According to this tidbit at Reuters, the question of whether or not AT&T would go ahead with their plans to lease wholesale wireless network capabilities from Sprint may have been impacted by the pending acquisition of the company by SBC. AT&T CEO Dave Dorman indicated in a conference call that AT&T would look to potentially leasing wholesale network capabilities from Cingular. Evidently AT&T’s plan is to go ahead and launch a wireless service this year, which is a smart move on their part.
I’m not sure scrapping the plans to go with Sprint is the best idea, though. First, that would cause some serious delays in the plans to launch the service, and AT&T is already severely handicapped as they stand. Secondly, this is a bit early in an acquisition to start with the “one big happy family” thinking. To expect that relationship to be all flowers, candy and long walks on the beach just because of the pending acquisition by SBC would be naivety on AT&T’s part. There’s still far too much room for self-interest of the parties involved to make the assumptions a switch to Cingular would require of AT&T.
