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Wireless Telecom Timelines 2023

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Introduction:

Now, a simple timeline for your reference.

So, as I was putting together some regulation notes, I realized that there is no timeline to cover wireless telecom as a whole, or at least I could not find it. So, after going down this rabbit hole, I thought I would share with you what I have so far. This was work. Not everything is here and I skipped a few things.

Feel free to tell me if you have a better list. Most lists are just about one company or the history of a specific merger. Not all lists match, the dates are somewhat varied so I did the best I could to put it all here. Who can you trust?

I am not saying this is the best or most correct list, but based on what I could find, it’s the best I could do right now. That and this was driving me crazy for a week or so.

I hope you enjoy this but remember, it’s only a list with some comments in it. Really, not my final but something I wanted to share.

Yes, I did miss one or two things. I will continue to update. This was exhausting, but if you see a mistake or something I’ve missed, let me know, please.

1800s

  • 1844
    First telegraph message sent from Baltimore to Washington DC, thank you Samual Morse.
  • 1876
    Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call. The first wireline call was from Boston to Cambridge, 2 miles. Then later that year a 6 mile call was made between Brantford and Paris, Ontario, Canada. 
  • 1885
    AT&T became a company, technically a monopoly but hey, we started to have nationwide communications. This was the Bell System.
  • 1899
    Brown Telephone Company was formed by Cleyson L Brown, in Abilene, Ks

