Cingular Changing Back to AT&T

When I bought my first cellphone back in 1999 I bought it from AT&T. Then AT&T was absorbed by Cingular, which operated both services for awhile, but when I upgraded my phones last year I had to change over to Cingular products and buy all new phones. Now, Cingular is changing back to AT&T:

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- AT&T Inc. will begin next week to extinguish the brand of cellphone operator Cingular, built up with billions of dollars over a few years, to imprint its more-than-century-old name firmly across its services.

AT&T (Charts), which took full control of No. 1 U.S. mobile carrier Cingular with its $86 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp. last month, will launch a campaign Monday to mark the change.

"We did not enter that decision lightly," Wendy Clark, vice president of advertising at AT&T, said in an interview. "We came to understand that consumer customers and business customers alike are looking for a single provider. We heard it so consistently across the marketplace."

In its first stage, Cingular will share its orange logo of a bouncing jack with the AT&T globe logo on everything from television ads to sales uniforms and monthly bills.

AT&T's name and logo will eventually replace Cingular in a process expected to take several months, with the exact timing determined as more customer feedback comes in, Clark said.

But with its long and complicated history, AT&T may face customer confusion over its name, marketing experts said. Also, Cingular built up a reputation among younger customers who may not easily associate with the AT&T brand.

I think they're making a marketing mistake. Cingular sounds cool while AT&T sounds like an old staid rotary dial telephone company. The may regret changing the Cingular brand.

Also, as a NASCAR fan, Cingular sponsors Jeff Burton's #31 Chevy for Richard Childress Racing. The Cingular brand is apparently going to go away before the end of the 2007 season which could create some headaches for Childress, especially since his agreement with the sponsoring organization does not allow a name change:

With the Bell South-AT&T merger approved Dec. 29, AT&T has announced that it is phasing out the Cingular name and replacing it with AT&T. That's a problem for RCR's No. 31 team because it cannot change the name on the hood of the car.

When Nextel became NASCAR's top series sponsor in 2004, the sponsorship agreement grandfathered in existing team-sponsor telecommunications relationships, but it does not permit any changes.

Sprint Nextel's Dean Kessel confirmed that remains the group's position Jan. 3.

"Nothing has changed as far as that goes," said Kessel, who directs the Nextel Cup sponsorship. "As long as that car stays the way it is, there is not an issue to talk about. If they're considering a change, then there are things to talk about. Our agreement ... is it has got to remain the way it is now. Once it changes, that changes the game."

NEXTEL has to be loving this. They've never been happy about sponsoring the Cup series and having cars sponsored by rivals Cingular and Alltel running in the races. They'd loving nothing better than to see the rival brands out of there.

If they are able to negotiate some type of change, this will still create many problems for Childress since new paint/decal schemes will be needed, along with driver and crew uniforms plus all the fan paraphernalia that has the likeness of the car or sponsor information on it.