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.

[5] 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.

[7] 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.

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.

The Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS networks used GSM technology on the PCS frequency band (1900 MHz).

Ralph de la Vega, group president-Regional Telecom & Entertainment, was named as president and CEO of AT&T Mobility.

The combined company had a customer base of 46 million people at the time, making Cingular the largest wireless provider in the United States.

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.

[27] 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.

[30] 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.

In California, Nevada, Northern New Jersey and New York City, Cingular and T-Mobile USA maintained and shared a GSM-1900 network prior to the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, through a joint venture known as GSM Facilities.

As a result of its formation through mergers and acquisitions, as well as the rapid technological change in the wireless industry, AT&T operates the second-largest digital voice and data network within its United States footprint.

AT&T's LTE rollout was noticeably slower than that of its competitor, Verizon Wireless, with the company stating that its then-proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA would be necessary.

In turn, Cingular began aggressively advertising the "Allover Network", citing Telephia as "the leading independent research company."

Telephia, which tests wireless networks by making over 6 million calls per year in what it claims is the world's largest wireless network test program, initially refused to provide details on its study, and a spokesman for the company has said, according to the Boston Globe, that "Cingular shouldn't have even mentioned the company's name to a reporter.

[75] On February 18, 2010, AT&T announced that on March 7, 2010 it would introduce its first smart phone based on Google's Android operating system,[76] the Motorola Backflip.

Three new 4G Android devices were announced for release within the first and second quarter of the fiscal year 2011, including the Motorola Atrix 4G, the HTC Inspire 4G, and the Samsung Infuse 4G.

[84] In a BBDO campaign for 4G and 4G LTE started in November 2012, Beck Bennett interviewed children in commercials directed by Jorma Taccone, with the slogan "It's not complicated."

[88] AT&T reintroduced unlimited plans in 2016; on launch, users were required to subscribe to an AT&T-owned pay television service (DirecTV or U-verse) in order to be eligible.

The service allows AT&T postpaid wireless customers to use one telephone number to send and receive calls and text messages across all of their supported devices.

[112] AT&T once again faced allegations that the branding was misleading, because it is merely a rebranding of existing 4G networks in order to ride upon consumer anticipation of actual 5G technology.

T-Mobile mocked the branding via a video on Twitter, showing a person applying a sticky note reading "9G" over the LTE indicator on an iPhone, captioned "didn't realize it was this easy, brb updating".

[117] In February 2019, Sprint Corporation sued AT&T Mobility for false advertising, presenting evidence that consumers were being misled into believing these services were of equal or higher performance than actual 5G networks.

[112] Cingular Wireless began its sponsorship of the #31 Chevrolet, owned by Richard Childress Racing, in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in 2002.

Two years later, when Nextel Communications (now Sprint Corporation) purchased the naming rights to NASCAR's top division (rebranding the division as the Nextel Cup, and later the Sprint Cup), Cingular and Alltel, sponsor of the #12 Dodge (owned by Penske Racing and driven by Ryan Newman), were allowed to stay as sponsors under a grandfather clause.

NASCAR quickly claimed that a clause in their contract with Sprint Nextel (the Viceroy rule) would not allow Cingular to change either the name or brand advertised on the #31 car.

[122] On August 13, a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit cleared the way for NASCAR to prevent AT&T from featuring its logo on the car.

The pit crew wore grey Richard Childress Racing shirts and Burton had a plain orange fire suit with associate sponsors.

[124] During that weekend, AT&T claimed that two alternate paint schemes proposed by AT&T — one advertising its "go phone" and another with the old Cingular slogan "more bars in more places" that AT&T recently brought back — were rejected by NASCAR.

[131] In November 2019, AT&T agreed to pay $60 million to settle the suit, which must be distributed as a "partial refund" to customers who signed up for the affected plans prior to 2011.