iPhone prompts accelerated Cingular rebranding

As exclusive seller of Apple handset, AT&T aims to lift its profile by quickly replacing Cingular name with AT&T at its stores.

The story "iPhone prompts accelerated Cingular rebranding" published May 21, 2007 at 5:04 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[davekolb]

Support

I wonder how the iPhone will fare with the AT&T support out of India. I had to use them for my DSL line and they were extemely polite idiots like usual support from over there. They must destroy more computers than help them with the horrible suggestions they had to fix a DSL slowdown. I used to like Bell South support a LOT better than what one has to deal with now. Luckily I finally got a local Bell Suth technician to come out and we got a long fine so he gave me his wireless number if I ever had problems again.

[kylegas]

You can't polish a t*rd

I've been playing the cell phone game since the early eighties, and have tried them all.. While I truly love the phones that Cingular has in it's lineup, anyone who has ever done a direct real-world comparison of Cingular with the other CDMA carriers in the US (especially Verizon) can attest that they just don't stand up in call quality. It's sad really, because I would love to be an iPhone person. But since I use my phone as my main communications, this isn't feasible. The popping, digital artifacting, crackling and dropping of calls I (and all of my friends) experience with Cingular can't be touched. I can even tell when people call me on Cingular. For me, it falls out like this:

Verizon: Phone crippling control freaks; best call reception I've ever had; mediocre selection of phones at best; best customer service. Decent data; but very expensive.

Sprint: Fair call reception, but less so that verizon; lackluster service, and certainly terrible in-store service. Selection of phones abysmal, and locked to their network. Decent calling plans and rates.

Cingular: Amazing phone selection, decent prices, poor call quality (many missed calls that drop right into voicemail, phone reception bars that lie, often drop calls) fair phone-in customer service, very poor in-store service.

TMobile/Others: Worse that Cingular in every way.

I'm sure there are technology reasons behind this all, but I don't care about those... I just want a cell phone that works like when I was in Europe, and that just doesn't exist here in the US.

No matter where I've lived or tried their service, it's always the same comparison; with the one exception of South Florida, where for some reason Cingular works pretty well. Maybe because it's totally flat and has a ton of towers.

[i_am_still_wade]

Some errors and other notes

Cingular/AT&T is not CDMA, but uses the older and better GSM. GSM is better because most of the world is GSM.

In my experience, Sprint is by miles the worst company out there. I know of only 1 out dozens of Sprint users who is happy with Sprint. Nextel users frequently comment on how sorry their service became once the merger went through, and they aren't even on Sprint CDMA service yet. In fact, a good friend of mine has Nextel and of all the times I call him, not once does his phone ring. Always goes to voice mail.

I have Cingular. In my area which is North Carolina, Cingular is superb: good quality, 0 dropped calls (I'm not joking), strong coverage where there is coverage, and never a full tower. But that is because in my area BellSouth cell started off all GSM. I cannot attest to other areas. My brother, who is on a family plan with me, who lives in Florida near Orlando, says quality isn't good there. Cingular's customer service is terrible on a good day, but all major carriers are just as bad except Verizon.

Really, what I'm trying to say is, except for Sprint, each carrier has good spots and bad spots. Sprint, of course, is universally bad. That is why you should ask around in your area and see how the quality is in each location. Don't assume that a national survey applies to you. You won't get Europe quality so long as CDMA is around. And that is a fact. If we get rid of CDMA, carriers can focus on dead areas instead of re-coverage of the same area.

[john55440]

Cingular - Very Poorly Rated (Links)

In my region, Cingular offers worst-in-the-industry call quality satisfaction.

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.jdpower.com/util/ratings/results.aspx?study_id=512&#38;vertical=Telecom&#38;v1=West" target="_newWindow">http://www.jdpower.com/util/ratings/results.aspx?study_id=512&#38;vertical=Telecom&#38;v1=West</a>

They also offer poor customer care satisfaction.

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.jdpower.com/telecom/ratings/wireless/customer_care/index.asp" target="_newWindow">http://www.jdpower.com/telecom/ratings/wireless/customer_care/index.asp</a>

They also have poor billing satisfaction and poor overall satisfaction.

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.jdpower.com/util/ratings/results.aspx?study_id=553&#38;vertical=Telecom&#38;v2=West" target="_newWindow">http://www.jdpower.com/util/ratings/results.aspx?study_id=553&#38;vertical=Telecom&#38;v2=West</a>

Changing brand names isn't going to change the poor quality of the underlying service.

[paulsecic]

E-mail

I still have a Prodigy E-mail address.

[thedreaming]

They are all the same

They all claim to be the best and what they consider to be the best is relative.

I know of people that both praise and hate metro pcs. I also know people that love/hate tmobile, verison, sprint, nextel, virgin mobile, and Tracfone.

They all have their loyal followers and haters.

As for me, I use cingular (att) and I'v never had a problem with them or a dropped call.

I'm sure in your area cingular (att) probably sucks and blows, but it's not the same everywhere.

[dansterpower]

Cingular Great in Salt Lake City

Cingular is greatly improved over the past 8 months in salt lake city

Customer service is now very good.

Reception is average (up from terrible)

Plans are fair. Rollover minutes are great.

[Xenu7-214951314497503184010868]

Packaging vs. Infrastructure

Too bad they won't improve coverage, call quality, and reduce line drops. Now THAT would be a meaningful change. You can dress up a pig to look like a duck, but it's still a pig.

[Angelos333]

Does anyone remember?

Does anyone remember AT&#38;T wireless?
It's service was horrible.
It's rates were ridiculously high.
And as always they did not give a damn.

We may all hate Cingular, but AT&#38;T put it to the consumer for a very long time.

They are changing the name so that all the branding is AT&#38;T. How much did they spend to get the name Cingular known? Such a waste.

[MyBrotherSteve]

About the importance of the AT&T name...

Two things that immediately came to mind, upon reading this article:

One: if it is so important to get the AT&#38;T name out there in relation to the iPhone, then does every picture of the iPhone on Apple's website, and everywhere else I've seen, still have Cingular in the upper left corner. I'm sure people at Apple and Cing... errrr uhhhhh AT&#38;T know how to use Photoshop, if they don't have a picture of one with an actual AT&#38;T logo on it. (...if the phone is launching next month, why don't they have any product shots with an AT&#38;T logo?)

Two: To plainly say 'AT&#38;T is wireless' is a meaningless comment, since AT&#38;T is actually a company (everyone understands that, I'm sure). If they were to say 'Your world is wireless. AT&#38;T wireless.', or 'Your world is wireless. AT&#38;T <b>IS</b> wireless.', then they would be implying (with emphasis) that they are the best (or only real) solution for people out there.
That's somewhat of an afterthought. It just immediately struck me that either of those would be a better way to say it than to make a flat statement that lacks bold definition or character.

[iZune]

Hahaha...Apple losers crack me up!

it doesn't matter what this article says - Apple users are brainless drones

[dansterpower]

Troll Troll Troll Your Boat

Can you spot the trolls?