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 2020, its population was 3,719. Most of the city is in Tr ...

, 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 family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

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 (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

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

VoiceStream T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Its majority shareholder and namesake is the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile is the second largest wireless carrier ...

Wireless, Inc., which was acquired by

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

on the same day.

References

External links

* {{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 American companies disestablished in 2001 1991 initial public offerings Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2001 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq