UMTS handsets have disappeared from Cingular San Francisco

Recently in “Merger Mania: Cingular and AT&T get worse,” I recounted my frustrations with the merged Cingular and AT&T Wireless organization. I was looking for info on the companies UMTS plans. This week, while in San Francisco for the Embedded Systems Conference, I went in search of a former AT&T Wireless Store and found one just around the corner from MosconeCenter on Market St.San Francisco is one of the markets where AT&T had began offering the speedy UMTS service. But the store manager told me that they were forced to return all UMTS handsets and stop selling the service last month – presumably while Cingular figures out when or if they will continue to roll the true 3G network.