A personal communications service (PCS) is set of communications capabilities that provide a combination of terminal mobility, personal mobility, and service profile management. This class of services comprises several types of wireless voice or wireless data communications systems, typically incorporating digital technology, providing services similar to advanced cellular mobile or paging services. In addition, PCS can also be used to provide other wireless communications services, including services that allow people to place and receive communications while away from their home or office, as well as wireless communications to homes, office buildings and other fixed locations. Described in more commercial terms, PCS is a generation of wireless cellular-phone technology, that combines a range of features and services surpassing those available in analogue- and first-generation (2G) digital-cellular phone systems, providing a user with an all-in-one wireless phone, paging, messaging, and data service.
Bell Mobility Inc. is a Canadian wireless network operator and the division of Bell Canada which offers wireless services across Canada. It operates networks using LTE and HSPA+ on its mainstream networks. Bell Mobility is the third-largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 10.1 million subscribers as of Q3 2020.
Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian mobile network operator headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The company had revenues of just under $15.1 billion in 2018. Rogers Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 13.7 million subscribers as of Q2 2023.
Virgin Mobile USA was a no-contract Mobile Virtual Network Operator. It used Sprint's network for coverage. It licensed the Virgin Mobile brand from United Kingdom-based Virgin Group. Virgin Mobile USA was headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, and provided service to approximately 6 million customers.
TracFone Wireless, Inc. (TFWI) was an American wireless service provider. It was a mobile virtual network operator offering prepaid and no-contract service on the AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile US, and Verizon networks under multiple brands, including TracFone, Net10 Wireless, GoSmart Mobile, Page Plus Cellular, SafeLink Wireless, Simple Mobile, Total Wireless, and Straight Talk Wireless.
Telus Mobility is a Canadian wireless network operator and a division of Telus Communications which sells wireless services in Canada on its numerous networks. It operates 5G, LTE and HSPA+ on its mainstream networks. Telus Mobility is the second-largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 10.6 million subscribers as of Q3 2020.
Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The company also offered wireless voice, messaging, and broadband services through its various subsidiaries under the Boost Mobile and Open Mobile brands and wholesale access to its wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators.
Metro by T-Mobile is an American prepaid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) wireless service provider and brand owned by T-Mobile US. It previously operated the fifth largest mobile telecommunications network in the United States using code-division multiple access (CDMA). In 2013, the carrier engaged in a reverse merger with T-Mobile US; post-merger, its services were merged under T-Mobile's UMTS and LTE network. Metro by T-Mobile competes primarily against Dish's Boost Mobile, AT&T's Cricket Wireless and Verizon's Visible as part of the wireless service provider brands.
Cricket Wireless is an American prepaid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), wholly-owned by AT&T. It provides wireless services to ten million subscribers in the United States. Cricket Wireless was founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International. AT&T acquired Leap Wireless International in March 2014, and later merged Cricket Wireless operations with Aio Wireless. Cricket Wireless competes primarily against T-Mobile's Metro by T-Mobile, EchoStar's Boost Mobile and Verizon's Visible in the prepaid wireless segment.
Solo Mobile is a discontinued mobile virtual network operator in Canada started by Bell Mobility in 2000. Historically, Solo was considered a discount wireless brand, offering low price monthly plans with some unlimited options in certain cities. Its products and services were only sold in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. The brand ceased advertising towards new customers since November 2011, and new activations were officially discontinued on May 17, 2012.
Claro Puerto Rico is the largest telecommunications service provider in Puerto Rico. It is headquartered in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and has operated for almost a century offering voice, data, long distance, broadband, directory publishing and wireless services for the island residents and businesses. It was founded by the Behn brothers, Sosthenes and Hernan in 1914. Originally, Puerto Rico Telephone Company eventually spawned ITT Corporation, which was founded by Sosthenes Behn. The company was a public corporation of the government of Puerto Rico for many years until the majority stakes were acquired by GTE in the mid-1990s. It was a subsidiary of Verizon Communications until it was fully acquired by América Móvil in 2007.
Pocket Communications was a PCS CDMA 1xRTT provider of unlimited cellular phone service based in San Antonio, Texas, United States. It offered service plans similar to those of Cricket Communications and MetroPCS with unlimited local phone and messaging service on a month to month basis with no contract. Its founder Paul Posner started as a local paging operator in San Antonio before becoming a dealer for Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, Houston Cellular, and BellSouth Mobility in 7 markets in Texas and the Southeast under the name Discount Cellular & Paging. After selling these operations in 1997, Posner spent 7 years trying to acquire FCC licenses required to build a cellular network and was ultimately successful in FCC Auction 58 in 2004. Pocket launched service in 2006 in San Antonio and competed directly with Cricket Communications in the only US market where two flat-rate providers competed head to head. Pocket's unique marketing strategy included operating hundreds of small retail locations with just one employee, oversaturation of billboard advertising, and the use of chimpanzees in its advertising. In its first year of operations, Pocket became the fastest growth company in the history of the US wireless communications, achieving positive cash flow in just 6 months. Subsequent expansion from San Antonio to Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley, and Corpus Christi markets and a customer base of over 400,000 subscribers ultimately led to a merger offer from Cricket Communications in late 2010. Cricket was subsequently sold to ATT in 2015. ATT continues to operate Cricket as a stand-alone business and a "flanker brand.
West Central Wireless was a local mobile phone provider serving Central and West Texas based in San Angelo, Texas, until their acquisition by Verizon Wireless in 2023. Their cellular services consisted of 850 MHz HSPA+ and GSM networks and an overlayed 700 MHz LTE network. The HSPA+ network began rollout in early 2012. CDMA services once existed due to the acquisition of Five Star Wireless, offering wholesale roaming to service providers, though services were discontinued in 2019.
Nextel Communications, Inc. was an American wireless service operator that merged with and ceased to exist as a subsidiary of Sprint Corporation, which would later be bought by T-Mobile US and folded into that company. Nextel in Brazil, and formerly in Argentina, Chile, Peru, the Philippines, and Mexico, is part of NII Holdings, a stand-alone, publicly traded company not owned by Sprint Corporation.
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Its largest shareholder is Deutsche Telekom, a German company that operates telecommunications networks in several other countries. T-Mobile is the third-largest wireless carrier in the United States, after Verizon and AT&T, with 31.43% of the market share as of June 13, 2024.
Public Mobile Inc. is a Canadian self-serve mobile brand which is owned by Telus. Launched on March 18, 2010, Public Mobile was one of several new Canadian cellphone providers that started in 2009–10 after a federal government initiative to encourage competition in the wireless sector.
Clearnet was a division of Telus Mobility launched in April 2011 to sell landline and mobile phone bundles in Western Canada. It was a revival of the Clearnet Communications brand name, which originally belonged to an independent cellular provider that was merged into Telus Mobility in 2000. Telus relaunched Clearnet as a discount provider with a "limited market trial" in Kelowna, British Columbia and Red Deer, Alberta.
Aio Wireless was a prepaid wireless service provider in the United States, wholly owned by AT&T Inc., launched in May 2013.
DISH Wireless L.L.C., doing business as Boost Mobile, is a United States wireless service provider owned by EchoStar. It operates using the Boost, AT&T and T-Mobile networks to deliver wireless services. As of Q3 2023, Boost Mobile, along with its sister brands Gen Mobile and Ting Mobile had 7.50 million customers.
US$ $694 million (Q4 2013)
