AT&T Wireless
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AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. was, before October 26, 2004, the third-largest wireless telephone carrier in the United States, based in Redmond, Washington, and trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol, AWE. Formerly part of AT&T Corp., as of January 1, 2004, the largest single shareholder of AT&T Wireless was Japan's NTT DoCoMo.
On October 26, 2004, AT&T Wireless completed a merger with Cingular to become the largest wireless carrier in the United States. Under the agreement, only the Cingular brand would survive. On November 16, 2004, every single AT&T Wireless store was rechristened under the Cingular banner, and the AT&T Wireless brand faded into history.
Acquisition history
On February 13, 2004, AT&T Wireless accepted bids for acquisition of the wireless company, with European carrier Vodafone (49% owners of Verizon Wireless) and American competitor Cingular as the top two bidders. Cingular emerged victorious February 17 by agreeing to pay more than $41 billion to acquire AT&T Wireless. The sale received US government approval and closed on October 26, creating the nation's largest wireless carrier. The AT&T Wireless brand is scheduled to be retired by Cingular six months after the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, though it may be brought back in the future as another wireless carrier by AT&T Corporation, perhaps as AT&T Mobile. Though it is doubtful due to the pending acquisition of AT&T Corporation by SBC.
AT&T Wireless was division of AT&T Corporation until July 9, 2001. Once being launched as a separate wireless carrier, AT&T created its national footprint by buying a number of wireless carriers. The largest, and probably the best known of these, was McCaw Cellular.
International outsourcing in AT&T Wireless
AT&T Wireless had multiple internationally outsourced customer service call centers; one in India (Mumbai), some in Canada (Halifax, Red Deer, Victoria, Welland) and one in Monterrey, Nuevo León (Mexico)
External link
- Official company web site (http://www.attwireless.com/)pt:AT&T Wireless