So has anybody heard anymore news about the acquisition? I was just wondering because I went to CellOne's website and there was an AT&T logo on there and that takes you to another website that explains the merger, but it's not too in depth. I was wondering if anybody else heard anything like when they would start changing stores over, not when all the stores would all be changed over by.
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seems at&t signage and everything will be started on the 9th of december. thats how i took it from the meeting we had.
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So everything's actually going to START on the 9th? That kind of stinks. I was hoping that everything would be in the works and it would be complete by the 9th. I have a friend who wants to switch over and I told her to wait, so I'm not sure if we should keep waiting or if I should tell her to drive a half hour to the nearest AT&T store and hope they'll allow her to sign with them.
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What I got out of everything was that the integration starts on 12/9 where our own company stores will start selling both AT&T and Cellone plans and phones and the stores will have both logos on the outside. Co-branding is what they call it. Alpha tags on your devices? Expect engineers to be f**kin' around with them within the coming months as it will flip-flop from CellOne to AT&T and vice-versa.
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The alpha tag? So, the screen that says "CellularOne"? How exactly can they make that say "AT&T"?
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the same way it says roaming when you are in mexico or canada. or ext area when you are pulling another tower.
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Yeah, but the thing is, CellularOne has it so that whenever you are in "Extended Network" it still says "CellularOne", so you never know when you are actually on AT&T or T-Mobile's networks. I've noticed that with AT&T's phones as well. I think it may have something to do with the SIM cards. So, that's why I'm wondering how they're going to do it. If they already have the phones set to read AT&T's network as "CellularOne", how will it change and say "AT&T"?
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It's all in the programming. The phones can look at its firmware when on a tower and check the Mobile Network Code (MNC). If your phone has an Alpha Tag stored in its database for the particular MNC that you are on, it will display. I have a V3 RAZR from Dobson that I use when I travel that I flashed a new firmware on. When I am roaming, it will say "T-Mobile" or "AT&T", etc instead of "Extended Area".
So, for example, your stock phone from Dobson is programmed to read "Cellular One" when it is using a tower that is returning an MNC of 310-560. However, if it finds an MNC of, say, 310-260, it will read "Extended Area". BUT, if you have that MNC in your database, the alpha tag will read "T-Mobile".
This is particularly useful to manually ...
(continues)
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Well see the thing is, is that a lot of newer phones, like my mom's, will display CellularOne even when she is on AT&T or T-Mobile's networks. Same with my brother's phone.
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Nah, that was a good way to break it all down. If they ain't understand what you said, then that means they got a whole lot more studying to do about cellular technology. Due to the programming on my own BB Pearl, it'll say "Extended Area" when I'm away from the building. I don't have the luxury of havin' my device read the name of the other carrier when the VLR hits my device.
Doc Drilla
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