While most iPhone enthusiasts (such as myself) don't really care WHAT network it's on, Cingular does seem to have its detractors in large areas of the country (and supporters in areas where their network works well).

If AT&T is really going to upgrade Cingular's network and completely take over "the iPhone experience," this will probably help take the wind out of those negative sails.

I was one of Cingular's victims, er, former customers. I'm going to wait and see if AT+T does things differently or if it's just slapping a new name and logo on the same old s***.

By the way, does anyone under 40 remember the old AT+T? I have a hard time believing that name has any residual goodwill if you aren't old enough to remember the way things used to be pre-AT+T-monopoly-breakup.

I was one of Cingular's victims, er, former customers. I'm going to wait and see if AT+T does things differently or if it's just slapping a new name and logo on the same old s***.

Umm, all they did was change the name. The network is still the same quality network it always was. They're just saying they're going to label this AT&T to push their new branding name.

As for the old AT&T, I can't believe anyone had any goodwill feeling toward AT&T in the first place. Look at what telecommunications has become since the break-up (and how horrible its getting with the mergers), and everyone should be thinking AT&T was nothing more than a monopolist taking advantage of the American people. Not much goodwill in that statement.

the acquisitions and name changes according to wikipedia:

"Formerly a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth, Cingular Wireless soon acquired the old AT&T Wireless; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and rebranded as "the new AT&T". Cingular became wholly-owned by the new AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cingular

Which is why, if you're somehow expecting better service from 'the new AT&T' then the old Cingular, you're probably going to be waiting a while.

and both SBC and BellSouth [and Verizon for that matter] were ALL ultimately sprung from the original "Ma Bell" aka AT&T_

So if you think about it - all that is happening is that ALL of the "Baby Bells" are re-consilidating themselves_

One problem with why it's taking so long for the name transition from Cingular to AT&T is that the term "Cingular" in the short 6 years it was around - has become one of the single most recognized brands_

Adobe isn't still marketing Dreamweaver as a Macromedia product_

One flaw with the above article [and it's not the writers fault] is that when Apple introduced us to the iPhone they brought up the CEO of Cingular and had said that Apple was partnering with Cingular to release the iPhone in the US_

Wow, this would go great in my MBP, if only I could replace the HD without blasting the warranty. But, who needs disk space when it looks so nice....

Yeah I remember the old days before the breakup of the Bell System. I remember rock-solid telephone service. The only bad thing back then was long-distance calls werre very expensive.