Former AT&T Wireless customers who filed a class action lawsuit for being mistreated when the company was bought by Cingular, now owned by AT&T, have been approved to go ahead with the suit. The customers are seeking payment for extra charges plus damages. The subscribers in question claim that their service quality decreased and that they were forced to buy new phones when Cingular took over the old AT&T Wireless network. AT&T fought the suit, and tried to deflect customers to arbitration. The court ruled that it would be too expensive for individual customers to pursue that course.

Here, it should be noted that AT&T Wireless and AT&T are not the same company, in spite of the common aspects of their names. AT&T Wireless was a separate cell phone carrier that was purchased by Cingular. At that time, Cingular had a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth. Later SBC acquired the original AT&T and assumed its name, further going on to acquire BellSouth and thereby gaining full ownership of Cingular, which was re-branded as AT&T Mobility. AT&T Mobility is the AT&T that we refer to most of the time.

Source: MobileBurn

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