Stan Sigman

Last updated
Stan Sigman
Born
Stanley T. Sigman

March 31, 1947
DiedDecember 21, 2020 (aged 73)
Education West Texas State University
Years active1965–2020

Stanley T. Sigman (March 31, 1947 - December 21, 2020) was the former Chief Executive Officer of Cingular Wireless at AT&T, the United States's largest wireless provider.

Contents

Career

A graduate of West Texas State University in Canyon, Texas, Sigman began his career with Southwestern Bell Telephone as a stockman in Hereford, Texas, in 1965.

A long-time wireless industry leader, Sigman held leadership positions at SBC Communications, where he helped start SBC's wireless business in the mid-1980s, managed its expansion into one of the largest wireless businesses in the nation, and directed its integration into BellSouth's wireless group to form Cingular Wireless in 2001.

Prior to joining Cingular, Sigman served as group president and chief operating officer for SBC Communications, responsible for the company's wireline and wholesale operations. Sigman's career has included leading key business units for SBC, including Long Distance, Messaging, Global Accounts, Sterling Commerce, DataComm, Web Hosting, eCommerce, TRI, Network Planning and Engineering, Network Operations, Business and Consumer Marketing and Operator Services.

Sigman was long regarded as a wireless industry visionary as well as a champion for wireless safety and technology. He served as chairman emeritus of the board of directors of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA). The CTIA is the international organization representing all sectors of wireless communications—cellular, personal communication services, and enhanced specialized mobile radio.

In September 2004, Sigman was appointed to the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) by President George W. Bush. In its advisory role to the President, the NSTAC provides industry-based analyses and recommendations on a wide range of policy and technical issues related to telecommunications, information assurance, infrastructure protection, and other national security and emergency preparedness matters.

In December 2004, Sigman was named RCR Wireless News "Person of the Year," in part for his orchestration of the Cingular Wireless acquisition of AT&T Wireless, creating the largest cellular wireless carrier in the US. [1]

Sigman was named a member of Atlanta Alexis de Tocqueville Society in recognition of his service and commitment to the United Way. He is also a member of the Georgia Research Advisory Board and the Georgia Institute of Technology Advisory Board. [2]

Sigman announced his retirement as CEO of AT&T Mobility on October 11, 2007. He remained with AT&T Mobility until the end of the calendar year to assist with the leadership change. Ralph de la Vega took his place as CEO.

In October 2010, Sigman was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame. [3] Steve Jobs attended the induction ceremony. [4] [5]

After retiring, Sigman founded Namgis Quarter Horses in Hondo, Texas. A division of his Santa Cruz Ranch, Namgis Quarter Horses, includes a state-of-the-art breeding and training facility for American Quarter Horse roping horses and barrel racing horses. [6]

Sigman also became a partner in the Ruidoso Downs Race Track & Casino operation in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

Sigman died December 21, 2020. [7]

Sigman was portrayed in the 2023 film Blackberry, directed by Matt Johnson. Footage of him and Steve Jobs presenting the original iPhone at the 2007 Macworld Keynote was shown. His voice was also portrayed by Canadian actor Evan Buliung during a phone call with Jim Balsillie, played by Glen Howerton.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BellSouth</span> American telecommunications company

BellSouth, LLC was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S. Department of Justice forced the American Telephone & Telegraph Company to divest itself of its regional telephone companies on January 1, 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AT&T Mobility</span> American telecommunications company

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 largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 241.5 million subscribers as of December 31, 2023.

AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., formerly part of AT&T Corporation, was a wireless telephone carrier founded in 1987 in the United States, based in Redmond, Washington, and later traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol "AWE", as a separate entity from its former parent.

Houston Cellular was a Houston-based cell phone company which provided AMPS and D-AMPS (TDMA) service in the Greater Houston area. It was formed in 1983 and was operated as a partnership between LIN Broadcasting Corp., Mobile Communication Corp. of America and BellSouth Co. Its headquarters were located in Houston, Texas.

Cellular One is the trademarked brand name that licenses services used by several cellular service providers in the United States. The brand was sold to Trilogy Partners by AT&T in 2008 shortly after AT&T had completed its acquisition of Dobson Communications. Cellular One was originally the trade name of one of the first mobile telephone service providers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alltel</span> Former American telecommunications company

Alltel was a landline, wireless and general telecommunications services provider, primarily based in the United States. Before its wireless division was acquired by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Alltel provided cellular service to 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition by Verizon, a small portion of Alltel was spun off and continued to operate under the same name in six states, mostly in rural areas. Following the merger, Alltel remained the ninth largest wireless telecommunications company in the United States, with approximately 800,000 customers. On January 22, 2013, AT&T announced they were acquiring what remained of Alltel from Atlantic Tele-Network for $780 million in cash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Whitacre Jr.</span> American businessman

Edward Earl Whitacre Jr. is the former Chairman and CEO of General Motors. He is also a former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T, previously Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC). He served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1998 to 2000. On September 1, 2010, Whitacre stepped down as CEO, and retired as chairman of the board by the end of 2010.

