Ok, so let me see if I got all this down. I had AT&T Worldnet for an Internet service provider, Southwestern Bell telephone after AT&T broke up (although I kept AT&T Long Distance to use on my Southwestern Bell Telephone), and Cingular Wireless. Then I switched to SWBell DSL internet and my wife had AT&T Wireless when Southwestern Bell changed their name to SBC Communications and struck that deal with Yahoo so my internet service provider became SBC/Yahoo. Then Cingular bought out AT&T Wireless so my wife’s phone changed to Cingular, but then SBC bought Cingular. I already had Cingular which still says Cingular even though it’s been SBC for quite some time. I ended up with a combined bill for SBC/Cingular and some place along the way, I can’t remember when, I stopped using AT&T Long Distance and switched to Southwestern Bell. Or maybe I switched to SBC, I can’t remember. But then SBC bought AT&T so even though I thought all my services would soon be SBC they fooled me and decided to became AT&T even though they were really SBC and AT&T didn’t really exist anymore. Then they thought, oops, we own Cingular, too, so they decided that Cingular would become AT&T again (even though it’s really SBC) but to reflect how big the company was they decided to use little letters like “at&t” even though my second grade teacher whapped me with a ruler if I didn’t capitalize proper nouns. So I think I have at&t *whap* AT&T for my internet service provider even though it ends in “@swbell.net” which is goofy because that company hasn’t been around in like forever but if they make me change it it’ll munge up every email newsletter I’m on but “@at&t.com” would be sort of cool with that ampersand for my email address and the bill would come in an envelope that says “at&t” and include my Cingular bill (which is really at&t *whap* wireless now) and my SBC local telephone bill and my SWBell ISP which is really SBC which is really at&t *whap* bill and who knows what the heck happened to Yahoo along the way but they’re still in the picture because that’s where I read my email.
I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on it, don’t you?
Chasing the Wind 
Try that again but as one long sentence and no punctuation marks. 😀
LikeLike
I’m almost there. Just need practice. 😛
LikeLike
Huh. Sounds about right. I might have been lost from the start, but it all sounded good.
LikeLike
Cingular is a joint venture between former SBC (now renmaed AT&T after they bought the landline AT&T) and BelSouth. Cingular last year bought AT&T wireless, but that was seperate from the landlien company SBC bought. So now THE NEW AT&T decided last week to also buy BellSouth telecommunications, so they woudl then own all of cingular and have full control of it. So now Cingular, AT&T’s wireless division can be named AT&T too.!
AT&T is almost everywhere now I guess. just like before 1984. except there is still Verizon and Qwest but thats about it. I use to have AT&T worldnet service, quit that and went to Bellsouth DSL. now Belsouth is merging with the Merged SBC/AT&T. SO Now I am back to AT&T too. it i confusing.!
LikeLike
You sound about as confused as I am. 😛
LikeLike