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Cellular One is the trademarked brand name that licenses services (radio frequencies for telecommunications) 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.

History

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In 1977, the American Radio Telephone Service and Motorola formed Cellular One to offer services to the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., area. Cellular service began in the Baltimore/DC area in December 1983.[1]

In July 1986, it was announced that Metromedia Inc. would sell its 55 percent stake in Cellular One to Southwestern Bell.[2] Southwestern Bell later joined into a partnership with McCaw Communications and Vanguard Cellular Systems called Cellular One Group, which the companies stated would help create a unified cellular network.[3] Cellular One Group was eventually opened to include all A-side providers. Under the US AMPS allocation, A-side providers were independent wireless operators, while B-side providers were usually affiliates of the local landline telephone company.[4] By 1995, Cellular One affiliates had over 5 million customers and affiliates' towers that served approximately 69% of the US population.[5] AT&T purchased McCaw Cellular in 1994; shortly thereafter, AT&T renamed the former McCaw providers "AT&T Wireless" and dropped out of the partnership. Western Wireless joined the partnership in 1999, and in 2001, the Cellular One group name became the sole property of Western Wireless.[citation needed]

Western Wireless

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Main article: Western Wireless

Western Wireless operated under the Cellular One brand prior to being purchased by Alltel in August 2005.

Dobson

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Main article: Dobson Communications

The Cellular One brand name was also used by Dobson Cellular in various rural markets in the continental US and in Alaska. In December 2005, Dobson purchased the rights to the Cellular One name from Alltel. However, their services were completely unrelated. Dobson used a TDMA and GSM network; Western Wireless used a GSM, AMPS, TDMA and CDMA network. As of 15 November 2007, Dobson was acquired by AT&T Inc., except several areas still operated under the Cellular One brand name.[clarification needed] The Cellular One brand was sold to Trilogy Partners as a result of the terms of the acquisition agreement.

Regional markets that operate under the Cellular One brand name

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Market Name Web site Holding company Owners Notes
Northeastern Arizona, Northwestern New Mexico, Southern Colorado, and Southern Utah Cellular One of North East Arizona mycellularone.com Smith Bagley Inc. Elizabeth Frawley Bagley and children[6] Partner with Tier 1 carriers to offer Nationwide coverage

Former Cellular One partners

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Partners that went out of business without acquisition of itself or its assets

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  • Central Louisiana Wireless, LLC dba Cellular One

Independent wireless providers

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  • Viaero Wireless (Formerly Cellular One of Northeast Colorado)
  • Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative
  • US Cellular (Formerly Madison Cellular Telephone Co. and Westel Milwaukee Company, Inc.[7] of BellSouth Mobility[8]) - Wisconsin and northern Illinois[9][10][11]

Partners acquired by Atlantic Tele-Network

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  • Choice Wireless, LLC - Texas and Oklahoma
  • One Communications (Formerly Cell One of Bermuda)[12]

Partners acquired by Verizon Wireless

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  • Unicel (Rural Cellular Corporation - AL, KS, MA, MN, MS, OR, ME, NH) Completed August 2008[13]
  • Price Communications Wireless (Bay County FL, Southern GA including Macon and Albany, Southern AL including Dothan and Montgomery, and southern SC) purchase completed in August 2002[14]
  • Alabama Wireless, Inc. (Cellular One of Northern Alabama) Purchased January 2002[citation needed]
  • Contel Cellular/GTE Mobilnet (operated under the Cellular One name in most of Tennessee, north-west Georgia, northern Alabama, and north central Kentucky; dropped the Cellular One name and switched to the GTE Wireless name in the late 1990s)
  • Cell One Kansas City: Owned and operated by Airtouch, morphed into Verizon at launch in 2000
  • Cellular One of Northeast Pennsylvania Wayne and Pike counties, Pennsylvania (South Canaan Cellular, owned by US Cellular until Verizon Wireless acquisition)[15]

Verizon properties Originally acquired by Alltel prior to the January 2009 merger

  • Cellular XL (Cellular One of Mississippi) Purchased December 2002 [citation needed]
  • HickoryTech Wireless (Cellular One of Mankato) Purchased by Western Wireless Jan. 2004
  • Western Wireless (Cellular One West - AZ, AR, CA, CO, IA, ID, KS, MN, MO, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, SD, TX, UT & WY) Purchased Jan. 2005
  • Virginia Cellular (CellOne Virginia) Purchased 2005
  • Cellular One of Amarillo Purchased April 2006
  • Cellular One of Baton Rouge, Louisiana (owned by the former James Garvey's Radiofone of Metairie, Louisiana, which SBC bought; divested by SBC to Alltel when SBC and BellSouth formed Cingular because BellSouth already had a cellular system in Baton Rouge)

