Archived from groups: alt.cellular.cingular (
More info?)
In <jzwick3-E089D4.11065524012005@news1.west.earthlink.net> on Mon, 24 Jan
2005 17:07:03 GMT, Jack "FUDMEISTER" Zwick <jzwick3@mindspring.com> wrote:
>Didnt Navis say merger would be easy??
Nope, and you know it, since I've pointed out this particular
mischaracterization previously.
<news:8JAEd.1119$m31.13217@typhoon.sonic.net>:
What I actually wrote
<http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=Iutgd.2064%24_3.27393%40typ...>
or <http://tinyurl.com/3mxd3>:
From: John Navas
Newsgroups: alt.cellular.cingular,alt.cellular.attws
Subject: Re: Going from ATTWS to Cingular
Message-ID: <Iutgd.2064$_3.27...@typhoon.sonic.net>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:39:20 GMT
...
The number of users (subscribers) is largely irrelevant -- what matters
is the number (one) and type of (compatible) back office systems. This
integration actually looks to be easier than prior integrations.
Which part of that don't you understand? Shall we start with "This"?
0 for 1
>He was wrong.
Nope. What I predicted has been coming to pass.
<http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=77321>
...
The man largely responsible for melding the two companies’ networks
into the nation’s biggest wireless phone service says it’s going
well, although it will be years before the combination is complete.
Cingular Network Services President Ed Reynolds says he’s glad for
one thing, though: that he isn’t responsible for the industry’s other
mega-deal, last week’s combination of Sprint and Nextel, which he
predicts could be fraught with technological problems.
At a recent wireless industry conference in San Diego, Reynolds sat
down with Cox Newspapers’ Bob Keefe to talk about the Cingular-AT&T
integration. Here’s what he had to say, edited for clarity.
So where does the integration stand?
It’s going remarkably well. We did an awful lot of planning work in
the eight months between announcement and close. The assumptions we
made in our planning have turned out pretty much on target. We
haven’t seen any big uh-ohs.
This has been called the biggest integration of its kind. In what
way?
Just the mass of it. The orange side (Cingular) had about 23,000 cell
sites and the blue side (AT&T) had about 25,000 to 26,000. You’re
talking about 48,000 to 49,000 cell sites we have to meld together.
It’s a huge undertaking.
Obviously a big part of your challenge is making this a seamless
experience for customers from both companies. How are you all trying
to do that?
The way we do that ... happens behind the scenes. We do all the
activation on a single set of billing systems. We use a single set of
support platforms -- voice mail and that sort of stuff.
Right now you all basically address that by allowing customers to
roam between the old AT&T and Cingular systems, making it seem like a
single, cohesive network. But the goal is to have one seamless
network with all the same technology, right? When will that happen?
We’ll probably be halfway through physically integrating the networks
by the end of (2005). We won’t make much progress in the first half,
because a lot of that time (will be spent) planning and getting
equipment out there. We’ll probably move to 80 percent (complete) by
midyear of (2006) and be completely finished by the end of ’06.
Have you lost any customers yet because of the Cingular-AT&T
transition?
We’ve actually gained. I’m not sure I can give any specifics, but
we’ve had several big enterprise (commercial) customer wins just in
the last few weeks. Putting the two companies together gives us the
network clout and the business clout ... that nobody else has.
[MORE]
0 for 2
>Today's news:
>
>Cingular Wireless Loses $497M
>
>http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050124/earns_cingular_7.html
>
>Likely to be worse this quarter as the costs of laying folks off hits
>home.
Cost has nothing to do with "easy".
Regardless, no one but you is surprised by the financials, which were
forecast. <http://www.cingular.com/about/latest_news/04_02_17>
The boards of Cingular and AT&T Wireless have approved the merger
agreement. SBC Communications and BellSouth have committed funding to
Cingular for the all cash deal. Funding requirements for SBC will be
approximately $25 billion and for BellSouth, approximately $16
billion. Cingular expects the combined operations will generate
positive free cash flow in 2005. Both SBC and BellSouth expect to
have some dilution to GAAP and cash earnings per share in 2005 and
2006. Cash earnings per share for both SBC and BellSouth are expected
to be accretive in 2007. GAAP earnings per share for BellSouth are
expected to accretive in 2008 and accretive for SBC in 2007.
0 for 3
--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/>
"A little learning is a dangerous thing." [Alexander Pope]
"It is better to sit in silence and appear ignorant,
than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." [Mark Twain]
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