AT&T Mobility

Background

AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the third-largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 101.6 million subscribers as of the end of Q1 2022. Originally known as Cingular Wireless (a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth) from 2000 to 2007, the company acquired the old AT&T Wireless in 2004; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and adopted its name. Cingular became wholly owned by AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth.

AT&T Wireless

1st Logo (1990s-2005)

Logo: Just the old AT&T logo.

Variants:

Depending on the system's display, the logo may be only shown with the "AT&T" text, or "AT&T Wireless" in two lines.
There are monochrome and color versions of the logo.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare. It was seen on AT&T Wireless Nokia and Motorola devices from the period.

Cingular Wireless

1st Logo (2003-2005)

Logo:

Startup: We see the Cingular logo, an "X" styled curved stick figure with the word "cingular" in blue next to it. Another screen then appears with the orange text "Be Safe." and "Be Courteous.". Quickly, the screen changes into the Cingular figure spinning into the right as a speech bubble with the text "hello!" appears at the left of it.
Shutdown: Same as before, but the speech bubble has been changed to "good bye!" and the Cingular logo spins out.

Variant: The logo may be animated differently depending on the system's display size and specifications.

Technique: 2D animation at a quick frame-rate.

Music/Sounds:

Startup: A quick ascending melody, the manufacturer's startup sound (in the case of Motorola or Samsung), or none.
Shutdown: None.

Availability: Common. Seen on Cingular-branded devices from the period.

2nd Logo (2005-2006)

Logo:

Startup: Over a white background, multiple red and orange balls fall while the Cingular logo appears at the center. The logo then spins out into the left as the letters of "cingular" in blue appear next to it.
Shutdown: The "cingular" logo is shown as the letters of "cingular" appear one-by-one.

Technique: 3D animation at a low frame-rate.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Uncommon; seen on branded devices like the LG CG225.

3rd Logo (2006)

Startup animation

Shutdown animation

Logo:

Startup: We see an orange background with bars of tall sizes shown at the bottom. We zoom up into these lines, as the slogan "raising the bar" appears. The orange screen then zooms out into the Cingular figure on a white background where the "cingular" text and the "raising the bar" slogan is shown off-center.
Shutdown: The "cingular" logo with the slogan is shown in white, on the orange background with the bars up at the bottom. The logo then flips out as the camera turns back and the screen zooms out into the orange Cingular figure. The screen then changes into the white text "bye".

Technique: 3D animation at a low frame-rate.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Music/Sounds Variant: In several devices, the default startup or shutdown sound of the manufacturer (like Samsung) is heard playing with the animation.

Availability: Uncommon; seen on branded devices like the Samsung SGH-C417.

4th Logo (2006-2007)

Logo:

Startup: We see a white background. From the left multiple orange comets with the text "3G" on them form 3D signal bars in blue. The bars spin into the center as another "3G" comet appears moving and changes the bars into the Cingular logo, with the slogan "raising the bar" in blue and signal bars shown next to it.
Shutdown: Similar to before, but the Cingular logo is shown at the beginning, and the bars zoom in instead of spinning out. The 3G comet then appears as the text "Goodbye" appears at the end.

Technique: 3D computer animation.

Music/Sounds:

Startup: Two jet-style whooshing sounds.
Shutdown: A different whooshing sound.

Availability: Rare; seen on any Cingular-licensed 3G mobile devices from 2006.

AT&T Mobility

1st Logo (2007-2009)

Logo:

Startup: We see a blue bar move horizontally on a black background, bringing up five signal bars. The background then changes into white, as the signal lines expand and curve into the right and then spin out into the forming AT&T logo while the sphere forms around it. "at&t" moves from the left at the bottom.
Shutdown: We see the AT&T logo on the white background with the sphere spinning. The five signal bars then spin in quickly at the front as the logo fades out. The background turns black and the bars shrink as a blue turning off effect appears off-center.

Technique: Computer animation.

Music/Sounds:

Startup: A jet-style whooshing sound.
Shutdown: Another whooshing sound, this time in the style of a "turning off" effect.

Music/Sounds Variant:

On some low-spec devices, no sounds are heard.
In several devices, the default startup or shutdown sound of the manufacturer (like Samsung) is heard playing with the animation.

Availability: Uncommon; seen on any AT&T-licensed mobile devices from the period.

2nd Logo (2007-2010)

Startup animation

Shutdown animation

Logo: Same as the Cingular 3G startup and shutdown except the Cingular logo is swapped with the AT&T one. In the shutdown, the "Good bye" text may be different.

Variant: In some devices the AT&T logo in shrunk (sometimes into an horizontal line) and the text "World Phone" is shown below.

Technique: 3D computer animation.

Music/Sounds: Same as the Cingular 3G startup and shutdown. The single whoosh from the previous logo can be heard in a few devices.

Availability: Common; seen on any AT&T-licensed mobile devices from the period.

3rd Logo (2009-2015)

Logo: Over a white background, multiple colored droplets in blue, orange and green drop out into the center forming the bars of the AT&T sphere as they change in blue. The base of the sphere fades in, and the slogan "Rethink Possible" with the trademark gradually wipes in below.

Technique: 3D computer animation.

Music/Sounds:

Startup: Earlier devices used the whooshing sounds from the previous logos. Later on in 2010, a shortened version of the Firefly ringtone was used.
Shutdown: The whooshing shutdown sounds from the previous logos in earlier devices.

Availability: Common; seen on any AT&T-licensed mobile devices from the period.

4th Logo (2010)

Logo: We see an orange background with the AT&T sphere logo and "WORLD PHONE" below.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Uncommon; seen on AT&T-licensed BlackBerry devices.

5th Logo (2015-)

Logo: Over a black background, a blue circle grows in from the center, and curved lines cut out from it, forming the recent AT&T sphere design.

Technique: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A guitar rearrangement of the Firefly ringtone.

Availability: Very common; seen on any recent AT&T-licensed mobile devices.