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Cingular To Buy AT&T Wireless

Article Comments  100+  

Feb 17, 2004, 7:13 AM   by (staff)

updated   It's official: Cingular today announced a $41 billion deal to acquire AT&T Wireless. The acquisition, which is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, is expected to be completed as soon as late 2004. If effective today, the deal would create a company with 46 million customers, by far the largest in the country. Since both companies use GSM technology, the network integration will bring customers almost immediate improvement in coverage and call quality. The combination of the companies' spectrum holdings will also permit accelerated rollout of 3G services. The deal ends a several-day bidding war that pitted Cingular against European powerhouse Vodafone. Reuters reports that Vodafone was willing to bid as high as $39.4 billion. Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo will reportedly sell its 16-percent stake in AT&T Wireless for cash.

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MrFisch13

Feb 18, 2004, 1:06 PM

T-Mobile is the best

πŸ™‚ Just face it... with the already best GSM network T-Mobile is the best gsm service provider not only that but they reap the benefits of this cingular at&t deal becasue of their coverage sharing agreement t-mobile takes in all of this new coverage into their network. I never have dead spots anywhere and can defend tmobile in any spot. I feel they are the best company with the best rates and trust me there are no hidden fees anywhere....


-T---MOBILE RULES!!!!!!!!!!! πŸ˜‰ πŸ˜‰
MrFisch13 said:
... T-Mobile ... they reap the benefits of this cingular at&t deal becasue of their coverage sharing agreement t-mobile takes in all of this new coverage into their network. ...


That's not confirmed ...
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T-Mobile is a great company there's no denying that... unfortunately they may only benefit from Cingular/AT&T for a short time. T-Mobile uses 1900 mhz and for now so do Cingular and AT&T but Cingular is upgrading to 850 mhz. So far T-Mobile's phones...
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Let me begin by saying I'm a former employee of ATT, a T-Mobile customer, and a former ATTWS stockholder. At this point, I'm pretty unbiased.

I was on the investment analyst conferance call with the CEOs of Bellsouth and ATTWS yesterday, actually,...
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If you never find dead spots with T-Mobile, then you don't travel very far. The T-Mobile coverage is very limited. With my AT&T service, I can get service in very remote areas. With T-Mobile, if my car breaks down on a fishing trip to northern Minn...
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bboudrdelta

Feb 18, 2004, 8:34 PM

Customer Service Nightmare

I work for Verizon Wireless and I could not be happier. Everybody who has been in the Business for a while knows the slightest change always causes customer issues. At the rate Verizon is growing, in 2 years when all the problems are worked out with this buyout, Verizon will have taken enough customers to get back on top of US Customer base.
do you think then the customers will be able to download ringtones from any web site like attws or will they still be stuck with the crappy few your forced to pick from on the GET IT NOW spot? 😑
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Convergeeman

Feb 20, 2004, 7:14 PM

Official Press release off aws webistie

ok people weall read this but to those who haven here it is again

ATLANTA - Feb. 17, 2004 - Cingular Wireless LLC, a joint venture between SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) and BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS), announced today an agreement to acquire AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE), creating the premier wireless carrier in the United States. Today, the combined company would have 46 million customers and one of the most advanced digital networks in the U.S., with spectrum in 49 states and coverage in 97 of the top 100 markets. The combined 2003 annual revenues of the two companies would have exceeded $32 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement approved by the boards of directors of Cingular and AT&T Wireless, shareholders of AT&T Wireless wi...
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Mindwurkz

Feb 17, 2004, 8:41 AM

Scorched Earth?

Any AT&T CS reps who are on their way out wanna improve my plan before they're ousted?
No but here's some advice, switch to Sprint. Sounds like you have the perfect mindset for them.
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Actually, I read in the business section of the Herald (Miami) that Cingular intends to lay off a "considerable" number of AT&T employees. AT&T, it seems, was just about to lay off a "considerable" number anyways...which sucks of course. I don't know ...
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scottishsong

Feb 17, 2004, 5:55 PM

Good things to come

Working in tech support for one of these companies I can tell you this will be a nightmare for awhile but only good things can come from it. It's going to be a huge adjustment for employees of both companies and customers as well. Patience will be required but I'm confident we will combine the best both companies have to offer and ultimately emerge as THE superior provider. In the meantime the only irony is all the porting ins and outs between the two..... which has always amused me since Nov 24th simply because the pending sale was never a secret yet we 'exchanged' customers anyway. Let's all raise our glasses and drink to those with foresight.
HAhahaha
I even told a few people who left at&t to port out to cingular that I would see them back in a few months. and it would hardly be worth the trouble and money to port, since it toko 2 weeks for some of them at first. (work for at&t customer c...
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VZW Sales

Feb 17, 2004, 6:16 PM

Next?

