Powertel Inc. was a mobile network operator headquartered in

West Point, Georgia West Point is a city in Troup and Harris counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is located approximately halfway between Montgomery, Alabama and Atlanta along Interstate 85. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 3,474, and in 2015 t ...

, United States that provided analog cellular and digital PCS mobile communications services in the Southeastern United States. Powertel traces its roots to the May, 1989 incorporation in Georgia of Interstate Cellular, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC Holding Company, Inc. Interstate Cellular was formed to acquire cellular telephone licenses and construct and operate cellular telephone systems.

History

InterCel, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in April 1991 and became the owner of the assets of both Interstate Cellular, Inc. and WHI Partnership. In October 1991, InterCel, Inc. became a publicly traded company, offering stock on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ICEL. InterCel acquired Unicell, a provider of cellular communications service in Maine, in January 1993. The combined company had 20,000 subscribers in a market area that covers a population of 780,000 people. In February 1994, InterCel and other investors formed Powertel PCS Partners L.P. to develop, construct and operate a

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 ...

mobile cellular network that would provide services in nine Southeastern states. In March 1995, Powertel PCS Partners submitted winning bids for wireless spectrum covering parts of nine Southeastern states. InterCel acquired all outstanding interests in Powertel PCS Partners, making Powertel PCS a wholly owned subsidiary, and Powertel began to build a digital GSM network to operate on the recently acquired spectrum. In December 1996, InterCel agreed to sell Unicel to Rural Cellular Corporation. In June 1997, InterCel, Inc. changed its name to Powertel, Inc. and changed its NASDAQ stock ticker symbol to PTEL. On May 3, 1999, InterCel sold its analog cellular operations to Public Service Cellular, Inc. for US$89 million. Powertel, Inc. was acquired by

Deutsche Telekom AG Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

on May 31, 2001, and was made a subsidiary of

VoiceStream T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...

Wireless, Inc., which was acquired by Deutsche Telekom on the same day.

References

{{Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States Defunct mobile phone companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Georgia (U.S. state) Telecommunications companies established in 1989 American companies established in 1989 Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2001