Western Wireless Corporation

Last updated
Western Wireless Corporation
Company type Private
NASDAQ WWCA
IndustryWireless telecommunications
Predecessor Pacific Northwest Cellular
General Cellular Corporation
Founded1988 (1988) (as Stanton Communications)
Founder John W. Stanton
Theresa Gillespie
DefunctAugust 1, 2005 (2005-08-01)
FateMerged with Alltel Corporation
Successor Alltel Corporation
Headquarters,
United States
Area served
19 states
Key people
John W. Stanton, Chairman and CEO
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$1,917,721 million (2004)
Increase2.svg US$308,343 million (2004)
Increase2.svg US$232,876 million (2004)
Total assets Increase2.svg US$3,118,801 million (2004)
Total equity Increase2.svg US$264,012 million (2004)
Number of employees
2,495 (as of 2004-12-31)
Subsidiaries Western Wireless International Corporation
VoiceStream Wireless
Footnotes /references
[1] [2] [3]

Western Wireless Corporation was a cellular network operator that provided mobile telecommunications service to subscribers in 19 western states in the United States, and seven other countries. Western Wireless marketed analog cellular service under the CELLULAR ONE brand in 88 FCC-defined rural service areas and digital PCS service under the VoiceStream brand in 19 FCC-defined metropolitan service areas. At its peak in 2004, Western Wireless provided service to 1.4 million domestic subscribers. Western Wireless obtained additional revenue from the international operations of its Western Wireless International Corporation subsidiary, which was licensed to provide wireless communications services in seven countries to a total of 1.8 million subscribers.

Contents

Western Wireless traces its roots to Stanton Communications, founded in 1988 by John W. Stanton and Theresa Gillespie. Western Wireless was formed in 1994 by the merger of two other Stanton controlled entities, Pacific Northwest Cellular and General Cellular Corporation. Western Wireless became a publicly traded company in 1996. Western Wireless spun off its VoiceStream Wireless subsidiary in 1999, which was later purchased by Deutsche Telekom AG in 2001. Deutsche Telekom renamed VoiceStream Wireless to T-Mobile USA in 2002.

Western Wireless merged with Alltel Corporation in August 2005. After the merger, Alltel sold Western Wireless' international assets.

History

From its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, United States, Western Wireless Corporation provided wireless communications service in 19 western states. The company initially specialized in providing cellular service to rural areas under the Cellular One brand, but expanded into urban areas by acquiring PCS spectrum licenses, building out digital networks and providing services under the VoiceStream brand. [4]

Western Wireless traces its roots to Stanton Communications, founded by John W. Stanton and Theresa Gillespie in 1988. [2] [5] Stanton Communications invested in communications related businesses, including cellular, paging, telephone answering, alarm system monitoring, voice mail, radio broadcasting and private cable television. Stanton Communications invested in private cable television in the Soviet Union and cellular communications service in Hong Kong. [5]

Stanton was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Northwest Cellular, established in 1992. The company grew to become the United States' eighth-largest independent cellular company. [5]

Stanton was elected chairman of the board of directors for General Cellular Corporation in 1992, when Stanton Communications and investment firm Hellman and Friedman acquired a controlling interest in the company. [5]

Stanton and Hellman and Friedman created Western Wireless Corporation in August, 1994 by merging Pacific Northwest Cellular and General Cellular Corporation. The merged entity took the name Western Wireless Corporation and through the merger created what the company called the "largest rural cellular-service provider in the United States." At the time of the merger, the company offered service in 16 western and mid-western states with service areas covering 5.2 million potential customers. [1] [2]

Western Wireless became a publicly traded company in May 1996, offering 12.65 million shares traded on the NASDAQ under the stock ticker symbol WWCA. Combined with a separate public bond offering, the company raised US$430 million in net proceeds.

On May 3, 1999, Western Wireless spun off its VoiceStream Wireless division to Western Wireless shareholders, creating an independent, publicly traded Delaware corporation called VoiceStream Wireless Corporation. [6] Shares of VoiceStream Wireless traded on the NASDAQ under the stock ticker symbol VSTR. The spin off was intended to remove any conglomerate discount, get better value recognition for each of Western Wireless' core analog cellular and digital PCS networks and help each business pursue independent strategies. [7] VoiceStream was purchased by Deutsche Telekom in 2001 for US$30 billion and renamed T-Mobile USA in 2002. [2]

