AT&T Mobility, LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. Formed on October 5, 2000 as Cingular Wireless LLC, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the third largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 109.8 million subscribers as of June 30, 2026.
The company is headquartered in Brookhaven, Georgia. Originally known as Cingular Wireless (a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth) from 2000 to 2007, the company acquired the old AT&T Wireless in 2004; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and adopted its name. Cingular became wholly owned by AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth.
In January 2007, Cingular confirmed it would rebrand itself under the AT&T name. Although the legal corporate name change occurred immediately, for both regulatory and brand-awareness reasons both brands were used in the company's signage and advertising during a transition period."Cingular is now the new AT&T." AT&T press release. January 12, 2007. The transition concluded in late June, just prior to the rollout of the Apple iPhone.
On March 20, 2011, AT&T Mobility announced its intention to acquire T-Mobile US from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion. If it had received government and regulatory approval, AT&T would have had more than 130 million subscribers. However, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and AT&T Mobility's competitors (such as Sprint Corporation) opposed the move on the grounds that it would substantially reduce competition in the cellular network market. In December 2011, in the face of both governmental and widespread consumer opposition, AT&T withdrew its offer to complete the merger.
Services AT&T offers three tiers of its Unlimited Your Way plan, AT&T Unlimited Premium PL, AT&T Unlimited Extra EL, and AT&T Unlimited Starter SL. Customers can also choose from either the AT&T Value Plus VL, or AT&T 4 GB plans. All plans come with unlimited talk and text, with unlimited data on all except the AT&T 4 GB plan. The higher tier plans include premium data that offers superior service, up to the allotted limit on each line during a bill cycle, plus other features like Mobile Hotspot and more. The AT&T Unlimited Premium® PL plan also includes unlimited talk, text, and data in 20 Latin American countries including the Dominican Republic, included at no extra charge. As of January 8, 2016, AT&T no longer offers two-year contracts for subsidized smartphones on consumer accounts. Customers who currently have two-year contracts are grandfathered until they upgrade to a new device, in which case they will have to choose from AT&T's NEXT installment plans for smartphones. Unlimited data plans may be throttled based on the terms of the plan.
AT&T also allows existing customers to stay on legacy right plans; however, reserves the right to terminate or require a plan change per its terms of service.
Within AT&T's 21-state landline footprint, other AT&T services are offered at the AT&T retail stores, including signing up for home phone, internet, and U-verse. AT&T stores outside of its footprint offer wireless services. AT&T also provides free-email services to its customers.
Employees A large number of AT&T Mobility employees are unionized, belonging to the Communications Workers of America. The CWA represented roughly 15,000 of the previous 20,000 formerly AT&T Wireless employees as of early 2006. As of the end of 2009, the CWA website claims that roughly 40,000 workers of AT&T Mobility are represented by the union. Communication Workers of America, AT&T Mobility/Cingular section .
History
Cingular Wireless
Cingular Wireless was a wireless telecommunications company that was founded on October 5, 2000 as a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth. The joint venture created the nation's second-largest carrier. Cingular grew out of a conglomeration of more than 100 companies, including 12 well-known regional companies with Bell roots. The 12 companies included: Three companies spun off from Advanced Mobile Phone Service Ameritech Mobile Communications BellSouth Mobility Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems BellSouth Mobility DCS BellSouth Wireless Data CCPR Services d/b/a Cellular One of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Pacific Bell Wireless Pacific Bell Wireless Northwest SBC Wireless SNET Mobility Southwestern Bell Wireless
SBC Wireless had previously operated in several northeast markets under the "Cellular One" brand, while BellSouth's wireless operations incorporated the former Houston Cellular.
Cingular's lineage can be traced back to Advanced Mobile Phone Service, which was a subsidiary of AT&T created in 1978 to provide cellular service nationwide. AMPS was divided among the Regional Bell Operating Companies as part of the Bell System divestiture.
With the exception of Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS, the digital network consisted of D-AMPS technology. The Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS networks used GSM technology on the PCS frequency band (1900 MHz).
Around 2004, Cingular had a rollover plan in which un-used minutes carry over and are added to the new balance.
In October 2007, AT&T's president and chief executive officer Stan Sigman announced his retirement. Ralph de la Vega, group president-Regional Telecom & Entertainment, was named as president and CEO of AT&T Mobility.
AT&T Wireless merger In February 2004, after a bidding war with Britain's Vodafone Plc (at the time a part-owner of Verizon Wireless), Cingular announced that it would purchase its struggling competitor, AT&T Wireless Services, for $41 billion. This was more than twice the company's trading value.
