yea with SBC/AT&T having AT&T CallVantage VOIP service and Yahoo buying Dial pad VOIP and ebay owning skype and google hasgoogle talk... somebody is going to shaken down and the level 3 and cogent thingy could happend to Verizon/MCI aka Worldcom between SBC/AT&T or AT&T buying bellsouth that owns part of cingular . and AT&T owning part of Liberity Media Corporation too --small world is it

Will SBC Yahoo become AT&T Yahoo then?

The DeathStar is making a come-back! This is just like in the movie!

I worked for AT&T here in the uk for 5 years, i got laid off last christmas and to be honest i am glad i did. It has hurt financially but the place was going down hill quick and it was best out. Apparently they are going to out source their IT support in the UK, it has taken a year and they have not even decided on that.... I don't know what it's like in the US but here in the UK the company is a farce.

It's kinda funny. They break up a big company into lots of little pieces. The little pieces become bigger and bigger - then they start coming together again. The result is a company almost 5 times bigger than the original big one. Kinda like the Terminator in T2 who could break to pieces and re-form himself? Except this terminator comes back as Arnold.

Is that how it's supposed to work?

How aboout "MaBell". That's where my dad retired from! lol!

Scary Guy, the rumor is that the globe is staying and that they are just going to "update" it. ;)

I think they need a new name without SBC or AT&T in it at all.

Yeah AT&T Yahoo! DSL just doesn't sound right.

Two faces of the same beast.

Where's the news?

Heh, they should update it to AT&DSL

But no seriously, keeping AT&T and dropping the old logo is stupid. I mean seriously, when you think of AT&T what logo do you see in your mind. Uh, the AT&T logo that they've had forever maybe?

A fast google search lead me to

http://www.bellsystemmem...l.com/pdf/att_globe.pdf

Sorry it's in PDF

"There shall only be eight allowable death stars available."

So SBC creates Cingular Wireless, buys AT&T Wireless, makes their service 10x worse, forces us to adopt Cingular plans (if we want current hardware), and now merges with AT&T with the intention of changing their own name from SBC to AT&T.

So the question for those of us still roped into our 2-year contract originally signed with AT&T Wireless is; will the AT&T Wireless name be back and quality worse than ever? Time will tell :)

SBC only owns half of Cingular, the other half is owned by BellSouth, so I doubt anything will change there. Cingular has actually managed to establish itself as a successful brand name, while SBC realy hasn't.

What it really means is that the San Francisco Giants will have to rename their stadium again. It was Pacific Bell Park, then SBC Park, and now it's gonna have to become AT&T Park or something like that.

Hmm, didn't know that. I agree that the Cingular brand name is pretty well known, but among those of us who had no say in the matter (when AT&T Wireless was sold) their service leaves quite alot to be desired).

lol, so true, yet so sad. I always liked "Candlestick Park" myself.

There really is no relationship between Cingular and SBC. SBC created Cingular Wireless, but they really aren't related in the business world. Cingular's purchase of AT&T Wireless will not impact AT&T purchasing SBC since AT&T Wireless and AT&T really aren't connected either.

Sorry, Cingular beats AT&T Wireless hands-down. Their only real competition in the market is Verizon. Nextel is too limited. Sprint could be a threat, but they aren't quite in their niche yet...

Sprint use to be the best hands down. They started losing ground with "Clare" and after they trashed the customer support the service went shortly there after. I was with them for 8 years and then sent me a bill for over $990.01 and said that I bought a phone from them that I never bought and that was the end of that. (this was my personal account) I spent months on the phone trying to correct the problem with them. Nothing ever panned out. I have their bill on my credit report to this day and I will never pay it. It is on there for $990.01 Verizon needs to get upgrading there system and not make so many commercials, Cingular has more dropped calls than all the others added together. Nextel was nice until they merged with Sprint. Even if their bandwidth was messing with the police. As for SBC and AT&T didn't they use to be the same company about 10 years ago?

Actually, T-Mobile is the number 1 wireless company in the USA for overall quality of service. Cingular is number 2. Sprint is the most ridiculous wireless company I have ever heard of. They used to charge for calling customer service! Sprint also has the most expensive rate plans available. Only people who like giving money away would think Sprint is "the best hands down".

Besides, TDMA was the most widely used and reliable second generation wireless technology. GSM is currently the best wireless technology in terms of reliability and overall quality of service.

I've found TDMA much more reliable than GSM. The old AT&T was more reliable for me than cingular. In fast, The old excite/AT&T ISP was more reliable than comcast.

GSM was rolled out to merg cell plans with worldwide adoptions, not for any real technical advantage. TDMA works far better over long distances, GSM over small tight areas, which is why both caught on in their respective areas.

Cingular had NOTHING on AT&T....at least not in Miami/Ft. Laud/Orlando in FL and Alexandria/Arlington/DC in VA/MD/DC.
My wife had a crappy AT&T phone and her service kicked my a** with a brand new Samsung phone. Hell, I even went and got a Nokia and LGs and yet, her nokia brick always had clearer calls and overall better reception. I got rid of Cingular but got drawn into a T-Mobile plan (cheap and unlimited extras) and I ended up loving it and keeping it, even after my contract was up; but since AT&T Wireless got sucked up by Cingular, even though she's considered 'former AT&T', her service is a wreck now. She's coming to Tmobile now as well.

I'm sure you'll be flamed for that comment. And I totally agree but many people will scoff at that. I don't know if t-mobile is really number 1 statistically, but I know that my service is better than pretty much all my friends and family who aren't with t-mobile. It's hilarious because for some reason Sprint people swear their service rocks; sure they complain monthly about the bills and the rotten customer service, but they'll tell you..."no, that wasn't my phone, it was yours", I find it THE worst, second only to Nextel. AT&T I think was the best, but now that it's mixed in with Cingular, it's like instead of a network upgrade, a big downgrade occurred. My wife used to get 2-3 bars and semi-stable service in our apt, with AT&T...on Cingular, she can't get through an entire conversation without a drop, and she now misses calls because they'll go right to VM.
In general, my friends who have sprint are the 'preps' you know? The ones who don't really CARE if they're losing money - just as long as they're hype....the one's with VWs and Ipods. LOL.

I am sorry that you can't read where I said USE TO BE. They were the cheapest. Before they charged the $5 dollars for a support call and all that crap. I said that they suck now. Learn to read before you try and flame someone.

Irony abounds.

SBC once part of the broken up AT&T will be merged back into the fold. So all that effort that went into the forced break up of AT&T will one day all be for nothing? As slowly the parts of the original slowly recombine to be a bigger monopoly thatn before?

All the effort that went into the forced breakup of AT&T was not for nothing. You can't discount all the innovation that has occurred since the 1982 decree became reality in 1984. It probably wouldn't have come about if it wasn't for the breakup of the monopoly. These days, ATT is only a mere shadow of its former self, and the combination of SBC and ATT is hardly a great threat to consumers, especially in a now-global competitive realm.