On January 9, 2005, Western Wireless entered into a merger agreement with Little Rock, Arkansas-based telecommunications provider Alltel in which Alltel agreed to pay $6 billion in stock-and-cash to Western Wireless shareholders. Western Wireless shareholders voted on July 29, 2005, eleven years to the day after Western Wirless was incorporated, to accept a US$4.4 billion stock-and-cash offer from Alltel. The merger closed on August 1, 2005. At the time, the merger created the fifth largest wireless communications provider in the United States with 10 million customers in 33 states. [2]

Western Wireless International

Western Wireless subsidiary Western Wireless International Corporation held mobile licenses in several countries outside the United States including: Austria (Tele.Ring), Ireland (Meteor Mobile Communications), Slovenia (Vega), Haiti (ComCel), Bolivia (Viva), Iceland (TAL), Croatia (vipnet), Georgia, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire covering about 1.8 million subscribers in 2005. [2]

After Alltel acquired Western Wireless, non-core international assets were sold. Alltel sold Meteor to Irish telecoms incumbent, eircom and sold Tele.Ring to T-Mobile Austria. In Slovenia, the assets of Vega were split between the two main network operators.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Corr 1994.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Duryee 2005.
  3. SEC 2005.
  4. SEC 1996.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Harvard Business School 2011.
  6. FCC 2001.
  7. Heberlein 1998.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T-Mobile (brand)</span> Brand of telecommunications service by Deutsche Telekom

T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic, Poland and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celcom</span> Malaysian Telecommunications Company

Celcom Axiata Berhad is the oldest mobile telecommunications provider in Malaysia. Celcom is a member of the Axiata group of companies. Celcom was merged with Digi to form CelcomDigi on 1 December 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AT&T Mobility</span> American telecommunications company

AT&T Mobility, LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the second largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 114.5 million subscribers as of March 31, 2024.

Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divisions Verizon Consumer and Verizon Business, and stopped using the Verizon Wireless name. Verizon has 114.8 million subscribers as of March 31, 2024. It currently has the largest network in the United States with their LTE network covering 70% of the United States.

AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., formerly part of AT&T Corporation, was a wireless telephone carrier founded in 1987 in the United States, based in Redmond, Washington, and later traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol "AWE", as a separate entity from its former parent.

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. Its headquarters were located in Houston, Texas.

Cellular One is the trademarked brand name that licenses services used by several cellular service providers in the United States. The brand was sold to Trilogy Partners by AT&T in 2008 shortly after AT&T had completed its acquisition of Dobson Communications. Cellular One was originally the trade name of one of the first mobile telephone service providers.

<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.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SunCom</span> American mobile cellular provider

SunCom Wireless Holdings, Inc. was a wireless carrier that operated in the Southeastern United States since 1999 and in parts of the Caribbean since 2004. From the "About Us" section of the company's website:

Unicel was a brand of mobile phone service from Rural Cellular Corporation. Service was provided in northern Minnesota, northern New England, Mississippi, Alabama, eastern Washington and Oregon, and adjacent areas. The company was headquartered in Alexandria, Minnesota. Until 2005, RCC also operated 850 MHz cellular service under the brand name Cellular 2000. On January 25, 2009 Verizon Wireless officially took over all operations of Unicel.

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">John W. Stanton</span> American businessman

John W. Stanton is an American businessman. He is the chairman of the board of Trilogy International Partners, as well as the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB).

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T-Mobile US</span> American telecommunications company

T-Mobile US, Inc., often shortened as T-Mobile, is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, a German company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. As of April 2023, the European company holds a 51.4% majority stake in the company. T-Mobile US is the second-largest wireless carrier in the United States, after Verizon, with 31.43% of the market share as of June 13, 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATN International</span> American telecommunications company

ATN International, Inc. (ATN) formerly known as Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc., is a publicly traded telecommunications company that is headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts. It operates digital wireless, wireline, and both terrestrial and submarine fiber optic networks, serving markets that are geographically separated and technically challenging, such as the plains, deserts, and mountainous areas of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powertel (United States)</span> Mobile network operator

Powertel Inc. was a mobile network operator headquartered in West Point, Georgia, 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.

The history of AT&T dates back to the invention of the telephone. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell, who obtained the first US patent for the telephone, and his father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Bell and Hubbard also established American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885, which acquired the Bell Telephone Company and became the primary telephone company in the United States. This company maintained an effective monopoly on local telephone service in the United States until anti-trust regulators agreed to allow AT&T to retain Western Electric and enter general trades computer manufacture and sales in return for its offer to split the Bell System by divesting itself of ownership of the Bell Operating Companies in 1982.

References