Honestly, who can keep track of all of the Baby Bells, Ma Bell, the wireless services providers -- wasn't it supposed to be easier after the breakup of AT&T that began in 1974 with the U.S. Department of Justice anti-trust suit against the telephone monopoly. (Thanks Wiki! -- and more on that later.)

Now we have a news report about how AT&T is going to "de-brand" the Cingular name after its receent purchase of the company and turn it into AT&T; this after SBC bought AT&T earlier and deciced to change its brand nane to AT&T.

Crazy or what! 

But how about fixing the often spotty wireless service that Cingular (er, I mean, AT&T) provides -- why bother fixing the brand name if the brand attributes (the stuff that makes the brand the brand) aren't so good?

A little background music please:

Continuing the phone dereg history, under the terms of the settlement finalized on January 8, 1982, "Ma Bell" agreed to divest its local exchange service operating companies in return for a chance to go into the computer business as AT&T Computer Systems. (That's rich, isn't it?

Effective January 1, 1984, AT&T's local operations were split into seven independent Regional Holding Companies, also known as Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) or "Baby Bells."

Reduced in value by approximately 70%, AT&T continued to operate all of its long-distance services, although it lost market share to competitors like MCI and Sprint.

Who knows what other deals lurks in the minds of the phone and wireless providers ...