No Longer Cingular, The Transition Begins to AT&T
Proving that Apple will indeed have to change at least one name on its iPhone advertising in the immediate future, Cingular announced today what many analysts had expected: The company waited until after CES to begin changing its division name to AT&T.
In a press release this morning, the newly merged entity stated that, in coming weeks, television advertising will feature Cingular's "Jack" logo doing such gracious things as writing the AT&T globe logo in the sky, and directing a troupe of harvesting tools as they cut the globe logo into a wheat field, next to Cingular's subsidiary "five bars" logo. AT&T's new slogan for now, for its wireless division, will be "Raising It Higher" - the "it," in this case, referring to "The Bar," which was prominent in former Cingular ads.
The merged branding represents the closing of a strange and awkward loop that is the short but eventful history of AT&T Wireless - a phrase which will curiously not be used to describe the new wireless division of The New AT&T.
In 1994, AT&T Corp. purchased the assets of what was then one of the US' up-and-coming cellular carriers, McCaw Cellular, for $11.5 billion. It then took that company's two million subscriber base - which back then was a fair sum - and grew it into the nation's largest cellular service, and by 1997, the best rated.
To compete, former AT&T regional Bell carriers (RBOC) BellSouth and SBC joined their efforts together to create Cingular Wireless; while RBOCs NYNEX and Bell Atlantic and former AT&T competitor GTE merged to create Verizon, and then joined forces with the European telecom company Vodafone to create Verizon Wireless. Both new entities surpassed AT&T Wireless in both customer base and customer service, in an incredibly short period of time.
While AT&T Wireless regrouped and started what seemed to be a workable catch-up plan in 2002, a new federal rule allowed customers of one carrier service to switch to another with a guarantee that they could keep their earlier mobile phone numbers. The law triggered a mass exodus, with Verizon Wireless and Cingular welcoming the emigres. In 2003, after the death of AT&T's beloved former chairman and corporate conscience, Charles R. Brown, new leadership decided to break up the company yet again. AT&T Wireless was spun off, originally to retain its identity. But in a $41 billion takeover the very next year, Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless.
What goes around - especially around that AT&T globe logo - comes around. Conceivably using some of the assets gained through the sale of AT&T Wireless, last year, the newly merged AT&T, Inc. - the former AT&T Corp., acquired by its Baby Bell, SBC - placed a bid to acquire BellSouth. That deal was given the final green light by the FCC just two weeks ago.
As current AT&T Inc. chairman Ed Whitacre said this morning, "AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular are now one company, and going to market with our services under one brand is the right thing to do." As the 1984 breakup of the original AT&T has been credited with spawning the Era of Communications Convergence, today's move is evidently in that same spirit.