Cingular's $41 Billion Offer Wins Bid for AT&T Wireless

[Guest nickcornaglia]

Seems like our US AT&T Wireless members will have a new Wireless Provider....Cingular Wireless.

While executives at Vodafone were in bed sleeping across the Atlantic, US Network Cingular Executives sneak in their final bid for a whopping FOURTY ONE BILLION DOLLARS!

Let's hope this doesn't affect our voice/data plan rates to come!

>>> Read Full NYTimes Article HERE <<<

[Guest kyrkesmith]

That should be Vodafone, not Vodaphone ;)

[Guest nickcornaglia]

ooops! :oops:

[Guest svk]

Is this good news for AWS subscribers? What do you think?

[Guest nickcornaglia]

If Cingular keeps all of the towers operational....it should be great news IMO as it would add the 850 band to the network....as long as they dont take away the 1900 band along the way, which is unavailable in some areas under ATT making current smartphones useless bricks in some areas.

New phones would be necessary to accomodate the 850 Network....but that's a good thing! :)

[Guest Skitals]

Now t-mobile needs to buy cingular/attw and we might have a single US GSM carrier with decent covereage. (gsm sucks in my area... ymmv).

[Guest McHale]

If AT&T were buying Cingular, I'd be very worried. But Cingular has done quite well with the GSM upgrade and this should be a plus to both subscribers.

But, unfortunately, Cingular can't keep all the towers. They can only own 850 or 1900 in any given market. Could mean then end of 850 forever (very good possibility) or... Who knows?

I just hope they continue with a MS Smartphone. Cingular hasn't showed interest in them in a *LONG* time...

-Mc

[Guest nickcornaglia]

Has Cingular shown that they may be interested in Smartphones in the past?

Also, is there a FCC rule or something that says they cant own 850 & 1900 towers in any given area? If so, that's going to stink for all of those who require 1900 to use their current smartphones.

[Guest McHale]

Yah, Cingular was slated to be one of the first (or the first) US provider to have the Sendo. Woops...

And yah, the FCC only allows a single spectrum license in any given market. In many, many markets, there is already Cingular and AT&T. One owns 1900 and the other owns 850. I imagine that Cingular could try to sell duplicates or trade them or whatever. But you have to wonder, now that they own 1900 in most markets, is 850 really a concern anymore (other than they spent money to get it up and running)? While 850 actually performs better than 1900, 1900 is universally known as the US standard for GSM (thanks mostly to T-Mobile being the early, early adopter).

I have no problem owning a quad-band phone. But since 850 is only used in the US and if Cingular does away with 850, who cares? That makes current owners of smartphones compatible across the US again.

-Mc