Cingular

AT&T has announced a new calling plan called the Unity plan just in time for the iPhone. With this new plan, any AT&T customer including iPhone users can talk for free with any other AT&T or Cingular user. As reported byWebMobileNews:

Fellow AT&T representative Michael Coe explained, however, that the timing of the Unity plan was established with the iPhone in mind and should become an option close to the phone’s late June launch

Given the fact that AT&T has exclusivity to sell the iPhone means signing up for the Unity plan from AT&T guarantees free calls to any iPhone in the country.

Seems like the love between Apple and AT&T is a pretty strong one, according to Engadget.

Apparently the contract is one that will last for five years, which means those of you on other networks who are hoping the iPhone arrives there will be waiting an awfully long time. That contract also apparently mentions that Apple are unable to develop a CDMA handset in that time.

Now if they would just give us a release date!

We knew it was coming. It has been plastered across every Cingular commercial and billboard since last year: “Cingular is now the new AT&T.”

Well, according to The Looney Apple Blog, yesterday marked the start of the final rebranding phase from CIngular to AT&T.

On Monday, AT&T entered the final phase of one of the biggest rebranding campaigns in marketing history as it officially changed the name of its chain of retail stores to AT&T from Cingular. […] Our branding campaign is performing above projected levels, we are ahead of schedule and customer response has been very positive,” said Randall Stephenson, chief operating officer of AT&T.

All this hooplah and name changes come right before the launch of the iPhone. There is nothing like launching a new brand with a breakthrough product. No word yet whether the iPhone will come preloaded with the AT&T theme song, Oasis’,” All Around the World.”

[Via TLAB]

The keymaster has spoken, and it wasn’t “During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor!” No, this time the keymaster is AT&T, the exclusive U.S. provider of the iPhone and they said this week that they will not accept any presales of the iPhone.

In a sales brief to its retail stores, it was made very clear to all branches that no wait lists and no presales will be allowed. Consider me bummed. At&T and Apple, by accepting presales could get a great idea of what the demand is for the new device but instead they will just need to take their best guess and see if it’s enough at launch.

Additionally, the memo read, “If asked what the price will be, answer that the prices have been announced as $499 for the 4G and $599 for the 8G, respectively.” Apple Insider has the full memo here.

[Via AppleInsider]

Puerto Ricans might be American citizens. They may be able to serve in the armed forces and they may be able to pay with the Benjamins. But they can’t get the iPhone.

At least that is what one can determine for themselves when they view Cingular’s Puerto Rican website. The main Cingular website has a prominently displayed iPhone teaser page front and center. But the Puerto Rican one carries no such mention.

So I decided to try and verify this assumption. When calling the main customer service number: 1-888-333-6651, I was met with 3 rounds of voicemail prompts before being put on hold for longer than I could handle.

So I decided to call the “Customers with international service questions” number: 1-800-335-4685. After 20 minutes on hold I finally spoke to a customer service rep who told me that right now, Puerto Rican customers will not be able to purchase the iPhone in Puerto Rico. They can, however, get the iPhone in the continental U.S. and use it in Puerto Rico taking advantage of the “100… more...

Radio Shack is not quite the electronics powerhouse it once was. Actually, Radio Shack never really was a powerhouse but it used to be a heck of a lot better than it is now. Even as recently as those days when Howie Long and Vanessa Williams were hawking remote control Hummers, Radio Shack was healthy and selling more than just batteries and power adaptors.

Heck, I bet it was the Tashii Station Radio Shack branch that sold those power converters Luke was so hot on.

But then the decline in sales happened to the shack. Many analysts credit the switch that Radio Shack made from Verizon Wireless to Cingular as being a key to the start of the decline in 2005.

According to an article on Forbes.com

Same-store sales dropped 9.2% from the same quarter a year ago, as ongoing weakness in wireless services dating to a 15-month old struggle in a transition to Cingular from Verizon led to a 25% decline in sales of wireless handsets.

Stacey Widlitz, a retail analyst at Pali Research, calls RadioShack’s vital wireless business… more...

The fact that Apple Stores will be selling the iPhone and no iPhone will be sold without a 2-year agreement with Cingular leads me to assume that Apple Store employees will now have to learn how to set up Cingular phone plans and activate phones.

Is that just an extra training session for Apple employees the day before the iPhone launch? Probably not. Consider this:

Thousands of Cingular and former AT&T sales representatives and support staff went through 2.2 million hours of sales associate training, either in instructor-led classes or through more than 20 Web-based courses, to learn about Cingular’s rate plans, services and procedures.

This, according to Wireless Week, happened after the Cingular/AT&T transition was announced. All of that training for employees who were already in the cell phone industry. Now imagine what it will take to train Apple store employees who are notoriously snobby know-it-alls.

We know that Apple is hiring support techs for the iPhone but how knowledgable will they be to the standard practices required to set up Cingular contracts?

Training will be unavoidable… more...

There is a rumor going around that a Cingular store in Texas has begun taking reservations for the iPhone. I am not sure whether this has any thread of validity to it, but it certainly is worth feeling a little tingle in your heart because it means the iPhone is almost here!

So I decided to call my local Cingular store in Walpole, Massachusetts and ask whether they are taking preorders for the iPhone. They replied with a simple, yet courteous, “You wish, buddy.” Not quite sure what that means, “You wish”? But I gathered from that incredibly helpful response that it means, NO.

So then I decided to call another Cingular store in downtown Boston. This inquiry was met with a slightly more engaging, “I don’t know” to which I replied, “You don’t know if you are taking iPhone pre-orders?”. This was greeted with a “No. Not yet.” I wanted to ask, “No meaning you don’t know or no meaning no?” but I figured this would confuse them more than it confused me thinking it up.

So there you have it folks, maybe preorders in Texas and definitely not in Boston.

… more...

The iPhone (when it finally launches) will no doubt be a highly coveted gadget. Surely, everyone will want to hold one and test out all it’s fancy features. So what happens if you get your iPhone stolen? Should you be the victom of iPhone theft, whatever you do, make sure you call Cingular right away.

Apparently, a poor woman from San Francisco, named Wendy Nguyen, got her phone unknowingly stolen before she left for an overseas trip and by the time she got back, the thief had charged $26,000 on her Cingular bill. Cingular, being the understanding company that they are, demanded she pay every dime holding her responsible for every charge up to when she reported it stolen.

Even after she presented records proving she didn’t make the calls, Cingular held her responsible and even suggested she file for bankruptcy. So when you get your iPhone, put Lojak or something on it.

[Via Yahoo]

Another consumer cell phone survey and yet another vote of confidence for the office marked, “iPhone Team” in Cupertino. In a new study by ChangeWave, “9 percent of respondents are “very” or “somewhat likely” to buy the iPhone in June while another 7 percent are likely to buy the iPhone as a gift.”

And if the iPhone gets discounted (as rumored) to under $300, an aditional 10% of respondents have said they will jump on the iPhone bandwagon as well.

If all of this true, service providers like Verizon Wireless could get burned as existing customers migrate to Cingular. But on the other end of the losing stick will be manufacturers like Motorola, who in this study, is predicted to lose up to 17% of its marketshare.

[Via Mad 4 Mobile Phones]