Cingular Wireless LLC is the largest United States mobile phone company, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

Cingular, formed in 2001, is a joint venture of the American landline telephone companies AT&T (formerly known as SBC Communications) and BellSouth. The two companies hold 60% and 40% stakes in Cingular, respectively, based on the value of the assets each company contributed to the venture.

Cingular was the second largest mobile phone carrier in the United States. On October 26, 2004, Cingular won regulatory approval from the FCC to acquire AT&T Wireless, and completed the acquisition of 24 million customers giving them 48 million customers, which surpasses Verizon Wireless, and is now the largest mobile phone carrier in the United States. Q3 2005 numbers, released on October 20, 2005, showed 52.3 million Cingular subscribers. Cingular operates two separate pay-as-you-go mobile phone services, including its own GoPhone; Tracfone's GSM customers also use the Cingular Allover^SM network (their CDMA customers use the network of Cingular's biggest rival, Verizon Wireless).

Cingular operates a mixed network consisting of GSM (from the former Pacific Bell Wireless and BellSouth Mobility DCS networks), and TDMA and AMPS (from SBC's Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems network, BellSouth's BellSouth Mobility network, a Mobitex-based network used for paging and remote telemetry, and various acquisitions, including some SBC-owned systems operating under the Cellular One name), which they are working to convert to pure GSM/GPRS. Cingular also supports EDGE data services nationwide. Cingular will be rolling out UMTS or W-CDMA High-Speed network, to counter Verizon's EV-DO network. UTMS is avaliable now in selected cities - Seattle, Dallas, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area, adding 15 major markets before year-end 2005, with the rest of the United States to follow in 2006. The network runs GSM-1900 in the former Pacific Bell Wireless and BellSouth Mobility DCS areas. The areas that have been converted to GSM from TDMA are mostly GSM-850, but there are some exceptions where the pre-Cingular companies had only licenses in the 1900MHz PCS band.

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 Bermuda-based Digcel Group under undisclosed financial terms.

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.[1] 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.

Possible Name Change

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. [2] 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. [3] 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.

Adelante

Recently, Cingular has launched a new ad campaign "Adelante". In Spanish it means literally "advancement, to advance". It is aimed at the Hispanic and Spanish speaking communities in the US 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.

Trivia

• In 2005, Communication 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.

External links

• Cingular Wireless
• Wikibooks:Cingular Wireless FAQ
• Yahoo! - Cingular Wireless LLC Company Profile
• Pros and Cons of Cingular's Wireless Service
• Consumers Union on Cingular (Independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving only consumers)