Pocket Communications

Last updated
Pocket Communications Laredo branch office. Pocket Laredo.jpg
Pocket Communications Laredo branch office.

Pocket Communications was a PCS CDMA 1xRTT provider of unlimited cellular phone service based in San Antonio, Texas, United States. [1] 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.

Contents

Aside from its company owned, small store distribution strategy, Pocket had a number of other innovative marketing strategies. Whereas traditional flat rate operators MetroPCS and Cricket built small coverage areas, recruited third party retailers to operate stores as dealers, and outsourced customer service, Pocket ran company-owned stores, its own call center, and built a wide area footprint that exceeded the coverage of all other cellular operators.

In addition, Pocket created a SaaS "handset unlocking" product called Houdini that enabled locked CDMA devices from Verizon, Sprint, and other CDMA operators to be unlocked and re-programmed to operate on Pocket's network. This accounted for over 30% of total Pocket customers. Despite lobbying by the large cellular operators, unlocking cellphones remained a protected activity under DMCA rules and regulations. As a result of success in its own local markets, Pocket eventually spun out a separate company called Houdinisoft that unlocked over 3 million cellphones for 20+ other CDMA operators.

Pocket took on private equity investment in order to expand its operations to the New York/Boston corridor but the 2008 financial market meltdown combined with the launch of a flat rate flanker brand Boost Mobile by Sprint quickly led to a decision to sell the Northeast operations to MetroPCS completing unbroken coverage between their Boston and New York markets., Metro PCS relaunched service on the former Pocket network in March 2011.

Posner went on to form a technology incubator called Carnegie Technologies based in Austin, Texas. Carnegie developed products in satellite communications, IoT, fintech, and cellular/WiFi convergence.

Joint Venture

October 1 Leap (Cricket) acquires Pocket Communications South Texas market. [2]

Markets

The markets in Texas for Pocket Communications included San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo, and the Rio Grande Valley. [3] Pocket also served Hartford, Connecticut, New Haven, Connecticut, Waterbury, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts markets.

See also

Related Research Articles

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.

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.

GSM frequency bands or frequency ranges are the cellular frequencies designated by the ITU for the operation of GSM mobile phones and other mobile devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alltel</span> Former American telecommunications company

Alltel was a landline, wireless and general telecommunications services provider, primarily based in the United States. Before its wireless division was acquired by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Alltel provided cellular service to 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition by Verizon, a small portion of Alltel was spun off and continued to operate under the same name in six states, mostly in rural areas. Following the merger, Alltel remained the ninth largest wireless telecommunications company in the United States, with approximately 800,000 customers. On January 22, 2013, AT&T announced they were acquiring what remained of Alltel from Atlantic Tele-Network for $780 million in cash.

United States Cellular Corporation is an American mobile network operator. Its stock is publicly traded, but Telephone and Data Systems Inc. owns a controlling stake. The company was formed in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. UScellular is the fifth-largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 4,656,000 subscribers in 426 markets in 21 states as of the 2nd quarter of 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sprint Corporation</span> Defunct American telecommunications company

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 American telecommunications company

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cricket Wireless</span> American wireless service provider and subsidiary of AT&T

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claro Company</span> Mexican wireless operator

Claro Company, known as Claro Mexico in Mexico, or simply Claro, is a Latin American telecommunications company, part of América Móvil, a Mexican telecom group. Claro serves clients in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay. The company's name means "bright," "clear," and also "of course," in both Portuguese and Spanish.

LG Uplus Corp. (Korean: LG유플러스; stylized as LG U+, KRX: 032640) is a South Korean mobile network operator owned by LG Corporation. It was formerly known as LG Telecom, but changed to its current name on July 1, 2010. LG Uplus is the third-largest wireless carrier in South Korea, with 16.652 million subscribers as of Q4 2020.

The term, Subsidy Password, is used by Motorola and other handset manufacturers to refer to the 8-digit code unlock code necessary to remove the operator lock from cell phones. This code is randomly assigned to individual cell phones by the OEM on request of the mobile service operator and prevents the use of a particular phone on a cellular network other than that to which the phone was originally sold.

Kyocera Communications, Inc. is an American manufacturer of mobile phones for wireless service providers in the United States and Canada. Kyocera Communications, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyocera Corporation, which also manufactures mobile phones for the Japanese wireless market under various brands.

Leap Wireless International, Inc. was a telecommunications operator that provided wireless services to approximately 4.6 million subscribers, the 5th largest, through its subsidiary, Cricket Communications, Inc.. It was headquartered in San Diego, California. Leap Wireless and Cricket Wireless are now subsidiaries of AT&T.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Central Wireless</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nextel</span> Former telecommunications company

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.

Consumer Cellular, Inc. is an American postpaid mobile virtual network operator founded by John Marick and Greg Pryor in Portland, Oregon in October 1995. The company offers cellphones, no-contract cellphone plans, and accessories with a focus on users over age 50. Including its corporate headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, Consumer Cellular is completely U.S. based, employing more than 3,100 people in Arizona, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LG Optimus One</span> Series of entry-level touch-screen smartphones manufactured by LG Electronics

The LG Optimus One is an entry-level series of touch-screen smartphones manufactured by LG Electronics, Inc. It was released running the Android 2.2 Froyo, and later LG released software to upgrade it to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Although the basic physical form factor of each variant is the same, the variants have differences in hard button shape and layout, the form of the metal side bezel and the user interfaces added by LG or various carriers. Versions of the Optimus One exist that operate on various frequency bands and either GSM or CDMA-based network protocols. They may also feature one or more variations in hardware, such as a faster processor, the addition of a physical keyboard, a modem with higher theoretical speeds, or a better digital camera.

mobi (company) Hawaiʻi wireless carrier

mobi, Inc. is a wireless carrier founded in 2004 and based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. The company provides service on each of the major islands of Hawaiʻi, as well as on the mainland United States through roaming agreements with other carriers.

References

  1. "Cricket, Pocket merger final". The Monitor. Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2011-07-29.
  2. "Leap forges JV with Pocket Communications". FierceWireless. 2010-02-23. Retrieved 2014-07-26.
  3. Pocket Northeast Region Coverage Archived 2009-02-16 at the Wayback Machine