Cingular was formed in the year 2001 as having a a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth .The joint venture was created the nation's second largest carrier.
Cingular grew out of 11 regional companies. These companies include BellSouth Mobility, BellSouth Mobility DCS, Cellular One, Houston Cellular, BellSouth Wireless Data, Southwestern Bell Wireless, Pacific Bell Wireless, Nevada Bell Wireless, Ameritech Cellular, SNET and SBC Wireless.
The merger was completed on October 16, 2004. They combined company had a customer base of 46 million people which placed Cingular and has a largest wireless provider in the United States. Cingular has intoduced a high-speed network. it is known as BroadbandConnect, based on UMTS and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access , to counter Verizon Wireless and Sprint's EV-DO networks. UMTS service was launched on December 6, 2005 in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, San Jose, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and Washington D.C. Cingular is expected to launch UMTS in all major metropolitan markets by the end of 2006.
GSM Facilities
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.
