Want an iPhone but don’t like Cingular? Don’t worry!
Posted by Helper Monkey
While Cingular Wireless is the largest cellular provider in America, not everyone is a fan. When Apple announced their new exclusive deal with Cingular to be the sole provider of the iPhone, many “Cingular Haters” were a bit put out. But as it turns out, while the iPhone will indeed not work with T-Mobile, Verizon and others, Cingular won’t be the carrier either.
Why? Because Cingular won’t be around come June.
AT&T, which is the sole-ower of Cingular Wireless, will begin “de-branding” Cingular and changing all marketing to reflect the new “wireless service from AT&T” name (not “AT&T Wireless”, like in the old days).
According to The New York Times, on December 29th, AT&T (which had owned 60% of Cingular) gained sole ownership of Cingular when it acquired BellSouth (which owned the remaining 40%). The de-branding/re-branding effort is slated to begin this month, and by June (coincidentally when the iPhone is scheduled to ship) the transition will be complete.
Sure, this is largely an issue of semantics, but for those of you who are anxious to get an iPhone, but were upset over the the word “Cingular” being emblazoned across the top of the device, how does the idea of having “wireless service from AT&T” up there instead sound?
Good thing there is a widescreen option to fit all that.
I don’t see why having the little cingular logo or at&t logo on the screen is any worse than having the NAME on the screen. we’re pretty much used to it with phones. I guess it is an Apple ego thing like not having intel’s sticker on the side of their Macs.
Even though they are calling att’s cell service “wireless service from AT&Tâ€? i’m pretty sure they’ll just have AT&T at the top. that’s shorter than Cingular, and so since the actual network coverage and service likely won’t change, i think this is actually slightly better. I just am anxious to see if you will be able to buy it without an additional data plan, and just use the web and mail when you are in a wi-fi area. That is my hope.