F. Duane Ackerman is an American businessman. He was the last chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BellSouth Corporation.

Scott T. Ford was president and chief executive officer of Alltel from 2002 to 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CTIA (organization)</span> Trade association

CTIA is a trade association representing the wireless communications industry in the United States. The association was established in 1984 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership organization, and represents wireless carriers and suppliers, and manufacturers and providers of wireless products and services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAM Mobile Data</span>

RAM Mobile Data was founded by RAM Broadcasting Corporation as American Mobile Data Communications, Inc. in 1988. The name of the company was changed to Ram Mobile Data in 1989. RAM Mobile Data was the U.S. Operator of the Mobitex network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph de la Vega</span>

Ralph de la Vega is the former Vice Chairman of AT&T Inc. and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions and AT&T International. He has previously served as President & CEO of AT&T Mobile & Business Solutions; President and CEO of AT&T Mobility; COO of Cingular Wireless; President of BellSouth Latin America Operations; and the President of Broadband and Internet Services for BellSouth. He is also the author of the 2009 book Obstacles Welcome: How to Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life. Ralph de la Vega retired December 31, 2016, after a 42-year career with AT&T.

Maggie Wilderotter is an American businessperson who is the chairwoman of DocuSign, where she was also interim CEO from April to October 2022, and the former chief executive officer of Frontier Communications from November 2004 to April 2015, then executive chairman of the company until April 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meredith Attwell Baker</span> American lawyer

Meredith Attwell Baker is the president and chief executive officer of CTIA, an industry trade group that represents the international wireless telecommunications industry. From 2009 to 2011, Baker was a member of the United States Federal Communications Commission, nominated by U.S. President Barack H. Obama. She also served in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration as a political appointee, and was subsequently named a deputy assistant secretary of the Commerce Department by President George W. Bush in February 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlene Harris (inventor)</span> American inventor

Arlene Joy Harris is an entrepreneur, inventor, investor, and policy advocate in the telecommunications industry. She is the president and co-founder of Dyna LLC, an incubator for start-up and early-stage organizations historically in the wireless technology field. Harris is widely recognized as a pioneer in mobile and wireless enterprise and an innovator of consumer products and services. In May 2007, she became the first female inductee of the Wireless Hall of Fame, and was named to the Consumer Technology Hall of Fame in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Smith (Ciena CEO)</span> British-American executive

Gary B. Smith is a British-American executive, currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Ciena, an American telecommunications networking multinational.

The history of AT&T dates back to the invention of the telephone. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell, who obtained the first US patent for the telephone, and his father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Bell and Hubbard also established American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885, which acquired the Bell Telephone Company and became the primary telephone company in the United States. This company maintained an effective monopoly on local telephone service in the United States until anti-trust regulators agreed to allow AT&T to retain Western Electric and enter general trades computer manufacture and sales in return for its offer to split the Bell System by divesting itself of ownership of the Bell Operating Companies in 1982.

Numerex Corp. – a wholly owned subsidiary of Sierra Wireless NASDAQ:(SWIR) – is a provider of managed machine-to-machine (M2M) enterprise solutions enabling the Internet of Things (IoT).

Cellemetry Data Services, abbreviated Cellemetry and stylized Cellemetrysm, was a cellular-telephony-based Internet of things network introduced commercially in 1996. Cellemetry was designed to operate over the existing cellular network, allowing it to be rapidly deployed.

References

  1. ↑ "Person of the Year: Stan Sigman - RCR Wireless News". RCR Wireless News. 2004-12-21. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  2. ↑ "Stanley T. Sigman". www.ceoworld.biz. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  3. ↑ "Stanley T. Sigman | Wireless History Foundation". www.wirelesshistoryfoundation.org. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  4. ↑ Weintraub, Seth (2010-10-07). "Steve Jobs dresses up for Wireless History Museum dinner". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  5. ↑ "Steve Jobs makes appearance at wireless awards event |". www.macnn.com. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  6. ↑ "Stan Sigman". RanchForeman.com. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
  7. ↑ "Ruidoso Downs Race Track & Casino owner Stan Sigman dies at 73, remembered as 'visionary'". El Paso Times. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.