Velocita Wireless is a national
wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
-telecommunications service provider that is based in Woodbridge,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Known by several names over the years, Velocita Wireless has been in existence for over 17 years as the operator of the
Mobitex
Mobitex is an OSI based open standard, national public access wireless packet-switched data network. Mobitex puts great emphasis on safety and reliability with its use by military, police, firefighters and ambulance services. It was developed in t ...
network in the United States. Previously known as Cingular Interactive, L.P., BellSouth Wireless Data and prior to that
RAM Mobile Data, Velocita Wireless carved a market for itself with the acquisition of the
Mobitex
Mobitex is an OSI based open standard, national public access wireless packet-switched data network. Mobitex puts great emphasis on safety and reliability with its use by military, police, firefighters and ambulance services. It was developed in t ...
network from Cingular and rebranding itself overall as Velocita in 2004.
History
In 2001, the company's Mobitex network proved to be effective in communications in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Most other cellular and wireless telecommunications services were knocked-out or overloaded in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. The effectiveness of the network led to Velocita developing a small 'following' amongst emergency responders in the United States.
In 2006, Velocita Wireless became a strategic buyout for the
Sprint Nextel Corporation
Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before it merged with T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The co ...
.
Based in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Sprint was overcoming various shortcomings of the
NEXTEL Communications
Nextel Communications, Inc. was an American wireless service operator that merged with and ceased to exist as a subsidiary of Sprint Corporation, which would later be bought by T-Mobile US and folded into that company. Nextel in Brazil, and forme ...
Integrated Digital Enhanced Network
Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) is a mobile telecommunications technology, developed by Motorola, which provides its users the benefits of a trunked radio and a cellular telephone. It was called the first mobile social network by m ...
(iDEN) which it acquired in 2005. The spectrum holdings of Velocita were intended to supplement Nextel's frequencies in the 900 MHz band and help relieve expected congestion in its network's 800 MHz band.
On July 2, 2007 Velocita Wireless was bought by United Wireless.
In 2010, Velocita Wireless emerged from internal restructuring to focus its narrow-band nationwide wireless data networks on machine-to-machine
telemetry
Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', "remote", an ...
solutions for Point-of-Sale credit card transactions, utility/energy
smart grid applications,
automatic vehicle location (AVL), home and business security, and wireless vending.
References
External links
*{{Official website, http://www.velocitawireless.com/
Sprint Corporation