Cingular, AT&T Settle Branding Deal

This sucks...just merge them already!

 

This was known to be coming already. They just set it in stone now. But now I am confused about the whole "Cingular Blue" thing.

But don't worry Airb, this is just a marketing strategy thing. As long as both AT&T Wireless and Cingular share each other's towers, customers will be happy.

However, it is funny that SBC/BellSouth is making deals with AT&T Corp.

 

UPDATE - AT&T, AT&T Wireless end dispute, change brand pact
Monday August 23, 7:50 pm ET


NEW YORK, Aug 23 (Reuters) - AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE - News) and AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - News) have resolved a dispute over branding and reached a new agreement ahead of Cingular Wireless' planned purchase of AT&T Wireless, the three companies said on Monday.


AT&T Wireless, which Cingular is set to buy later this year, also promised to buy $100 million of network services from its former parent after the takeover, the companies said.

Cingular, a joint venture of regional operators SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC - News) and BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - News), said the new deal gives it certain rights to the AT&T Wireless brand for six months after closing its $41 billion takeover.

Cingular, which plans to offer services for the combined company under its own brand after six months, said the deal would help minimize confusion for AT&T Wireless customers.

AT&T Corp., which plans to sell its own wireless services to business customers, said recently it planned to take back the wireless brand after the Cingular deal closes.

Spokesman Andy Backover said AT&T Corp. is already discussing wireless with business clients and that the new deal still lets it sell mobile services under the AT&T brand.

AT&T Wireless, which began licensing its brand after it was spun off in 2001, said the deal also resolves a brand violation dispute with AT&T Corp. It said recently it might have broken its licensing deal by failing to respond quickly enough to customer-service calls.

The latest deal also changes an existing network services agreement between AT&T Wireless and AT&T Corp. and extends it for up to 17 months, Cingular said.

AT&T Corp. will provide international and private line services to the combined company, it said. (Additional reporting by Justin Hyde in Washington D.C.)


http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040823/telecoms_attwireless_att_3.html

 

They just need to straighten things out and finish this in an organized way so the illiterate people won't be confused and so us "cellphans" can be satisfied .

 

Lol Gideon be nice! Hopefully it will all get sorted out soon and everything will be fine ( well hopefully anyway lol )

 

The whole telecom field is filled with complexity. While company A sues company B on one issue, company A leases capacity from company B and company B leases fiber space from company A. This is probably one of the least complex examples.

 

Hehe...you are right. Sounds like T and AWE. While T threatened to sue AWE, AWE has agreements with T to buy LD services. Interesting. I wonder if Nextel and Verizon have some type of agreement.

 

And what is this Cingular blue thing?

 

AT&T Wireless....

 

So, this is just a term for ATT after the merger, nothing official. I thought maybe Cingular was changing its color scheme or something.

 

You got it!

However, for marketing and sales it will remain AT&T Wireless for six months after the merger. So the Cingular Blue thing may not happen after all.

 

you got that off of google image search i saw that many times about three months ago and a week ago when i tried getting cingular jacks for avatars.

 

So now do I have to wait 6 more months after the merger for the new and improved post merger plans and phones :dunno:

 

Phones have always been just about the same. AT&T just has a greater variety and sells more older phones that Cingular has removed. But AT&T and Cingular sell just about the same phones save a few exceptions like NEC.

About rate plans, I don't think there's anything to wait for since their rate plans are almost identical anyways.

 

So anybody out there think Vodafone might want to ditch Verizon and go with Cingular to help out in building a big and powerful network in new markets??

I see them tring to buyout VZ communications if that don't work I think they might try to get into the Cingular partnership and leave the Cellco Partnership.

 

I think they will just stay put. At least for now.