AT&T Mobility
AT&T Mobility, LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the second largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 114.5 million subscribers as of March 31, 2024.[3]
"AT&T Wireless" redirects here. For the now-defunct wireless company that merged with Cingular in 2004, see AT&T Wireless Services. For other uses, see AT&T (disambiguation).Formerly
Cingular Wireless, LLC (2000-2006)
April 2000 (as Cingular Wireless)
December 29, 2006 (as AT&T Mobility)
5,000 retail stores; 2,300 owned
1,500 authorized
1,950 Prime Communications[1]
United States
FirstNet Only Puerto Rico & U.S. Virgin Islands
David Christopher (President)[2]
75,000 (2015)
The company is headquartered in Brookhaven, Georgia. Originally known as Cingular Wireless (a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth) from 2000 to 2007, the company acquired the old AT&T Wireless in 2004; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and adopted its name. Cingular became wholly owned by AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth.
In January 2007, Cingular confirmed it would rebrand itself under the AT&T name. Although the legal corporate name change occurred immediately, for both regulatory and brand-awareness reasons both brands were used in the company's signage and advertising during a transition period.[4] The transition concluded in late June, just prior to the rollout of the Apple iPhone.
On March 20, 2011, AT&T Mobility announced its intention to acquire T-Mobile US from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion. If it had received government and regulatory approval, AT&T would have had more than 130 million subscribers.[5] However, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and AT&T Mobility's competitors (such as Sprint Corporation) opposed the move on the grounds that it would substantially reduce competition in the cellular network market. In December 2011, in the face of both governmental and widespread consumer opposition, AT&T withdrew its offer to complete the merger.[6]
Services[edit]
AT&T currently offers 3 tiers of its Unlimited Your Way plan, AT&T Unlimited Premium® PL, AT&T Unlimited Extra® EL, or AT&T Unlimited Starter® SL. Customers can also choose either the AT&T Value Plus VL or AT&T 4 GB plans. All plans come with unlimited talk and text, with unlimited data on all except the AT&T 4 GB plan.[7] The higher tier plans include premium data that offers superior service, up to the allotted limit on each line during a bill cycle, plus other features like Mobile Hotspot and more.[8]The AT&T Unlimited Premium® PL plan also includes unlimited talk, text, and data in 20 Latin American countries including the Dominican Republic, included at no extra charge.[9] As of January 8, 2016, AT&T no longer offers two-year contracts for subsidized smartphones on consumer accounts. Customers who currently have two-year contracts are grandfathered until they upgrade to a new device, in which case they will have to choose from AT&T's NEXT installment plans for smartphones.[10] Unlimited data plans may be throttled based on the terms of the plan.[11]
AT&T also allows existing customers to stay on legacy right plans; however, reserves the right to terminate or require a plan change per its terms of service.[12]
Within AT&T's 21-state landline footprint, other AT&T services are offered at the AT&T retail stores, including signing up for home phone, internet, and U-verse. AT&T stores outside of its footprint offer wireless services. All AT&T company-owned stores nationwide sell DirecTV.
Employees[edit]
A large number of AT&T Mobility employees are unionized, belonging to the Communications Workers of America. The CWA represented roughly 15,000 of the previous 20,000 formerly AT&T Wireless employees as of early 2006.[13] As of the end of 2009, the CWA website claims that roughly 40,000 workers of AT&T Mobility are represented by the union.[14]
Marketing[edit]
"Fewest dropped calls"[edit]
During the first quarter of 2006, Telephia reported that during an extensive nationwide test of major wireless carriers in 350 metropolitan markets around the country, Cingular dropped the fewest calls across the country. In turn, Cingular began aggressively advertising the "Allover Network", citing Telephia as "the leading independent research company." Telephia's report was in stark contrast to the Consumers Union publication, Consumer Reports, based on a survey of 50,000 of its members in 18 cities, which criticized Cingular for static and dropped calls.[65] Furthermore, J.D. Power and Associates consistently ranked Cingular at or near the bottom of every geographical region in its 2006 Wireless Call Quality Study, which is based on a smaller survey of 23,000 wireless users. This campaign had to come to an abrupt end.
