Sprint's Cable Partners Unplug

DE 2 Philly said:
In response to AT&T... ummm arent they doing ok now?

The company of AT&T Wireless, with the stock ticker of AWE, went out of business in 2004. The stockholders received a cash payment of $15 per share from Cingular Wireless, LLC which acquired the failing company. Cingular Wireless, LLC was a joint venture of SBC Communications, Inc. and BellSouth. SBC Communications bought Ma Bell, AT&T, and at that time, SBC Communications changed its name to AT&T. The new AT&T (formerly SBC Communications) then bought BellSouth, the other company that owned part of Cingular Wireless LLC. With that acquisition, BellSouth was now part of AT&T, and Cingular Wireless, LLC was a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. Thus, as a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, AT&T chose to change the name from Cingular Wireless to AT&T.

Therefore, AT&T Wireless as a comany, is dead. The whole story of how everything goes full circle is kind of hilarious. But, yeah, Cingular paid cash for AT&T Wireless, the shareholders got their cash with no ownership relation to Cingular Wireless, and the board of directors for AT&T Wireless was no more. The current AT&T is a different company that happens to share the same name. Stephen Colbert did a whole take on everything that was kind of good.

As for customer service, yeah, I believe it's improving. But then again, it doesn't take too much to improve crap. Sprint's current level of customer service does not nearly seem to match the customer service it had when it introduced plan innovations that revolutionized the industry.

Sprint hasn't lived up to the promises and expectations that were made after the Nextel acquisition, and the company must prove itself to investors and to customers before becoming truly innovative and respected.