AT&T's plan to phase-out Cingular Wireless brand will confuse consumers

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) should take some pity on consumers and leave the Cingular Wireless brand alone.

Isn't there room in AT&T's world for a brand that's only been around for six years and has been promoted to death? I guess now that AT&T fully owns the Cingular brand following its acquisition of Bell South Corp. (NYSE:BLS), it needs to drum that fact into people's brain.

The AP describes this effort as a "multi-month awareness campaign." Translated into English, that means marketing. By the middle of the year, the Cingular name and orange log will be disappearing from ads, promotional materials, trucks, bills stores and buildings, the AP reported.

But the Cingular name won't fade away entirely for a while. Millions of people still have phones with the Cingular logo on them. Millions more will write out their checks to Cingular instead of AT&T. Even more will get a shock when they find AT&T's name on their bill.

By the time that everyone understands that Cingular is now AT&T, the San Antonio-based company may acquire another wireless company and start the whole process all over again.