There's been other posts about this. For some people the MCC-MNC shows up for a brief second. This is the numeric carrier code for AT&T's network. Every GSM carrier has one (or several). The 4S, for some reason, takes a bit longer to look up the name of the network and replaces the MCC-MNC with the name (AT&T).
It must only take this additional time in only some areas as I have never seen this come up on my screen.
Apparently so. Anyway, here's another post about it, albeit on another forum:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...one-4S-Showed-MCC-MNC?p=14639172#post14639172
And in Apple Support Communities:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3592424?start=0&tstart=0
I haven't seen happen on mine. But then I don't power cycle my phone much.