Question concerning Cell Phone compamy history

[Tom G]

I am currently a customer of Cingular Phone company and I am trying to remember the name of the company that I originally started out with. I believe That I have been with at least 3 or 4 different companies, I started out with a phone in my car and a Motorola bag phone, that has to have been at least 21 years ago.

I know that I have been a customer of Cingular and sometime before Cingular I was a customer of GTE.

Any chance you might be able to tell me what company or companies that GTE acquired that were in business in 1984.....

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

[agentHibby]

I don't know Texas wireless history too well. Depeding on where you are at it could be Southwestern Bell, McCaw Cellular both called themselves Cellular One. If you lived in Houston there was Houston Cellular. I don't think there was a Dallas Cellular. Dobson sometime called themsleves American Cellular. There may be some Ma Pa Names that went back in the 80's and 90's that I have never heard of.

The only business that I know of that GTE bought out was Contel in 1991. I don't think Contel had a cellular network in TX, but I could be wrong.

Don't know if that helped much.

[jerry 12]

Originally Posted by Tom G I am currently a customer of Cingular Phone company and I am trying to remember the name of the company that I originally started out with. I believe That I have been with at least 3 or 4 different companies, I started out with a phone in my car and a Motorola bag phone, that has to have been at least 21 years ago. I know that I have been a customer of Cingular and sometime before Cingular I was a customer of GTE. Any chance you might be able to tell me what company or companies that GTE acquired that were in business in 1984..... Any help would greatly be appreciated.

how about bell south

[vger]

I don't think BellSouth ever had a cellular network in Texas pre-Cingular, but I could be wrong.

[roamer1]

Originally Posted by vger I don't think BellSouth ever had a cellular network in Texas pre-Cingular, but I could be wrong.

Houston Cellular was at least partly owned by BellSouth up until the time they and SBC formed Cingular. I am fairly certain that BellSouth never divested anything to GTE/Contel; there was always bad blood between BellSouth and GTE/Contel because they competed in so many markets (Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville, Birmingham/Huntsville, Mobile, Indianapolis, Houston, Richmond, Bakersfield, Honolulu, etc.), not to mention the Ocoee fiasco in '96 (although it was really mostly USCC that caused that) and various other things.

-SC

[parthery]

Virtually all the "B-side" markets that are now Verizon were GTE at one point. This includes Houston, Austin, Bryan/College Station, etc...

If you are in DFW, you may have once been a customer of Metrocel. Metrocel was the A-side carrier that was part of McCaw Cellular. Since SBC owned the rights to the Cell One name, it was never used in DFW. Metrocel became AT&T Wireless when McCaw sold out back in the mid-90s. Cingular is now in control of both the A and B sides in this market, by virtue of the merger.