Now that AT&T has received the FCC’s approval for the union of BellSouth (formerly SBC), the new combined company is ready to begin the transformation. Part of the effort will involve transitioning the Cingular Wireless brand to AT&T. The company will begin the rebranding process in early 2007, no word yet if the official name will be AT&T Wireless. The new AT&T is expected to release enhanced bundle packages to include wireless, wireline voice and internet services.

Cingular Wireless and NBC Universal announced the launch of Saturday Night Live (SNL) Mobile for Cingular subscribers, making the first time SNL content has been made available on mobile phones.

Cingular Video subscribers can enjoy exclusive mobile access to Saturday Night Live content, including video clips from classic and current episodes, as well as original material produced especially for the mobile screen. Cingular customers can also purchase and download a diverse collection of SNL- themed ringtones and graphics — both from current and classic seasons.

SNL Mobile is available exclusively to subscribers of Cingular’s 3G networks and Cingular Video services.

Cingular Wireless and MySpace.com announced today an exclusive partnership to offer enhanced MySpace functionality to all Cingular subscribers via their mobile phones.

Not only are we excited about the ability for customers to stay connected to their MySpace community while they’re on the go, we think this will open up a new world of interaction and content for them to share via MySpace. The photo upload feature of MySpace Mobile means Cingular customers will now have the ability to capture, record and share their world as it happens via their MySpace profile, creating a more enriching experience for our customers as well as their MySpace friends.

MySpace Mobile for Cingular features include:

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Sprint today announced the launch of Sprint Wireless Integration, a product that extends customers’ premises-based PBX features and functionality to their mobile phones.

Sprint Wireless Integration features include providing users with one phone number that simultaneously rings the desk and mobile phone, along with one converged enterprise voicemail service.

Additional features include:

• Abbreviated (e.g., four-digit) intra-company dialing from the mobile phone
• Class-of-service extended to mobile calls for better control
• Mobile call tracking/logging by the telecom manager using the PBX
• One voicemail inbox using the enterprise voicemail platform
• One phone number with simultaneous ring to both the desk phone and mobile phone (using the existing desk phone number)

Built within Sprint’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture, Sprint Wireless Integration is the industry’s first “hosted mobility” solution. Sprint Wireless Integration is currently available to businesses with Avaya Communication Manager enterprise telephony PBX. Sprint will be announcing support for similar solutions with other major PBX providers in early 2007.

Cingular Wireless has released a new messaging feature in time for the holiday season. My Veepers, powered by Pulse Mobile, offers Cingular subscribers the ability to send and receive custom video messages. Customers can simply go to Cingular.myveepers.com, then either select an image or upload an image of their own. From there you can add custom text to the message and the My Veepers system will add animation to the image to match the text you had entered.

The Boy Genius has powerpoint slides available explaining some more details.

Sprint announced today that it has upgraded the Sprint Power Vision Network with the even faster EV-DO Revision A in ten new markets. Sprint now offers Revision A technology in 20 major metropolitan markets across the country. With the latest upgrades Sprint subscribers in eligible markets should experience significantly faster average upload speeds of 300-400 kbps (compared with 50-70 kbps of current EV-DO networks). While download speeds will not increase by much, subscribers should now see download rates of 450-800 kbps from 400-700 kbps.

Customers value mobility and they value speed, and Sprint’s upgraded Power Vision Network is unmatched in delivering both. We offer the largest coverage area and the fastest data speeds, so our customers have the power to send and receive information at DSL-like speeds without being tethered to their desks or stuck inside their homes or offices.

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