there top of the line. AT&T Is the royal, but T Mobile is the King. I still carry a sprint phone however. To sum it up:

Sprint Doesnt offer AIM through txting (SMS{Short Message Service} Messages/Text Messages)
Sprint doesnt offer GSM Service

However

Because sprint offers the PCS service they do, when I lose digital service, all my other phones are worthless as far as txting/calling people, but my sprint phone just kicks into Analog and I'm ready to go.



I like Nokia phones, but I have used Sanyo, Motorola, Samsung, and other various companys

[mjrichter]

Cingular has their work cut out for them and it's going to be expensive to merge and upgrade the new system. I have compared Sprint PCS to AWS's GSM network side by side , no comparision. Especially in the rural areas. CDMA is limited by time delays to 57 miles from the nearest tower. GSM is limited to 22 miles to the nearest tower if one time slot is used. ( it is possible to allow 2 time slots to increase range to 44 miles but limits erlang capacity of site).
I wish them success but I will stay with Sprint PCS.

[im_greg_p]

CDMA is limited by time delays to 57 miles from the nearest tower. GSM is limited to 22 miles to the nearest tower if one time slot is used. ( it is possible to allow 2 time slots to increase range to 44 miles but limits erlang capacity of site).



What is PCS limited to? I would imagine more than CDMA because PCS is 1900MHZ but then again, PCS is a form of CDMA.

[DF@Work]

Sprint PCS usings CDMA so it would fall under the 'physics' of CDMA technology.

As for all of us in Cali/Nevada. Bear in mind Tmobile uses Cingular's network out here in the West. When the merger is complete, Cingular will convert everyone over to the ATTWS network, and then sell the Cingular network to Tmobile. So those of you who got away from ATT to go to Cingular... welcome back... and those of you with Tmobile, who thought your service was decent, well it stays the same... And those of you who are under PacBell Cingular through the entire mess, well, your service just got worst.

[newyorkrunaway1]

Cingular Service sucks. Their service isnt going to get much better either once they acquire AT&T. they have expected to lose more then 3/4 of AT&T customers to other carriers. so they wont be the largest carrier in the US about a year after the paper work is done. Im not legally suppost to divulge this information, but who gives a f***. I hate cingular. They f***ing suck!:hee:

[mbrenner]

Yea ATT has some challenges now. I think that they will loose a significant amount of their customer base. For starters they don't have a decent flip phone with dual displays. The cheepest one is 200 bucks for new subscribers! Verizon's is 75 bucks and a better phone as well! Data is expensive and if you call an ATT phone and think your call is free, it may not be if the other att phone is roaming which you cant tell so you would have to ask they guy on the other end if his phone said ATT Wireless at the moment that you called him! Unlike sprint where if you are on network the receiver can be roaming. Also if an ATT customer calls you when he is roaming you pay for his incomming call even if you are on network - how are you supposed to know?

[newyorkrunaway1]

Yea ATT has some challenges now. I think that they will loose a significant amount of their customer base. For starters they don't have a decent flip phone with dual displays. The cheepest one is 200 bucks for new subscribers! Verizon's is 75 bucks and a better phone as well! Data is expensive and if you call an ATT phone and think your call is free, it may not be if the other att phone is roaming which you cant tell so you would have to ask they guy on the other end if his phone said ATT Wireless at the moment that you called him! Unlike sprint where if you are on network the receiver can be roaming. Also if an ATT customer calls you when he is roaming you pay for his incomming call even if you are on network - how are you supposed to know?
AT&T is being acquired by Cingular. Which means their service will be better, phone prices cheaper, and no roaming. although it does not compare to Sprint, what you said made it sound like you thought AT&T was acquiring Cingular. lol :eyebrow: :eyeroll:

[mbrenner]

AT&T is being acquired by Cingular. Which means their service will be better, phone prices cheaper, and no roaming. although it does not compare to Sprint, what you said made it sound like you thought AT&T was acquiring Cingular. lol :eyebrow: :eyeroll:

Yes they are being aquired. My comment was just following up on other peoples comments. We were wondering how many people will be left when Cingular actually gets the AT&T subscribers.