SAN ANTONIO-SBC Communications Inc. is reportedly planning to launch an AT&T branded wireless service that will use the network of SBC’s current wireless joint venture, Cingular Wireless L.L.C. SBC’s plans follow the closing last weekend of its $16 billion acquisition of AT&T Corp.
Contrary to published reports, Cingular said it is not changing its name to AT&T.
“We are continuing with the strong Cingular brand that we have spent the past five years building and promoting,” said Cingular spokesman Clay Owen.
SBC’s chairman and chief executive officer Ed Whitacre said in an interview over the weekend that Cingular would drop its brand name for the AT&T brand in most of its markets. BellSouth Corp., which controls the 40 percent of Cingular, said in the story that it did not have any objections to the name change.
Owen said Whitacre’s comments were related to SBC-which changed its name to AT&T following the purchase-and its plans to launch an AT&T branded wireless service that it would sell in select markets using Cingular’s network. Owen likened the set-up to Sprint Nextel Corp.’s extensive mobile virtual network operator agreements.
Cingular was formed by the combination of SBC and BellSouth’s wireless businesses in 2001 and quickly became the industry’s second largest player, standing behind Verizon Wireless and ahead of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. Owen noted that when the Cingular venture was formed, both SBC and BellSouth reserved the right to launch separately branded wireless services.
Cingular pushed past Verizon Wireless last year as the industry’s largest operator following its $41 billion acquisition of AWS. However, as part of the agreement, Cingular was forced to sign away rights to the AT&T brand name back to AT&T, which had announced plans to launch a wireless service using Sprint Nextel CDMA network.
AT&T then scuttled those plans earlier this year when SBC announced plans to acquire AT&T. AT&T said at the time it was still looking at launching an AT&T branded wireless service, but would instead use Cingular’s network.
Analysts have noted that the AT&T brand is one of the most recognized names in the world, and was the main reason SBC decided to change its name to AT&T following its acquisition.