What do you think Verizon's reaction will be once they are no longer the largest wireless provider in the U.S.? I would not be surprised to see them snatch up Sprint w/in a year or two of this cing/att merger. That would make an awsome carrier with the best coverage and features, not to mention then us poor Verizon reps/customers could actually get some cool phones!
From what I know of Sprint they are a good company with a lot of debt. I don't expect Verizon to make any sudden decisions based on a knee jerk reaction to the Cingular/AT&T deal. Their company executives are too smart for that.
...
It's no sure thing, but it is a distinct possibility.

Other possibilities involve Nextel. Verizon might buy Nextel, or Nextel might buy Sprint.

Verizon buying Nextel might make the most sense to me. Here's a few reasons:
  • Nextel has a lot
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Verizon and the new Cing/AWS company should merge into a huge company. GSM/TDMA/CDMA. Non crappy phones. International travel. Wont happen but once everything is said and done cust's would be happy.
ndny3

Feb 18, 2004, 10:42 AM

contract?

I am currently an AT&T customer looking to get out of my contract. Will this merger with Cingular allow me to cancel without the termination fee?
Your current contract term remains valid. Why are you wanting out? Most of the time Care may be able to help (depending on the situation) The dilemma here is that your agreement says you'll stay with AT&T Wireless through a specified amount of time...
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Stick it out 😁 Maybe the new company will fix the problems your having.
bones boy

Feb 17, 2004, 12:59 PM

It's official. Now Cingular can LOWER THEIR INTERNATIONAL...

...roaming rates, which are by far the most ridiculous of any US-based GSM carrier!!! 😑
actually, I think AT&T WS has higher rates than Cingular does.
You mean you HOPE they lower the rates...lol. I've never known a corporation of this magnitude to do ANYthing just because they can. That would suggest a logical course of thought...
salazaar

Feb 18, 2004, 11:16 AM

Better Service When?

Everything I read keeps saying that customers will see improvement in service almost immediately (once the networks are integrated).
Well when are they going to be integrated.
anyone from inside the business have a real idea - not speculation.
I've got a buddy that works as an engineer for AT&T wireless who says the integration work will begin immediately after the financial details of the merger are done and over with. He gave me a date of "sometime in mid to late March". He also stated th...
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prateeko

Feb 17, 2004, 8:02 AM

HORRAY!

Horray for AT&T (and Cingular) customers 😁 ! FINALLY we're going to see better coverage, and a better selection of phones (I'm only assuming since they both have good phones as is). My only question, whats the new name going to be? Well, I'm curious as to some other details, but all in all this should be good for the customers πŸ™‚.
Hmmmmm, new name.........how bout "cinguatt wireless". So what does this all mean? Higher Rates? Lower Rates? What does it mean for the equipment providers fro both Cingular and ATT. I know Nortel has a foot print in about 5 Cingular markets and 15 to...
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CingulAriTy? Crap. I forgot the other T. What are YOU looking at? At least I tried...lamely. Pfft. ANYway...I'm just glad to seem another US company snapping up AT&T...I didn't particularly want to see this great company in the hands of the British (V...
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This news is clearly the biggest so far (today), as its got top honnors at CNN (main article on front page, http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/17/technology/ci ngular_att/index.htm?cnn=yes), who is reporting
    The name of the company shall stay as it is no
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this sux!

cing's plans suck gawdawful.
i already get to roam on cing & tmo for free in my state so it wasn't like i would have gained anything from them. maybe/hopefully cing will adapt attws's plans instead of what looks like attws already degrad...
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Dlux408

Feb 17, 2004, 4:01 PM

Roaming agreements

Will this merger have any kind of affect on T-Mobile customers since they share towers with Cingular in many states (i.e. Roaming agreements, GPRS, etc.)?
 
 
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