AT&T Wireless customers in Charlotte and most other major N.C. cities will have their accounts switched to SunCom Wireless early next year in a deal announced Thursday.

SunCom’s owner, Triton PCS, struck the deal with Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless. Those two companies are merging at year’s end to create the nation’s largest wireless carrier.

The SunCom deal involves swapping wireless phone markets that Cingular and SunCom long desired, as well as cash.

Glen Mella, SunCom’s senior vice president of marketing and sales, would not disclose how many AT&T Wireless subscribers are affected. SunCom will have about one million subscribers after the deal in a network that serves the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Though SunCom is a regional wireless company, the carrier will continue offering national plans that don’t charge roaming or long-distance fees. Cingular customers accounts will not be changed by the deal or the merger with AT&T Wireless.

N. C. AT&T Wireless customers should not have to get new phones because SunCom is taking over AT&T’s network, including its towers, SunCom spokeswoman Karen Roundtree said.

Mella said he did not know whether customers would have the chance to opt out of their contracts without paying a termination fee.

AT&T Wireless customers should not expect to escape their contracts easily, said Jeff Kagan, an Atlanta telecommunications analyst. «These are assets (SunCom) paid for; they’re not going to just let them go,» he said.

Charlotte-area AT&T Wireless customers expecting to get Cingular’s rollover plan that saves unused minutes for future months instead could get SunCom’s Unplan. That plan offers all local and long-distance calls anytime on SunCom’s network for a monthly flat rate.

Some AT&T Wireless customers might be disappointed by being forced to go with a regional carrier instead of a national player, Kagan said.

«They were expecting the cream of the crop of wireless networks,» he said.

A roaming agreement between SunCom and Cingular could help ease some of that disappointment because subscribers to some SunCom plans won’t pay extra fees, he said.

The swap covers customers in a swath of North Carolina ranging from the edges of Rocky Mount to Hickory. SunCom’s biggest prizes are the Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem/Greensboro metro areas.

In addition to the N.C. network, SunCom gets AT&T Wireless’ Puerto Rico network and $175 million in cash.

In exchange, Cingular gets SunCom’s subscribers in Virginia, which completes Cingular’s effort to offer service in all of the nation’s largest 100 metro areas. «We already had a strong network in North Carolina,» Cingular spokeswoman Dawn Benton said.

The swap is an aftershock of the $41 billion merger between Cingular and AT&T Wireless. The combined company, to be called Cingular, will have about 46 million subscribers.

The deal also includes AT&T surrendering its ownership stake in SunCom and SunCom ending its affiliate status with AT&T.

AT&T Wireless employs about 150 workers in North Carolina. No layoffs are planned, a SunCom spokeswoman said. AT&T Wireless was spun off from AT&T in 2001.The phone giant, now best-known for long-distance service, is planning to re-enter the wireless business later this year.

ANDREW SHAIN
Consumer Writer