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 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 territorie ...

. The brand was sold to Trilogy Partners by

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

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

In 1977, the American Radio Telephone Service and

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

formed Cellular One to offer services to the

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, area. Cellular service began in the Baltimore/DC area in December 1983. In July 1986, it was announced that Metromedia Inc. would sell its 55 percent stake in Cellular One to

Southwestern Bell Southwestern Bell Telephone Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. It does business as other d.b.a. names in its operating region, which includes Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and portions of Illinois. The company is cu ...

. 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. 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. By 1995, Cellular One affiliates had over 5 million customers and affiliates' towers that served approximately 69% of the US population. 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 Western Wireless Corporation was a cellular network operator that provided mobile telecommunications service to subscribers in 19 western states and seven countries. Western Wireless marketed analog cellular service under the CELLULAR ONE brand ...

joined the partnership in 1999, and in 2001, the Cellular One group name became the sole property of Western Wireless.

Western Wireless

Western Wireless operated under the Cellular One brand prior to being purchased by

Alltel Alltel Wireless was a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before acquisitions by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it served 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition ...

in August 2005.

Dobson

The Cellular One brand name was also used by

Dobson Cellular Dobson Cellular Systems, Inc. now part of AT&T Mobility, was a wireless telecommunications provider in several regions of the United States, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Yor ...

in various rural markets in the

continental US The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

and in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. 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 The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

network; Western Wireless used a

, AMPS, TDMA and

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...

network. As of 15 November 2007, Dobson was acquired by AT&T Inc., except several areas still operated under the Cellular One brand name. 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

Former Cellular One partners

Independent wireless providers

Indigo Wireless Indigo Wireless is a regional wireless telecommunications company in northern Pennsylvania. Based in Wellsboro, Indigo is often the only provider of service in its coverage area and is a local roaming partner for both AT&T and T-Mobile. Network ...

(Formerly Cellular One of West Nebraska, and Cellular One of north central

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

) * Viaero Wireless (Formerly Cellular One of Northeast Colorado) * Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative * Buffalo-Lake Erie Wireless Systems Co., LLC, doing business as Blue Wireless (Formerly CellOne of Southwestern New York) *

US Cellular United States Cellular Corporation (doing business as UScellular) is an American mobile network operator. It is a subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems Inc. (which owns an 84% stake). The company was formed in 1983 and is headquartered in ...

(Formerly Madison Cellular Telephone Co. and Westel Milwaukee Company, Inc. of

BellSouth Mobility BellSouth Mobility, LLC headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, was a BellSouth subsidiary. BellSouth Mobility operated wireless networks using many different wireless communication standards. The most widely used of these technologies is called Dig ...

) - Wisconsin and northern Illinois

Partners acquired by Atlantic Tele-Network

* Choice Wireless, LLC - Texas and Oklahoma * One Communications (Formerly Cell One of Bermuda)

Partners acquired by Verizon Wireless

Unicel Unicel was a brand of mobile phone service from Rural Cellular Corporation. Service was provided in northern Minnesota, northern New England, Mississippi, Alabama, eastern Washington and Oregon, and adjacent areas. The company was headquartered i ...

(Rural Cellular Corporation - AL, KS, MA, MN, MS, OR, ME, NH) Completed August 2008 * 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 * Alabama Wireless, Inc. (Cellular One of Northern Alabama) Purchased January 2002 * Contel Cellular/GTE Mobilnet (operated under the Cellular One name in most of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, north-west

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, northern

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, and north central

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

; dropped the Cellular One name and switched to the

GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...

Wireless name in the late 1990s) * Cell One Kansas City: Owned and operated by

Airtouch AirTouch Communications was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off on Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were in One California in the Financial District, San Francisco, California. After a series ...

, morphed into Verizon at launch in 2000 * Cellular One of Northeast Pennsylvania Wayne and

Pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

counties,

(South Canaan Cellular, owned by

until

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...

acquisition) Verizon properties Originally acquired by Alltel prior to the January 2009 merger * Cellular XL (Cellular One of Mississippi) Purchased December 2002 * 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 Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

(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 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 th ...

because BellSouth already had a cellular system in Baton Rouge)

Partners acquired by AT&T

only in the states of VT, NY and WA. Other Unicel systems were acquired by Verizon. *

AT&T Wireless 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 thi ...

(original McCaw systems; see above) *

Cingular Wireless 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 t ...

(see above) * Vanguard Cellular (see above) *

BellSouth Cellular BellSouth Mobility, LLC headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, was a BellSouth subsidiary. BellSouth Mobility operated wireless networks using many different wireless communication standards. The most widely used of these technologies is called Dig ...

(operated under the Cellular One name instead of the BellSouth name in the

Indianapolis, IN Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

and

Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

s with Chicago later sold to

SBC Communications 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 ...

; both switched to the Cingular brand when SBC and BellSouth formed Cingular) *

Centennial Communications Centennial Communications and its subsidiaries (Centennial Wireless and Centennial de Puerto Rico) provided wireless and broadband telecommunications services to wireless telephone subscribers in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Vir ...

(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 ** American Cellular — Purchased August 2003 ** RFB Cellular, Inc (Cellular One of Northeast Michigan) — Purchased by Dobson Communications in December 2004 ** Highland Cellular ( VA, WV) — Purchased in October 2006 by American Cellular (a subsidiary of Dobson Communications) * Cellular Communications of Puerto Rico, Inc (Cellular One Puerto Rico, also serves U.S. Virgin Islands) — Acquired by SBC Communications and

Telmex Telmex is a Mexican telecommunications company headquartered in Mexico City that provides telecommunications products and services in Mexico. Telmex is still the dominant fixed-line phone carrier in Mexico. In addition to traditional fixed-line ...

for $814 million in 1999, switched to the Cingular brand when SBC and BellSouth formed Cingular. * Cellular One of

Lake Charles, Louisiana Lake Charles (French: ''Lac Charles'') is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Founded in 1861 in Calcasieu ...

(first acquired by Centennial Wireless which was purchased by AT&T in Nov. 2008) *

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Miss ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

(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 Edge Wireless LLC was a mobile phone provider founded in 1999 by Wayne Perry, Cal Cannon and Donnie Castleman, serving southern Oregon, northern California, southeastern Idaho and Jackson, Wyoming. Edge Wireless's network, currently owned by AT&T ...

(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 Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

(Cellular Properties Inc.), purchased in 2016.

External links

Cellular One, LLC
homepage

References

{{US mobile phone companies Mobile phone companies of the United States