AT&T Inc.'s decision to rebrand wireless carrier Cingular under the AT&T name harkens to a lyric in The Who's classic "Won't Get Fooled Again":
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Although AT&T is claiming to be the "new AT&T" in its advertising, the move to rebrand Cingular starting Monday recalls the same bad decision-making that led AT&T Corp. into the hands of SBC Communications Inc.
The old AT&T was notorious for making bad decisions especially involving wireless technology. As early as 1984, AT&T, which created cellular-phone technology, opted to bundle its wireless licenses to the Baby Bells during the breakup of the old Ma Bell system because management supposedly thought there was a limited market for the nascent service. However, the wireless business helped the Baby Bells grow as demand for the old parent's long-distance service stagnated. Consequently, 10 years later, AT&T paid $13 billion to get back into the wireless market by acquiring McCaw Wireless, which was renamed AT&T Wireless, only to spin off the business in 2001 as part of a restructuring after a failed attempt to expand its consumer business through wireless and cable TV. The post-2001 AT&T stumbled along until SBC bought it in 2005.
Cingular, which had been the creation of the new AT&T's predecessors SBC and BellSouth Corp., spent billions to create a brand name. Now, all the good will Cingular has created will be thrown away in favor of the consistency of the AT&T brand. However, many consumers associate the old AT&T Wireless brand with problematic coverage and bad customer service. Therefore, the rebranding decision smacks of the same troubled logic the old AT&T Corp. employed.
Although the new AT&T Inc. may be under new management, they definitely are starting to look a lot like the old boss. —Matthew Wurtzel
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See AT&T-SBC Postmortem from The Deal
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