The Cingular brand name will be gone in a few days and will be replaced with the AT&T brand. Yeah, I hear the Apple fanboys" worried whimpers. What about the Apple iPhone? Jobs announced it uses Cingular as a carrier! If you want the simple explanation, AT&T Wireless is the brand replacement. If you want the complicated explanation, read on.
Initially, Cingular Wireless LLC bought AT&T Wireless, then an independent company, and killed off the AT&T Wireless brand. The owners of Cingular, SBC, then decided to buy AT&T and adopted the brand for its landline services. After AT&T bought Bellsouth Corporation, the other owner of Cingular, the AT&T Wireless brand was restored.
AT&T Inc. has announced a new advertising campaign that aims to make sure the public understands that the Cingular brand is being replaced. The Cingular brand will end Monday with the beginning of the advertising campaign. A transitional graphic that includes elements of both the AT&T and Cingular logos will be the first step. AT&T did not say how long before the graphic is replaced with an AT&T one. Over 2007, 2,000 Cingular stores and kiosks will get new AT&T signs.
Why bother? Well, first off, AT&T is a business. I"m sure you can figure it out from there: AT&T realized it can massively cut costs with such a move. AT&T is now again the parent company of several telecommunications brands and wants to make sure its name is well known, especially after the ping pong brand name game with Cingular.