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Cingular, AT&T Wireless Customers Unlikely to See Service Changes for Year

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 February 2004, 06:00 CST

Feb. 18--Customers of Cingular Wireless LLC and AT&T Wireless shouldn't expect to see any major changes in technology or customer service from the combined company for about a year, telecommunications analysts say.

In fact, the consumer might fall to the wayside at first as officials wrangle with combining cultures, management styles and employees for the next 18 to 24 months.

"Although customer expectations are heightened, and they expect that a merger of assets would make the service stronger, companies tend to go inward and sort out different organizational structures," said Brad Linville, a group vice president with Walker Information, a customer-loyalty research company based in Indianapolis.

Cingular, a joint venture between Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS, $29.06) and San Antonio-based SBC Communications Corp. (NYSE: SBA, $24.87), won the battle to buy struggling AT&T Wireless late Monday, saying it would buy the Redmond, Wash.-based company for nearly $41 billion.

Shares of AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE) rose $1.96 to close at $13.78.

The combined company, which would use the Cingular name, would be the nation's largest wireless carrier with 46 million customers. In a conference call Tuesday morning, executives from both companies touted customers' ability to have increased calling areas, better technology and improved services.

"By combining the strengths of these two companies, we expect to accelerate the availability of advanced wireless service for consumers," said Stan Sigman, president and chief executive of Cingular, which has 2,000 employees in Florida and 180 retail, agent stores and kiosks in South Florida.

Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst in Marietta, Ga., said a lot of consumer gripes -- including lost calls, poor calls, or having features such as voice mail or data applications not work in every city -- will go away. The combined company also will pare down its employees and stores, allowing it to reduce expenses and invest more in research and development, he said.

The deal also gives Cingular a chance to compete nationwide by offering local, long-distance and wireless Internet service to homes outside of BellSouth's and SBC's territory, Kagan said.

"There's lots of potential for mixing these services," he said.

AT&T Wireless, which has 500 employees and 29 retail stores in South Florida, had talked of cutting 1,900 jobs from its 31,000-strong workforce by the end of 2005. Neither company would comment on layoffs or closing of stores.

"For employees who are a part of the combined company, this means more opportunities than they otherwise would have had with AT&T Wireless as a standalone company," said John Zeglis, the company's chairman and chief executive, who will not remain with the new Cingular.

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(c) 2004, The Palm Beach Post, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

BLS, SBC, AWE,

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