cingular

1 - A mobile phone operator in the United States of America. Currently for voice operates GSM 850 and 1900 service, with a larger 850 footprint. Cingular also offers D-AMPS TDMA and AMPS analogue capability, although thse networks will be turned off in 2008. 3g UMTS, for example is the next evolution of their network - relying on W-CDMA in conjunction with the GSM associations specifications on the UMTS standard. The company aquired AT&T Wirelss in 2004, thus posessing a substantially larger tower-base than they had previously. Cingiuar Wireless has roaming aggreements with T-Mobile, but only for T-Mobile customers to access the Cingular network. Currently, Cingular wireless seem to be a "love it or hate it" mobile operator: Many blindly love it, many blindly hate it because they aren't willing to spend more than five minutes to solve a problem, or are in an area with poor coverage to begin with. And wonder why their mobiles do not work well. Like its competitors, Cingular is consistently slandered by users who expect a mobile phone to be 100% crystal-clear at all times, with no dropped calls, no digital garble, and the realiability of a land line mobile. Yet, with over 50 million subscribers, it seems to maintain the largest footprint in the US.