1900s

  • 1900
    Brown installed the first long distance line to compete with Bell, being an independent telco.
  • 1911
    Brown merged with 3 other telcos to form the United Telephone Company.
  • 1925
    UTC became United Telephone & Electric, (UT&E).
  • 1034
    The Communications Act of 1934 was passed, This was supposed to “combine and organize federal regulation of telephone, telegraph, and radio communications. The Act created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to oversee and regulate these industries.”
  • 1939
    UT&E (and Brown) renamed itself to United Utilities. Brown had declared bankruptcy in the early 1930s and restructured by creating United Utilities.
  • 1946
    Clarke McRae Williams receives Oak Ridge Telephone Company as a wedding gift and then purchases Marion Telephone Company.
  • 1963
    Microwave Communications Inc, (MCI) was formed when John Goeken filed with the FCC to create a microwave private line system between Chicago and St Louis. However, the company MCI wasn’t actually founded until 1968. Goeken’s dream was big, to construct microwave towers between the two cities and all points in between to have a solid microwave path connecting voice calls between the two cities. He was trying to compete with AT&T. Goeken said he could do it cheaper and better. Which he actually did keep that promise. At that time, AT&T saw him as small, but still a viable threat to their business. Suddenly, they had a competitor which, in those days, was a bad thing for the incumbent. This is why it took the FCC until 1968 to allow MCI to build the network. William McGowen became the CEA and put money into MCI, and then things got moving.
  • 1968
    McGowen setup Microwave Communications of America, announced that the 11,000 mile system would go through 40 states, and had affiliates to support MCI.
  • 1969
    The FCC authorizes the microwave system that MCI proposed. AT&T accused MCI of only picking the profitable routes. I can imagine how angry AT&T was at the FCC when MCI got the approvals. The FCC’s decision was a 4 to 3 decision, not a sweep. Think about that for a minute. AT&T and Western Union fought the approval.
  • 1971
    MCI hired Kenneth Cox. Cox was a former FCC Commissioner and his job was to lobby the FCC to break apart AT&T’s monopoly. They were very brave to take on a behemoth like AT&T. This is when the FCC actually allowed MCI to move forward.
    Oak Ridge Telephone renamed to Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc.
  • 1972
    United Utilities became United Telecommunications.
    MCI went public to raise capital to fund the project.
    Southern Pacific needed to name its long distance company, so it picked Sprint which stood for “Southern Pacific Railroad Intelligent Network of Telecommunications”.
    Century Telephone acquired La Crosse Telephone Corporation in Wisconsin.
  • 1973
    MCI renamed and restructured itself, they were now MCI Communications Corporation, (it’s funny because technically it’s name is microwave communication incorporates communications company). The company was in serious financial trouble. The FCC really did want competition so MCI asked for and got permission to allow FX lines
    FYI – FX lines are foreign exchange service (FX) is really just voice line access outside the local telco’s area. Hence the name is foreign. But to be honest, it’s a voice line with numbers. Basically, a voice line connecting the FXO, foreign exchange office to the FXS, foreign exchange subscriber.
    McCaw Communications, a paging and broadcast company run by Craaig McCaw after it was nearly shut down, and started to build a large cable empire called McCaw Communications Companies, Inc.
  • 1974
    Antitrust suits against AT&T begin. MCI filed one against AT&T asking for damages and then the Department of Justice (DoJ) filed theirs against AT&T. Let the Bell break up begin!
    MCI was expanding, but not making money. If you run a business, making money helps keep you running the business.
    MCI was bleeding money from 1973 to 1975.
    McCaw gets into the common carrier business, offering paging to its customers.
  • 1975
    A division of South Pacific Company (SPC), South Pacific Communications Company, filed with the FCC to provide long distance to compete with AT&T using the lines they ran alongside South Pacific Railroad, another division of SPC.
  • 1977
    American Radio Telephone Service and Motorola start a Joint venture called Cellular One.
  • 1980
    United Telecommunications started to build a 23,000-mile fiber optic network for long distance communications.
  • 1981
    Craig McCaw, now CEO of McCaw Communications, read an AT&T document that cellular would have over 900,000 subscribers by the turn of the century.
  • 1982
    The US DoJ commands AT&T to break apart, set to be complete in 1982,
    General Telephone and Electronics, GTE, agrees to buy SPC’s long-distance service, Sprint. This deal was finalized in 1983.
  • 1983
    AT&T Corp breaks up the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) expected to be 1) The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, 2) New Jersey Bell, 3) Diamond State Telephone, 4) C&P Telephone.
    Cellular One offers services in Baltimore and Washington DC.
    The FCC could not handle all the cellular license applications, so they went to a lottery system.
    McCaw files for cellular licenses and starts to build out its network. Craig McCaw had been buying licenses for the past several years.
  • 1984
    AT&T broken up and becomes what we called, at that time, the baby Bells officially split: 1) Ameritech – someone I don’t think I dealt with often, 2) Bell Atlantic – A very good Bell company, 3) BellSouth – OK to deal with, 4) NYNEX – a company I hated to deal with and in my opinion was terrible to work with, 5) Pacific Telesis – someone hard to deal with but fair, 6) Southwest Bell – I didn’t do much business with them, 7) US West – I think they were OK to work with,
    McCaw purchases Dominion Cellular.
  • 1985
    McCaw purchases MCI Airsignal, closing in 1986
    McCaw buys MaxCell Telecom Plus and Charisma Communications.
  • 1986
    GTE Sprint merged with United Telecom Company’s US Telecom. The new name? Sprint. Sprint stood for “Southern Pacific Railroad Intelligent Network of Telecommunications”. Sprint was in Carlisle, Pa, and they were wonderful to deal with.
    GTE spins off its Sprint division, I dealt with GTE in York, Pa, and they were very hard to work with,
    McCaw begins to sell off its paging to Mobile Communications and cable assets to Jack Kent Cooke.
    Cincinnati Bell buys 45% of Ameritech Cellular
  • 1987
    Fleet Call formed and later became Nextel.
    McCaw Cellular Communications purchased MCI Communications.
    Southwestern Bell Company acquired Cellular One which was the cellular division of Metromedia. At that time Metromedia was a paging and cellular company.
    United Telecom officially becomes Sprint
  • 1988
    Pacific Northwest Cellular was founded. They later renamed themselves as VoiceStream. At that time, voice was the future.
  • 1989
    United Telecommunications long distance service was profitable for the first time.
    Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems and McCaw Communications came together to form Cellular One Group.
  • 1990
    United Telecom completes its acquisition of Sprint.
    McCaw partners with AT&T as a technology partner.
    Thanks to McCaw, Cellular One started to use SS7 across the network for their cellular connections to the tower.
  • 1992
    Vanguard Cellular Systems joined Cellular One Group.
    AT&T purchases 33% of McCaw Cellular.
  • 1993
    Sprint entered the wireless market by purchasing Centel, then based in Chicago and the 10th largest cellular carrier operating across 22 states.
    Fleet Call becomes Nextel.
  • 1994
    AT&T Wireless acquired the rest of McCaw Cellular. They started using AT&T Wireless Group as their name.
    Pacific Telesis spins off its cellular company as Airtouch.
    John Stanton founded VoiceStream Wireless as a spin off of Western Wireless Corporation.
  • 1995
    Southwest Bell Cellular changes its official name to SBC.
    Cellular One opens up membership to affiliates. They served over 5 million customers and covered 69% of the US population.
    SNET, Southern New England Telephone, an AT&T affiliate, joined the Cellular One Partnership.
  • 1996
    Sprint partners with Radio Shack to sell phones
    Bill Clinton’s Telecom Reform Act was passed in 1996. This was supposed to be “An act to promote competition and reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality services for American telecommunications consumers and encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies.” PDF found here.
    Qwest is formed.
    Radio Shack declares bankruptcy closing 1,440 stores, later  sues Sprint claiming Sprint used the Radio Shack data to locate its own stores.
  • 1997
    SBC acquired Pacific Telesis.
    WorldCom, a long distance company, acquired MCI, another long distance company forming WorldCom MCI. Yes, long distance companies were huge back then and very profitable. I remember paying over 25 cents a minute was considered a good deal and that the long distance plans were so complicated.
    Bell Atlantic acquired NYNEX.
    Century Telephone purchases Pacific Telesis,
  • 1998
    Sprint builds its headquarters in Overland Park, Ks. A huge campus.
    Cincinnati Bell Wireless (CBW) is formed to serve southeast Indiana and Western Ohio. Cincinnati Bell buys 80% of AT&T Wireless’ Cincinnati Dayton PCS network.
  • 1999
    SBC acquired Ameritech.
    Airtouch and Vodafone UK merge to form Vodafone Airtouch. Creative name, right?
    VoiceStream spun off from Western Wireless Corp.

