Cingular Wireless

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Cingular Wireless LLC is the largest United States mobile phone company, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Cingular operates a network of multiple technologies. The most widely used of these technologies is called Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM. On top of their GSM network they run a data network called GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and an upgrade for faster speeds called EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution). Cingular supports their legacy TDMA and analog networks. Former networks include various paging services and the Cingular Interactive division that became Velocita Wireless which was recently purchased by Sprint Nextel *[1]

1 History
- 1.1 AT&T Wireless merger
- 1.2 GSM Facilities
2 Revival of AT&T Wireless
3 "Adelante"
4 Allover Network
5 Trivia
6 External links

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History

Image:Pacific bell.gif Image:Nevada bell.gif Cingular Wireless was formed in 2001 as a joint venture of SBC Communications (now AT&T) and BellSouth (soon to be purchased by AT&T). The joint venture created the nation's second largest carrier. Cingular grew out of a conglomeration of 11 regional companies. these companies include BellSouth Mobility, BellSouth Mobility DCS, Cellular One, Houston Cellular, BellSouth Wireless Data, Southwestern Bell Wireless, Pacific Bell Wireless, Nevada Bell Wireless, Ameritech Cellular, SNET and SBC Wireless. With the exception of Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS, the digital network consisted of TDMA Technology. The Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS networks used GSM technology on the PCS frequency (1900 Mhz). In 2002 Cingular began an initiative called "Project Genesis" that involved a GSM/GPRS overlay of the entire wireless network. Project Genesis was completed by the end of 2004.

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AT&T Wireless merger

Image:AT&TWirelessLogo.png After a bidding war with Britain's Vodafone PLC, Cingular announced in February, 2004 that they would purchase AT&T Wireless for 41 Billion dollars. The merger was completed on October 16, 2004. The combined company had a customer base of 46 million people which placed Cingular as the largest wireless provider in the United States.

Cingular has 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. UMTS service was launched on December 6, 2005 in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, San Jose, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and Washington D.C. Cingular is expected to launch UMTS in all major metropolitan markets by the end of 2006.

Image:CingularWirelessLogo.png

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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.

First announced on June 23, 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, Bermuda-based Digcel Group under undisclosed financial terms. [2], [3], [4], [5]

Cingular outsources some of their Customer Care to companies in Canada and overseas.

On August 25, Cingular was removed from the New York Better Business Bureau because of a large number of complaints that were not handled in a timely manner. The company is in the process of restructuring its customer care procedures and has appealed the decision.[6] It remains a member of the BBB in other states in which it operates.

In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported logging more than 14,000 complaints (or 289 per million subscribers) against Cingular Wireless. The most common of which included number portability issues, over billing, poor customer support and network reliability.

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Revival of AT&T Wireless

On 20 November 2005, Ed Whitacre, CEO of the newly-merged SBC/AT&T, announced plans to market the service under the AT&T banner. [7] BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher countered that the terms of the joint venture allow either party to sell the service under another name, and that he believes they will be using the brand to market to business customers. [8] Cingular president Stan Sigman concurred with BellSouth's position, indicating that the Cingular brand would continue but be sold under the AT&T brand where offered in packages with other AT&T services, such as data and wireline telephony.

However, AT&T, Inc. announced on March 5, 2006 [9] that it would be acquiring BellSouth's telephone and wireless operations. A revival of the AT&T Wireless brand has been confirmed as Bellsouth's 40% ownership of Cingular Wireless will be transferred to AT&T. In 2005, Cingular's revenue was 1/3 of the overall revenue of AT&T and BellSouth.

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"Adelante"

Recently, Cingular has launched a new ad campaign "Adelante". In Spanish it means literally "forward." It is aimed at the Hispanic and Spanish speaking communities in the U.S. to boost sales and consists of newspaper ads, commercials, and magazine ads. Also, part of "Adelante" is to now start offering bilingual support at its stores for English and Spanish.

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Allover Network

During the 1st quarter of 2006, Telephia reported that during an extensive nationwide test of major wireless carriers, Cingular Wireless dropped the fewest amount of calls across the country. Cingular in turn began advertising with more aggression the "Allover Network". This was in stark contrast to the Consumer Unions published "Consumer Reports" which slammed Cingular for static and dropped calls.

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Trivia

In 2005, Communications Workers of America, the union which represents over half of Cingular's employees, specifically recognized Cingular for excellence as a union employer, in direct contrast to competitor Verizon, which CWA singled out as an aggressive union-buster.
A sales boost is expected following January 2006, when RadioShack (the top wireless retailer in the US) will no longer sell Verizon phones and instead will sell Cingular phones.
Cingular Wireless is the wireless carrier of the street racers in Electronic Arts' street racing video games Need for Speed: Underground 2 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. It is used to receive SMS messages from other racers. This was one of the points of criticism in Underground 2, as the Cingular logo was featured as part of the game's driving interface in Career mode, and was thought to be an dubious method of product placement.
Although Cingular's network standard (GSM) is completly different from Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless, Cingular does offer Sprint and Verizon customers roaming on to their older AMPS network.