Houston Cellular

Houston Cellular Telephone Company, L.P.
	File:Houstoncell.gif
Company type	Holding of AT&T Mobility
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1984
Headquarters	Houston, TX, USA
Area served	Southeast Texas
Parent	AT&T Mobility

Houston Cellular was a Houston-based cell phone company which provided AMPS and D-AMPS (TDMA) service in the Greater Houston area. It was formed in 1983 and was operated as a partnership between LIN Broadcasting Corp., Mobile Communication Corp. of America and BellSouth Co.^[1] Through a series of acquisitions and mergers, within 10 years, the company consisted of a 2 way parnership between BellSouth and AT&T Wireless, the partnership was also known as BellSouth Mobility, LLC. Houston Cellular began providing service in May 1986.

Houston Cellular was formed as a result of the October 1983 Federal Communications Commission's ruling that set aside sufficient frequencies for the operation of two cellular systems in each metropolitan area (this ruling was expanded in the early 1990's with the advent of the 800 and 1900 MHz protcols a.k.a PCS). The ruling reserved one system for application by local phone companies. In Houston, the competing, non-local company service was applied by GTE Mobilnet.

In June, 2000, GTE merged with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon Wireless. At that time AT&T Wireless sold it's 55% stake in Houston Cellular to BellSouth. AT&T Wireless then bought 20 MHz of the CDMA spectrum owned by the outgoing PrimeCo (which was swallowed in the formation of Verizon Wireless). AT&T Wireless used this purchase of frequencies to directly compete in the Houston market with D-AMPS (TDMA) service. Additionally, Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, a division of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was also partnered with GTE. That partnership was dissolved.

In 2001, BellSouth 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.

In 2006, the parent company of Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, SBC Communications, acquired BellSouth. This eventually led to the renaming of Cingular Wireless, LLC to AT&T Mobility, LLC.

It exists today as Houston Cellular Telephone Company, L.P. d/b/a AT&T Mobility, LLC.

The service is now branded as "Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless", or "Wireless from AT&T", or sometimes simply "AT&T".

References

^ Barnett, John (1987-04-19). "Mobile telephones tapping new markets". Houston Chronicle: 1. Retrieved 2007-09-03. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)