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AT&T Brand Confusion

Once upon a time, there were five separate telecommunications companies:
  1. AT&T
  2. AT&T Wireless
  3. Cingular
  4. SBC
  5. Bell South
Over a year ago, Cingular merged with AT&T Wireless and proceeded to phase out the "AT&T Wireless" name. Then, SBC acquired AT&T and adopted the "AT&T" company name. Now, if all goes as planned, AT&T is buying Bell South.

Confused yet? Read on. The plan is for AT&T (formerly SBC), which will also gain controlling interest in Cingular, to drop the Cingular brand name and revive it as AT&T Wireless. Sorting through this circuitous mess, we will end up with the following brands:
  1. AT&T
  2. AT&T Wireless

I suppose that the simplicity is good from a branding perspective, but does "AT&T" have any coherent meaning anymore?

Comments

Michael said…
All I know is that next time I need to send a telegraph, AT&T is my man.

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