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Possible AT&T and BellSouth Merger in the Future

If approved, the acquisition of BellSouth would give AT&T full control of the nation’s largest mobile phone company Cingular Wireless. AT&T and BellSouth are the parent companies of Cingular Wireless.

AT&T Inc. Chairman announced March 5 its agreement to buy BellSouth Corp for “about $67 billion in stock,” washingtonpost.com reported March 7.

Sting Appiah, a senior print journalism major at Howard University, hopes the merger would bring back the quality of service he experienced with AT&T wireless before Cingular acquired them in 2004.

“AT&T wireless service was the best. [They had] great reception [and] great customer service. Everything was wonderful,” said Appiah, who is now with T-Mobile. “I expect the quality of services, both in phones and in customer satisfaction, to rise again.”

Ebony Meeks, senior public relations major also at Howard, has been a Cingular Wireless subscriber for almost two years. She complained about the dropped calls and technical difficulties the company experienced, which caused her account to be suspended.

Meeks is optimistic that all of this would be fixed when AT&T gains full control of Cingular.

The merger, which aims to strengthen AT&T for its decade-long battle with Verizon, would give AT&T-BellSouth local-phone service in 22 states in the South, Midwest and West, washingtonpost.com reported.

“Hopefully, because AT&T [will have an] increase in revenue and access to more technology they will be able to upgrade [to eliminate past technical difficulties],” Meeks said.

As a result of the acquisition, according to TMCnet’s March 6 report, “Cingular and BellSouth’s names will be absorbed into AT&T Inc.”