CINGULAR SUCKS!

Cingular lost $497 million in Q42004. This is primarily due to its acquistion of AT&T Wireless and they have hit higher numbers of new customers than what analysts expected. Both companies suffer from high churn rates, and I hope this continues.

I can't effectively state how much I hate Cingular. I've been a customer since 1998 in the form of Cellular One. After Cingular's acquisition of Cellular One, it was all downhill. Even though I was in Korea for four years up until last May, when I visited the U.S. for a week to month long trips I began to hate their service. Much of my frustration is with their customer service. They have no form of customer service contact or feedback on their website. When I finally get in touch with them to complain, they tell me to fax a general letter to one of their customer service managers without a guarantee that any action would occur. Cingular sucks!

So last year with my fiance, we chose Verizon Wireless which I'm very happy with. Verizon did the little things right in terms of service and accessibility, such as allowing for email complaints on their website. Go Verizon!

Cingular suffers $497M loss in 4Q
Motorola's Razr V3 model attracts customers

January 24, 2005

Cingular Wireless Monday posted a fourth-quarter loss as expenses rose due to its purchase of AT&T Wireless, but it added roughly twice the number of subscribers Wall Street expected.

Cingular, the biggest U.S. mobile provider, posted a loss of $497 million, compared with a profit of $16 million a year earlier. The company closed its acquisition of AT&T Wireless in late October.

It recorded $245 million of merger-related expenses and $1.39 billion worth of depreciation costs also related to the deal, the company said.

Cingular, the mobile venture of SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. said it added 1.8 million customers. This compared with Wall Street targets of about 900,000, according to seven analysts contacted by Reuters.

"We're off to a really good start with our net customer adds," said Chief Financial Officer Peter Ritcher. He said the growth was due to heavy post-merger marketing and the popularity of discount family plans and new phones including the hot-selling Razr V3 model from Motorola Inc.

Cingular surpassed Verizon Wireless as the biggest U.S. mobile operator by buying AT&T Wireless, but analysts have been skeptical about the combination of two companies with high customer turnover rates. (full article)