AT&T Mobility president Sigman to retire

AT&T Mobility today announced that its president and chief executive Stan Sigman would retire after 42 years at the company. The move would take effect immediately and would see Regional Telecom group president Ralph de la Vega take the helm; Sigman would remain to help transition to the new leadership until the end of the year, the company said. De la Vega will report to Randall Stephenson, who remains the chief executive for AT&T as a whole.

Sigman is best known in recent years for heading the mobile division during the transition from Cingular to AT&T Mobility and for overseeing the introduction of the iPhone, which is widely regarded as the most significant phone launch in the company's history. Sigman was the first to speak publicly about the iPhone from AT&T during Apple's Macworld San Francisco keynote in January of this year.

De la Vega is also said to have invested heavily in the company in his previous role and was responsible for planning the iPhone launch as well as rolling out HSDPA (3G) Internet access and helping finalize the AT&T Mobility rebranding campaign. The executive also presided over the launch of the ill-fated original ROKR phone in 2005 during his tenure as Cingular's chief operations officer.