2007 Departures: 'Cingular' dropped as AT&T absorbs company

The ever-changing world of telecommunications claimed another major wireless name in 2007. Cingular Wireless was purchased by AT&T, as part of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth in 2006. The Cingular brand was officially wiped off the face of the earth in 2007 and replaced with the AT&T name.

The beginnings of Cingular can be traced all the way back to 1978, when AT&T created Advanced Mobile Phone Service to offer the services we know as today's modern cellular services. That company was eventually broken into seven pieces, and three of those seven came back together to form what became Cingular.

Cingular Wireless was known for referring to itself as the carrier with the "fewest dropped calls." But, coincidentally enough, all wireless companies seem to refer to themselves as the best. Verizon has called itself "America's Most Reliable Network," and Sprint Nextel says that "no one has a more powerful network."

So no more of the "raising the bar" tagline from Cingular, although AT&T did continue to use some of the taglines and images from Cingular during their transition period in 2007. The transitional ads included the Cingular logo with reference to "the new AT&T."

This post was written as part of a series on on 2007 departures. Read about more products, companies and people you won't see in 2008.