Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) was an analog mobile phone system standard originally developed by Bell Labs and later modified in a cooperative effort between Bell Labs and Motorola. It was officially introduced in the Americas on October 13, 1983, and was deployed in many other countries too, including Israel in 1986, Australia in 1987, Singapore in 1988, and Pakistan in 1990. It was the primary analog mobile phone system in North America through the 1980s and into the 2000s. As of February 18, 2008, carriers in the United States were no longer required to support AMPS and companies such as AT&T and Verizon Communications have discontinued this service permanently. AMPS was discontinued in Australia in September 2000, in Pakistan by October 2004, in Israel by January 2010, and Brazil by 2010.
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP, UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunication Union IMT-2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based on the competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network operators.
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter. Radio waves with frequencies above the UHF band fall into the super-high frequency (SHF) or microwave frequency range. Lower frequency signals fall into the VHF or lower bands. UHF radio waves propagate mainly by line of sight; they are blocked by hills and large buildings although the transmission through building walls is strong enough for indoor reception. They are used for television broadcasting, cell phones, satellite communication including GPS, personal radio services including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, walkie-talkies, cordless phones, satellite phones, and numerous other applications.
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 wireless telephone company 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 10.8 million subscribers as of Q3 2020.
Alltel Wireless was a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before acquisitions by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it served 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. It is a subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems Inc.. The company was formed in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. UScellular is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 4,900,000 subscribers in 426 markets in 23 states as of the third quarter of 2022. UScellular is also known for its excellence in customer service as they are rated at the top for customer satisfaction. The organization was previously known as United States Cellular Corporation and U.S. Cellular.
In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning, over a single broadband connection, of two bandwidth-intensive services, broadband Internet access and television, and the latency-sensitive telephone. Triple play focuses on a supplier convergence rather than solving technical issues or a common standard. However, standards like G.hn might deliver all these services on a common technology.
Tbaytel, formerly the Thunder Bay Telephone Company, is a municipally-owned telecommunications company operating in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and the surrounding area. Tbaytel's services include data, voice, wireless, internet, digital TV and security.
Dryden Municipal Telephone System (DMTS) is a formerly-municipally owned telephone company in Dryden, Ontario, Canada, offering local residential and business land line service within Dryden, long-distance service to Dryden and surrounding areas.
Ice Wireless is a Canadian mobile network operator and telecommunications company that provides 4G/LTE mobility services, mobile broadband Internet, and fixed line telephone in Canada's northern territories: Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Nunavik, Quebec. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Markham, Ontario.
Cellular frequencies in the United States are allocated by the US Federal Communications Commission. As cellular mobile telephone technology has evolved over time, periodically bands of frequencies are reassigned from other radio services. Companies wishing to provide cellular services in a geographic region compete for the right to license radio spectrum in spectrum auctions. Different cellular companies in the same region may use different levels of cellular technology and different parts of the radio spectrum. In addition to radio frequencies used to connect handsets with cellular base stations, other parts of the radio spectrum are used to interconnect base stations and the wired telephone network. Some frequency bands may be vulnerable to interference by existing services in adjacent frequency bands, such as UHF television broadcasting.
Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) is a wireless telecommunications spectrum band used for mobile voice and data services, video, and messaging. AWS is used in the United States, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. It replaces some of the spectrum formerly allocated to Multipoint Multichannel Distribution Service (MMDS), sometimes referred to as Wireless Cable, that existed from 2150 to 2162 MHz.
The United States 700 MHz FCC wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 73, was started by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on January 24, 2008 for the rights to operate the 700 MHz radio frequency band in the United States. The details of process were the subject of debate among several telecommunications companies, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, as well as the Internet company Google. Much of the debate swirled around the open access requirements set down by the Second Report and Order released by the FCC determining the process and rules for the auction. All bidding was required by law to commence by January 28.
West Central Wireless is a local mobile phone provider serving Central and West Texas based in San Angelo, Texas, in the United States, with satellite offices in Brady, Texas. Their cellular services consist of 850 MHz HSPA+ and GSM networks and an overlayed 700 MHz LTE network. The HSPA+ network began rollout in early 2012, with a deployment schedule stretching into late summer. CDMA services once existed due to the acquisition of Five Star Wireless offering wholesale roaming service providers, though services have been discontinued in 2019.
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which as of April 2023, holds a 53.3% majority stake in the company. T-Mobile US is the second-largest wireless carrier in the United States, with more than 110 million subscribers as of the end of Q2 2022.
Freedom Mobile Inc. is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider owned by Quebecor. It has 6% market share of the Canadian wireless market, mostly in urban areas of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Freedom Mobile is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 2,290,497 subscribers as of November 30, 2022.
In telecommunications, a multi-band device is a communication device that supports multiple radio frequency bands. All devices which have more than one channel use multiple frequencies; a band however is a group of frequencies containing many channels. Multiple bands in mobile devices support roaming between different regions where different standards are used for mobile telephone services. Where the bands are widely separated in frequency, parallel transmit and receive signal path circuits must be provided, which increases the cost, complexity and power demand of multi-band devices.
Indigo Wireless is a regional wireless telecommunications company in northern Pennsylvania. Based in Wellsboro, Indigo is often the only provider of service in its coverage area and is a local roaming partner for both AT&T and T-Mobile.
