AT&T Mobility LLC is the wholly owned wireless subsidiary of AT&T Inc. AT&T Mobility, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is the second-largest mobile phone company in the United States, in terms of number of subscribers, behind Verizon Wireless. AT&T Mobility has approximately 81.6 million subscribers as of the third quarter 2009.
Originally Cingular Wireless LLC , a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth, the company acquired the old AT&T Wireless in 2004; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and re-branded as "the new AT&T". Cingular became wholly-owned by the new AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth.
In January 2007, Cingular confirmed it would rebrand itself under the AT&T moniker. Although the corporate name change occurred immediately, for regulatory and brand-awareness reasons both brands were used in the wireless unit's signage and advertising during a transition period. The transition concluded in late June, just prior to the rollout of the Apple iPhone.
Among the services that AT&T aggressively promotes is its "Rollover" service, allowing customers to keep unused minutes from month to month on a twelve-month rolling cycle on its popular "Nation" nationwide plans. Beginning in July 2007, AT&T now allows its AT&T Unity plan users to have "Rollover", a service which was exclusive to the "Nation" plans. AT&T also launched video share in 2007, in which a mobile caller can stream live video from one phone to another over the 3G network with video share capable phones. This allows one mobile phone user to view another's camera through the mobile phone in real time. AT&T is expected to roll out a program on September 20, 2009, called the "A list," similar to the Verizon/Alltel group of friends packages. It is uncertain if the Unity customers will qualify.
A large number of AT&T Mobility employees are unionized, belonging to the Communications Workers of America. The CWA represented roughly 15,000 of the previous 20,000 formerly AT&T Wireless employees as of early 2006. As of the end of 2007, the CWA website claims roughly 40,000 workers of AT&T Mobility are represented by the union.
History
Cingular Wireless LLC was founded in 2000 as a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth. The joint venture created the nation's second-largest carrier. Cingular grew out of a conglomeration of more than 100 companies , with 12 well-known regional companies with Bell roots. The 12 companies included:
- Three companies spun off from Advanced Mobile Phone Service, Inc.
- Ameritech Mobile Communications, LLt
- BellSouth Mobility, LLC
- Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, Inc.
- BellSouth Mobility DCS, Inc.
- BellSouth Wireless Data, LLC
- CCPR Services Inc. d/b/a Cellular One of Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands
- Pacific Bell Wireless, LLC
- Pacific Bell Wireless Northwest, LLC
- SBC Wireless, LLC
- SNET Mobility, LLC
- Southwestern Bell Wireless, Inc.
SBC Wireless had previously operated in several northeast markets under the "Cellular One" brand, while BellSouth's wireless operations incorporated the former Houston Cellular.
Cingular's lineage can be traced back to Advanced Mobile Phone Service, which was a subsidiary of AT&T created in 1978 to provide cellular service nationwide. AMPS, Inc. was divided among the Regional Bell Operating Companies as part of the Bell System divestiture.
With the exception of Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS, the digital network consisted of D-AMPS technology. The Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS networks used GSM technology on the PCS frequency band (1900 MHz).
In October 2007, AT&T’s president and chief executive officer Stan Sigman announced his retirement. Ralph de la Vega, group president-Regional Telecom & Entertainment, was named as president and CEO, AT&T Mobility.
AT&T Wireless merger
In February 2004, after a bidding war with Britain's Vodafone Plc (45% owners of Verizon Wireless) Cingular announced that it would purchase its struggling competitor, AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., for $41 billion. This was more than twice the company's trading value.
The merger was completed on October 26 , 2004 . The combined company had a customer base of 46 million people at the time, making Cingular the largest wireless provider in the United States. AT&T Wireless was then legally renamed New Cingular Wireless Services, Inc. Shortly after new commercials were shown a with the "AT&T" transforming into the Cingular logo, and with the Cingular logo's text turned blue to acknowledge the change. First announced on June 22 , 2005 Cingular Wireless announced the intention to divest its Caribbean and Bermuda operations and licenses which it acquired from the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, to Irish-owned and Jamaica-based Digicel Group under undisclosed financial terms.
In 2006, one year following the deal, a high ranking source allegedly close to the sale pointed the Barbados Daily Nation Newspaper towards some SEC filings made by Cingular which were said to establish an idea of the approximate sale price of the deal. According to the SEC filings Cingular was paid around US$122 million, with much of that $122m cost to Digicel going towards the purchasing of the former AT&T Wireless assets in Barbados.
At the time of the merger, there were two networks: the historic AT&T Blue Network and the Cingular Orange Network. Both networks contained a mix of both TDMA and GSM facilities. Approximately 50,000 cell sites had to be melded together. From a technical standpoint, the "blue" and "orange" networks were considered different networks until integration was completed in 2005. Enhanced Network Selection (ENS) was used to home cellular devices on either the "blue" or "orange" network during this process.
GSM facilities
In California, Nevada, Northern New Jersey and New York City, Cingular and T-Mobile USA maintained and shared a GSM-1900 network prior to the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, through a joint venture known as GSM Facilities . The network sharing agreement allowed Cingular to offer local service in northern New Jersey and New York City and T-Mobile to offer service in California and Nevada. On May 25 , 2004 , Cingular and T-Mobile USA announced their intention to dissolve the agreement contingent on Cingular's successful acquisition of AT&T Wireless, the Cingular network was transferred to T-Mobile, with Cingular continuing work on the GSM facilities at AT&T Wireless sites.
Network coverage
As a result of its formation through mergers and acquisitions, as well as the rapid technological change in the wireless industry, AT&T Mobility operates networks within its United States footprint using different wireless communication standards. The core technology standard for the AT&T Mobility wireless network is called Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM. Much of the AT&T Mobility network footprint now uses GSM-standard 3G wireless technologies (UMTS/HSPA) for simultaneous circuit switched voice and packet switched data communications. AT&T Mobility also offers Push To Talk (PTT) service using network technology from Kodiak Networks.
Cingular, the predecessor to AT&T Mobility, supported legacy D-AMPS/TDMA and analog wireless networks. In March 2006, Cingular announced that these networks would be shut down by February 2008. As of March 31 , 2007 Cingular ended TDMA supported for GoPhone (pre-paid) customers. On February 18 , 2008 , AT&T Mobility officially ended service on their AMPS and TDMA network, except for in areas previously operated by Dobson Communications; the Dobson AMPS and TDMA network was shut down March 1 , 2008 .
Networks formerly operated by AT&T Mobility predecessors including Cingular also include various paging services and the Cingular Interactive division, which became Velocita Wireless. Velocita was later purchased by Sprint Nextel.
The AT&T Mobility wireless data network began in 2002 as a Cingular initiative called "Project Genesis" that involved a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) overlay of the entire wireless network. Project Genesis was completed by the end of 2004. Later, this network was upgraded to EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) across the GSM footprint.
In 2005, AT&T Mobility launched a high-speed network known as "BroadbandConnect," based on UMTS and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), to counter Verizon Wireless and Sprint's EV-DO networks.
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