Telephia, which tests wireless networks by making over 6 million calls per year in what it claims is the world's largest wireless network test program, initially refused to provide details on its study, and a spokesman for the company has said, according to the Boston Globe, that "Cingular shouldn't have even mentioned the company's name to a reporter."[66] The research company later stated that Cingular did, indeed, have a "statistically significant lower dropped-call rate than the competition across some market/time period groupings", but that Telephia had "no knowledge of the specific methodology (markets, time periods or statistical thresholds) that Cingular used for its 'lowest dropped call' claim."[67] While AT&T has abandoned its verbal claim of "The Fewest Dropped Calls" in its commercials, it continues to show situations where two persons are speaking with each other on their phones, and one of the users' call drops. AT&T now states "We are still continuing to run ads that emphasize the importance of not dropping calls. That campaign is continuing."[68]
iPhone[edit]
On June 29, 2007, Apple's iPhone was introduced to the United States market, and AT&T was the exclusive carrier for the device within the United States until February 10, 2011, when the iPhone 4 was launched on the Verizon network.
Teething problems with AT&T's billing process emerged soon after the iPhone's release, as early adopters started receiving exceptionally detailed monthly telephone bills[69] with one of the most notable being the 300-page iPhone bill that was featured in an online video by YouTube influencer iJustine.[70][71]
Apple launched the iPhone 3G with AT&T on July 11, 2008. Although specific AT&T sales numbers are unavailable, Apple announced that over 1 million iPhone 3G devices were sold during the first three days — in contrast, according to Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, "It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones."[72] In August 2008, Best Buy announced that it would begin selling the iPhone 3G for use on the AT&T network.[73] In September 2008, AT&T announced that it would also sell the iPhone 3G in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.[74]
The iPhone 4 was released on June 24, 2010. According to Apple, over 1.7 million iPhone 4 units were sold in the first few days, which is the most out of any phone ever sold. These sales propelled AT&T to strong Q2 results.
The iPhone 5 was released on September 12, 2012. Apple reported selling 5 million iPhone 5's in the first weekend.[75] AT&T activated 8.5 million iPhones in Q4 of 2012.[76]
Android-based smart phones[edit]
On February 18, 2010, AT&T announced that on March 7, 2010 it would introduce its first smart phone based on Google's Android operating system,[77] the Motorola Backflip.[78][79] On March 22, 2010, AT&T announced that its second Android handset would be the Dell Aero, a revised version of the Dell Mini 3.[80] However, the second Android phone AT&T released was the HTC Aria[81][82][83] which was announced on June 14, 2010 and released on June 20, 2010. The Samsung Captivate, which is part of the Galaxy S family, was released on AT&T's network on July 18, 2010. In addition to devices released on AT&T were a line of handsets manufactured by Motorola. The Motorola Flipout, followed by the Motorola Flipside and the Motorola Bravo all run Android 2.1 and were all released Q4 2010. Three new 4G Android devices were announced for release within the first and second quarter of the fiscal year 2011, including the Motorola Atrix 4G, the HTC Inspire 4G, and the Samsung Infuse 4G. HTC Inspire 4G being the first, preceded by the Motorola Atrix 4G are, available through AT&T's 4G network.[84] These three devices are all running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and are expected to be upgraded to Android 2.3 Gingerbread later in the year, along with an update to "enable" 4G uploads. Unlike other United States networks with Android-based phones, AT&T did not allow non-market apps to be installed. However, on May 16, 2011 AT&T announced that some current and future Android devices will come with an option to allow the installation of unofficial applications.[85]
4G LTE[edit]
In a BBDO campaign for 4G and 4G LTE started in November 2012, Beck Bennett interviewed children in commercials directed by Jorma Taccone, with the slogan "It's not complicated." The children were asked whether fast or slow is better, or whether two is better than one.[86][87][88] Taccone said "The spots are 'guided' improv", meaning the children were allowed to be natural until others had to step in and help.[87]