Houston Cellular was a

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

-based cell phone company which provided AMPS and

D-AMPS IS-54 and IS-136 are second-generation ( 2G) mobile phone systems, known as Digital AMPS (D-AMPS), and a further development of the North American 1G mobile system Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). It was once prevalent throughout the America ...

(TDMA) service in the Greater

area. It was formed in 1983 and was operated as a partnership between LIN Broadcasting Corp., Mobile Communication Corp. of America and BellSouth Co. Its headquarters were located in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Join A Winning Team
" Houston Cellular. April 20, 1999. Retrieved on April 24, 2010. "Houston Cellular, 1001 West Loop South" Through a series of acquisitions and mergers, within 10 years, the company consisted of a two-way partnership between

BellSouth BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after ...

and

AT&T Wireless AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and Trade name, marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobi ...

. This partnership was also known as BellSouth Mobility, LLC. Houston Cellular began providing service in May 1986.

History

Houston Cellular was formed as a result of the October 1983

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

's ruling that set aside sufficient frequencies for the operation of two cellular systems in each metropolitan area. In the early 1990s, this ruling was expanded with the advent of the 800 and 1900 MHz protocols, which are also known as PCS). The ruling reserved one system for application by local phone companies. In

, the competing non-local company service was applied by

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 ...

Mobilnet. In June 2000, the above-mentioned FCC ruling was repealed and GTE merged with

Bell Atlantic Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas i ...

to form

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 div ...

. At that time,

sold its 55% stake in Houston Cellular to

. AT&T Wireless then bought 20 MHz of the

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 communicatio ...

spectrum owned by the outgoing PrimeCo (which was swallowed in the formation of

). This purchase of frequencies was used to directly compete in the Houston market with

(TDMA) service. Additionally, Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, a division of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, was also partnered with GTE, a partnership which that was later dissolved. In 2001,

partnered with Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems. This partnership renamed the division from BellSouth Mobility, LLC to Cingular Wireless, LLC. It also transformed Houston Cellular into Cingular Wireless.

Later Developments

In 2006, the parent company of Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, AT&T Inc., acquired BellSouth. Eventually, this led to the renaming of Cingular Wireless, LLC to AT&T Mobility, LLC. The service was later branded as "Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless", "Wireless from AT&T", and is now simply "AT&T".

References

External links

Houston Cellular
(Archive)
Cellular Mobile Services

Other sources

Legal Battle with BellSouth over Domain Names: U.S. Supreme Court Case 05-718 Reuben Norman, Petitioner v. BellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation

AT&T
History and science resources at The Franklin Institute's Case Files online exhibit
Brand evolution of AT&T companies

(1999-10-06)
Stock Quote from Yahoo!

July 2005 IEEE Article

ATT's most recent conference call transcripts

by Adam D. Thierer * ttps://cellphonesignalbooster.us/blog/cell-phone-frequencies-and-what-do-they-mean/ AT&TCell phone frequencies, and what do they mean?
"AT&T buys IBM's Global Network"
BBC News, December 8, 1998

CNet News, November 18, 2005
"SBC launches 'new' AT&T"
AT&T archive, November 18, 2005

''CNet News'', March 5, 2006

''CNNMoney'', December 29, 2006
"AT&T and BellSouth Join to Create a Premier Global Communications Company"
''AT&T News Room'', December 29, 2006

{{AT&T AT&T subsidiaries Bell System Defunct mobile phone companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Texas Companies based in Houston American companies established in 1984 Telecommunications companies established in 1984 Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2006 1995 establishments in Texas 2006 disestablishments in Texas