Cingular changing back to AT&T
Cingular to disappear, reappear Monday as AT&T in rebranding strategy
By Jim Stafford
Business Writer
Quick, name the nation's largest wireless telephone company, the one with 58 million customers and "rollover” minutes.
If you said "Cingular Wireless,” you are wrong. AT&T now claims the distinction of the nation's largest wireless company, because it is folding Cingular into its telecommunications business.
The 6-year-old Cingular name will disappear beginning Monday when AT&T launches a "re-branding” campaign for the wireless company, Andy Morgan, an AT&T Oklahoma spokesman, said Thursday.
AT&T became the sole owner of the nation's largest wireless provider Dec. 29 when it closed on the acquisition of BellSouth. AT&T and BellSouth had owned Cingular Wireless in a joint venture. The company said last week that it would re-brand Cingular, but the question remained open until Thursday if the wireless company would retain a separate identity, perhaps as AT&T Wireless.
"The stores are going to be re-branded as AT&T Media Centers,” Morgan said. "Customers can go to the stores and not only get information about phones, but see demonstrations of other products and services, such as AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet and AT&T Home Zone (satellite television).”
Nationwide, about 375 Cingular stores will become AT&T Media Centers, Morgan said. Cingular operates 20 company-owned retail stores in Oklahoma.
Atlanta-based telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan called AT&T's re-branding plan of its Cingular Wireless unit a "master strategy” to put all of its business operations under one brand.
"The marketplace is changing and now is the time to make the change,” Kagan said. "In the new marketplace we are transitioning into, customers can buy all their services in a big bundle from a single company.”
The technology has become more important than the brand to wireless customers, said Oklahoma City branding expert and advertising consultant Malena Lott. For instance, Cingular — now AT&T — will offer the high-tech Apple iPhone when it debuts in June.
"Wireless providers may well go the way of banks, where a name change happens rather seamlessly, with little fanfare,” Lott said. "The Y-generation and the tech-loving rugrats behind them are happy to switch bands when the next ‘cool thing' comes along.”
The transition to AT&T means some Cingular customers will complete a wireless transition back to where they started. Cingular bought AT&T Wireless in 2004, dropped the AT&T name and folded the network into its operations.
Bringing Cingular operations into AT&T as sole owner means the number of AT&T employees almost doubled in Oklahoma when the deal closed. AT&T employed about 3,000 in the state and added about 2,800 Cingular employees, Morgan said.
The Cingular brand has been on the scene since 2001 when 11 wireless companies, including the former Southwestern Bell Wireless, BellSouth Mobility and Pacific Bell Wireless were merged into one company and renamed Cingular Wireless.
Originally Posted by ibda12u
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