Indigo Wireless
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Indigo Wireless is a regional wireless
telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
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 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 te ...
and
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic ( T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland ( T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobil ...
.


Network

Indigo's wireless network includes
EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...
and GPRS data technology as well as
UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...
. Both the 2G and 3G networks are run on the Cellular 850 MHz band due to the mountainous terrain of northern Pennsylvania. Indigo also holds PCS 1900 MHz licenses in the majority of its coverage area and uses it to provide GSM or LTE fixed wireless internet depending on location. Their website advertises them as having the most towers in Tioga County, where they are based.


Roaming

Customers of many different providers can freely roam onto Indigo's GSM and UMTS networks and have access to full voice and data services depending on the roaming agreement. Indigo is a member of the
GSMA The GSM Association (commonly referred to as 'the GSMA' or ''Global System for Mobile Communications'', originally ''Groupe Spécial Mobile'') is an industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More ...
and maintains many domestic and international roaming agreements with a variety of partner networks.


History

In 1991, Indigo Wireless started as the Americell PA-3 Partnership. It acquired the FCC license to serve Rural Service Area PA-3 in Potter, Clinton, and Tioga Counties. In 1992, Indigo received $8 million to create a cellular network in Northern PA. It built a telecommunications switch in Lock Haven, Clinton County, PA and launched service there. In 1993, turned on the first cellular service in Tioga County by building a tower in Mansfield, PA. It also started selling service to residents of Tioga under the name Cellular One of Tioga. Their network was analog at the time. 1994 brought on the first roaming agreements for Indigo. It got agreements with 300 other service providers in the US and Canada so its customers could travel with their phones outside of northern PA. In 1997, Indigo (CellOne of Tioga) started upgrading their network to digital. Indigo's digital service rollout in the RSA PA-3 area happened before many Pennsylvania cities, such as
Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...
, even got basic digital service. In 2000, after AT&T had left the
Cellular One 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 ...
group and
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 ...
and
Bell South 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 afte ...
had left in order to become
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 ...
, Indigo finally changed its name from Cellular One of Tioga to Indigo Wireless. 2003 gave Indigo licenses to operate in Bradford, Sullivan, and Wyoming counties after working closely with AT&T Wireless. In 2004, Indigo began upgrading to GSM in every area it covered. This new use of GSM technology allowed Indigo customers to use data on their phones and computers via the Indigo network. Indigo Wireless is still the only GSM provider in parts of northern PA and continues to provide service to customers from other carriers who roam onto their network. In late 2010, Indigo began offering high-speed broadband Internet service to residents of Tioga County utilizing fixed point-to-multipoint wireless equipment from Ubiquiti Networks. This equipment has the capabilities to provide service speeds of over 1 Gbit/s of Internet service to resident and businesses throughout the coverage area. Services are being marked and sold under the Xtreme Internet name Indigo also offers residential and business internet through its 3G and LTE networks. In July 2023, Indigo announced via public filing that they were leaving the retail wireless business and selling their 850 and 1900 MHz licenses to AT&T. They ended with 400 mobile wireless customers.


References

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