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Having purchased the remaining 40 percent of Cingular last year, AT&T has since begun whittling away at the familiar orange logo at approximately 1,800 Cingular stores. Weeks before Apple's iPhone makes its exclusive appearance at those same stores, AT&T is smashing the gas on its rebranding effort, says E-Commerce Times.

Cingular's wireless unit expanded to the nation's largest - 62 million phones - in just six years, making its orange "Jack" logo among the best-known brands in the market. However, AT&T's decision to nix all things Cingular comes from research suggesting consumer awareness of AT&T, one of the most durable and iconic brands in the world, is "high and ahead of expectations."

Executives hope the consolidated brand will help demonstrate the company is a "one-stop shop" for a multiplicity of communications and entertainment services.

While AT&T is mum about the total cost of the rebranding campaign, a similar transition by SBC Communications to the AT&T name, which took some years, boasted a $1 billion price tag.