Cingular To Acquire AT&T Wireless
By Wireless Week Staff
February 17, 2004
Wireless Week


The bidding war is over and it's official: Vodafone Group Plc is out, and Cingular Wireless will acquire AT&T Wireless to create a company with 46 million customers -- more than rival Verizon Wireless, which has 37.5 million customers.

The $41 billion deal announced this morning calls for shareholders of AT&T Wireless to receive $15 cash per common share. The acquisition is subject to approvals of AT&T Wireless shareholders and federal regulatory authorities. Executives predict the deal will close in late 2004.

Cingular expects to generate more than $1 billion in operating expense and capital expenditure savings in 2006 and more than $2 billion in annual savings starting in 2007.

So, your thoughts? I want to read some of yours first, then I'll post mine.

 

I ditched cingular after my year was up because of their crappy GSM coverage. Happy back with Verizon now. Hopefully it will start a price war and lower my bill!

 

VERIZON # 1!!!

 

I have Cingular, love the plans they offer (rollover minutes and nights at 7pm). If all stays the same, Ill be happy.

 

They just want to be as good as Verizon... same as their little affiliates too

Dave

but seriously, it will be very interesting to see if this actually creates a better network or if they continue to run semi-autonomously for the next few years, negating any benefits that might have occured.

 

I have Verizon and I am pleased, however where I live is the country and I never have a signal on most of the roads I travel. I hope this result in better service...and signal.

 

I've got Cingular and always loved their plans the most. However, to me, there is no comparison when it comes to coverage between Cingular and Verizon. I've been telling myself to switch to Verizon for a long time but haven't done so because Cingular works very well at my house and generally I'm just too lazy to deal with things that don't matter to me that much...

I just hope I actually will get a signal soon in VA and WV when heading to Pittsburgh... It always annoyed me that for half of my trip to see the folks, my cell phone was absolutely worthless! I certainly wouldn't want to be broke down in WV! That could be scary!

 

I've never had either of those services. I do know that my Alltel service and plan is awesome though. Does this affect you in anyway at Suncom Airgate?

 

I have been with At&T for a few years and most of the time the coverage has been excellent, but the plans stink. I didn't care since the company paid for it.

I doubt you will see any type of price war between Verizon and Cingular, since they are now on equal footing for coverage. That and you have also eliminated the price war between two of the top three companies. The smaller companies like Nextel, Sprint, et al. will most likely have to come out with better priced plans and features to stay competitive. It will probably come down whether you want good coverage or a cool phone with great customer service. Thats my .02.

 

prices will probably stay the same, or even go up. thats why cingular bought out at&t. why fight with the gas station across the street when you can just buy it and rise prices. but, yah cingular has cool phones but a shiddy plan. i love verizon, but my phone looks like something ponch on CHIPS was using