The merger was completed on October 26, 2004. The combined company had a customer base of 46 million people at the time, making Cingular the largest wireless provider in the United States. AT&T Wireless was then legally renamed New Cingular Wireless Services.Pennsylvania Bulletin Doc. No. 06-1740 Shortly after, new commercials were shown with the "AT&T" transforming into the Cingular logo, and with the Cingular logo's text turned blue to acknowledge the change. Some of the companies that comprised Cingular, such as BellSouth Mobility, ceased to exist when they were legally merged into the operating company subsidiary AT&T Wireless PCS, which was New Cingular Wireless PCS.
First announced on June 22, 2005, Cingular Wireless announced the intention to divest its Caribbean and Bermuda operations and licenses which it acquired from the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, to Irish-owned and Jamaica-based Digicel Group under undisclosed financial terms.
In 2006, one year following the deal, a high-ranking source allegedly close to the sale pointed the Barbados Daily Nation Newspaper towards some SEC filings made by Cingular which were said to establish an idea of the approximate sale price of the deal. According to the SEC filings Cingular was paid around $122 million, with much of that cost going towards the purchase of the former AT&T Wireless assets in Barbados by Digicel.
At the time of the merger, there were two networks: the historic AT&T Blue Network and the Cingular Orange Network. Both networks contained a mix of both TDMA and GSM facilities. Approximately 50,000 cell sites had to be melded together. From a technical standpoint, the "blue" and "orange" networks were considered different networks until integration was completed in 2005. Enhanced Network Selection (ENS) was used to home cellular devices on either the "blue" or "orange" network during this process.
The New AT&T
On November 21, 2005, Ed Whitacre, then CEO of the newly merged SBC/AT&T, announced plans to market Cingular's service under the AT&T brand. BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher countered that the terms of the joint venture allow either party to sell the service under another name, and that he believes they will be using the brand to market to business customers. Cingular president Stan Sigman concurred with BellSouth's position, indicating that the Cingular brand would continue but be sold under the AT&T brand where offered in packages with other AT&T services, such as data and wireline telephony.
However, AT&T announced on March 5, 2006, that AT&T would merge with BellSouth. The acquisition was finalized on December 29, 2006, when the FCC gave its final approval. The following month, AT&T announced that it would phase out the Cingular brand across all of its services and replace it with AT&T, with an accompanying advertising campaign branding the combined company as "The New AT&T." Commercials featured the orange Cingular "Jack" logo encircling the AT&T globe logo several times, dragging its blue bars behind it to form the globe's blue stripes, before finally disappearing behind it, being backed by the chorus of the Oasis song "All Around the World". AT&T added the color orange to its signage to reflect the change; AT&T would eventually remove orange in 2015 following another rebranding related to its acquisition of DirecTV.
In November 2007, AT&T merged with Dobson Communications, who owned Cellular One and was a roaming partner of AT&T, for $2.8 billion. The sale added 1.7 million subscribers and expanded AT&T coverage in various suburban and rural markets (including Alaska). On November 7, 2008, AT&T announced its intent to acquire Centennial Wireless for $944 million, expanding its coverage in the Midwest, southern U.S., and Puerto Rico.
Failed acquisition of T-Mobile USA
On March 20, 2011, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom announced that AT&T had agreed to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a deal estimated to be worth $39 billion in cash and stock. AT&T said the deal was expected to close in 12 months and was subject to regulatory approval. As of June 2011, it was being examined by the FCC. On August 31, 2011, the United States Department of Justice formally announced that it had filed a lawsuit to block the merger. On November 22, 2011, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recommended sending AT&T's proposed T-Mobile acquisition to an administrative law judge for review and a hearing. On November 23, 2011, AT&T withdrew its application with the FCC regarding the acquisition of T-Mobile USA. They also indicated that they would recognize a $4 billion accounting charge in the event of a deal collapse. That charge covers a $3 billion cash breakup fee and $1 billion as the market value for the spectrum they were required to transfer to T-Mobile if the deal failed to complete.
2012–present On August 2, 2012, AT&T announced its intent to acquire NextWave Wireless. On January 22, 2013, AT&T announced its intent to acquire the U.S. retail wireless operations of Atlantic Tele-Network, doing business as Alltel, for $780 million. On June 24, 2014, Plateau Wireless announced the sale of assets and operations in eastern New Mexico and west Texas to AT&T, including wireless spectrum and 40,000 customers.
In November 2014 and January 2015, AT&T acquired the Mexican wireless carriers Iusacell and Nextel Mexico to form AT&T Mexico.
On October 9, 2019, Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico's parent company (Liberty Latin America), announced the acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in a $1.95 billion deal. The sale was completed on November 2, 2020. In May 2021, the company began promoting AT&T and Liberty as a unified brand. In September 2021, Liberty began phasing out the AT&T brand and introduced a new logo.
On February 22, 2024, a massive outage affected customers nationwide.
Network
GSM facilities