Partners acquired by AT&T

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  • Unicel only in the states of VT, NY and WA. Other Unicel systems were acquired by Verizon.
  • AT&T Wireless (original McCaw systems; see above)
  • Cingular Wireless (see above)
  • Vanguard Cellular (see above)
  • BellSouth Cellular (operated under the Cellular One name instead of the BellSouth name in the Indianapolis, IN and Chicago areas with Chicago later sold to SBC Communications; both switched to the Cingular brand when SBC and BellSouth formed Cingular)
  • Centennial Communications (operated under the Cellular One name in northern Indiana, Louisiana, southwest Michigan, and Mississippi; later dropped the Cellular One name and rebranded as Centennial Wireless; company acquired by AT&T in 2009 with most Mississippi and Louisiana assets divested to Verizon Wireless)
  • Santa Cruz Cellular Telephone Company, Santa Cruz County, CA (purchased by Dobson in the mid-1990s sold to AT&T in approximately 2002)-This was a key purchase for AT&T as only missing holes in O&O Northern California coverage were San Benito & Santa Cruz counties, owned then, by Dobson.
  • Easterbrooke Cellular, Elkins, WV- Purchased on January 3, 2008, to expand coverage in West Virginia
  • Dobson Communications acquisitions
    • PriCellular (New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, West Virginia, Tennessee) — Acquired by American Cellular in March 1998[16]
    • American Cellular — Purchased August 2003[17]
    • RFB Cellular, Inc (Cellular One of Northeast Michigan) — Purchased by Dobson Communications in December 2004[18]
    • Highland Cellular (VA, WV) — Purchased in October 2006 by American Cellular (a subsidiary of Dobson Communications)[19]
  • Cellular Communications of Puerto Rico, Inc (Cellular One Puerto Rico, also serves U.S. Virgin Islands) — Acquired by SBC Communications and Telmex for $814 million in 1999,[20][21] switched to the Cingular brand when SBC and BellSouth formed Cingular.[22]
  • Cellular One of Lake Charles, Louisiana (first acquired by Centennial Wireless which was purchased by AT&T in Nov. 2008)
  • San Luis Obispo County, California (SLO Cellular) — Sold to AT&T, service ends Jan 17, 2011.
  • Long Lines Wireless (Formerly Cellular One of Great Lakes of Iowa) - Acquired by AT&T July 2013
  • Edge Wireless (AT&T Affiliate merged into AT&T in April 2008). Edge Wireless served Northern California, Southern Oregon, Southeastern and Southcentral Idaho and Jackson, Wyoming.
  • Cellular One of East Central Illinois (Cellular Properties Inc.), purchased in 2016.
  • Indigo Wireless (Formerly Cellular One of West Nebraska, and Cellular One of north central Pennsylvania) Went out of business in 2023, sold its spectrum licenses to AT&T
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References

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  1. ^ Thomas, Robert J. (1995). New Product Success Stories: Lessons from Leading Innovators. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780471013204.
  2. ^ "Metromedia Sells Mobile Phone Interest". Washington Post. 1986-07-01. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  3. ^ "TELECOMMUNICATIONS : McCaw Cellular, Southwestern Bell Hold Marketing Talks". Los Angeles Times. Reuters. 1994-08-12. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  4. ^ The Evolution of Untethered Communications. National Academies Press. 1997. doi:10.17226/5968. ISBN 978-0-309-05946-6.
  5. ^ "Cellular One Press Release". cellularone.com. Archived from the original on 20 January 1998. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Indirect Ownership, Ownership, 01/28/2016". FCC. 2016-01-28. Retrieved 2016-06-27.
  7. ^ "Sweepstakes Rules". Archived from the original on 1997-07-04. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
  8. ^ "ULS Application - Cellular - 0000054231 - WESTEL-MILWAUKEE COMPANY, INC. BELLSOUTH MOBILITY INC".
  9. ^ "CHICAGO COMPANY GAINS CONTROL OF CELLULAR ONE.(Business Thursday)". HighBeam Research. 1997-02-06. Archived from the original on 2017-10-04. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  10. ^ "U.S. Cellular Corporation History". Funding Universe. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  11. ^ "United States Cellular Territory". Archived from the original on 1999-02-09. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
  12. ^ "Logic, CellOne Combine: 'One Communications'". November 2016.
  13. ^ "Verizon Wireless Completes Purchase Of Rural Cellular".
  14. ^ "Verizon Wireless Acquisition Of Price Communications Wireless Business In Southeast Finalized".
  15. ^ Jones, Sheldon (2012-03-15). "Verizon Wireless Completes Purchase Of Cellular One Of Northeast Pennsylvania". Archived from the original on 2012-05-20.
  16. ^ "Cellular firms ring up deal". CNNMoney. CNN. 1998-03-09. Retrieved 2012-05-31.
  17. ^ "Dobson Communications Completes Acquisition Of American Cellular Corporation; Creates Ninth Largest U.S. Wireless Provider" (Press release). Primezone (via ArriveNet). Prime Newswire. 2003-08-19. Archived from the original (An ad script in the page contains a faulty redirect (See below).) on 2007-09-30. To view the page, do either of the following:
    • Temporarily turn off JavaScript, or
    • disable JavaScript for just web.archive.org, or
    • view the archive.org page in a browser that does not use JavaScript, such as Lynx or Dillo.
  18. ^ "Dobson Communications Purchases RFB Cellular, Inc. Assets in Northern Michigan" (Press release). Dobson Communications Corporation (via irconnect.com). 2004-12-29. Archived from the original on 2009-02-27.
  19. ^ "American Cellular buys Highland for $95M". boston.com Business. The Boston Globe. Associated Press. 2006-10-05. Archived from the original on 2009-03-02.
  20. ^ "SBC COMMUNICATIONS AND TELMEX TO ACQUIRE CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS OF PUERTO RICO". Press Release. SEC Info. 1999-05-03. Retrieved 2012-05-31.
  21. ^ "AMERICA MOVIL SAB DE CV, Form 20-F, Filing Date Jul 2, 2001" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  22. ^ "CINGULAR WIRELESS LLC, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Mar 11, 2003". secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
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