2000s

  • 2000
    Qwest takes over US West.
    Vodafone Airtouch combined with Bell Atlantic to create Verizon Wireless, Vodafone owned 45% and Bell Atlantic owned 55%.
    On the landline side, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE to create Verizon.  FYI Verizon is a combination of veritas (Latin for certainty or reliability) and horizon (visionary and forward-looking), taking the Ver and adding izon to form Verizon.
    VoiceStream Wireless acquired Omnipoint Communications and Aerial Communications Inc.
    Century sells wireless business to AllTel. 
  • 2001
    Cingular is formed when SBC combines with BellSouth.
    German Deutsche Telekom AG took over American companies VoiceStream and Powertel Inc.
    VoiceStream becomes T-Mobile US, an entity of T-Mobile International. A subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG.
  • 2002
    AT&T spins off AT&T Wireless Services.
    VoiceStream officially became T-Mobile (still owned by Deutsche Telekom in Germany).
  • 2003
    ClearWire is formed and offers WiMAX service
    WorldCom changes its name to MCI after accounting scandal
  • 2004
    Cingular takes over AT&T Wireless. Cingular was 40% owned by Bellsouth and 60% by SBC Communications, both Baby Bells.
    Qwest sells off its wireless division, keeping landlines, and becomes a reseller for Sprint.
    Sprint merges with Nextel forming Sprint Nextel. The goal was to increase Sprint’s subscriber base, but the networks had literally nothing in common and could not be easily merged. What really happened was that drove away customers and on top of the loss of subs, they took a $37B loss.
    Verizon launched Fios Internet in Keller, Tx, using fiber to the home, FTTH.
  • 2005
    Verizon takes over MCI.
    SBC acquired AT&T, keeping the AT&T name.
    Verizon acquired MCI.
    Verizon launched Fios TV in Keller, Tx.
  • 2006
    AT&T takes over BellSouth, renames Cingular Wireless to AT&T.
    Verizon loses its Telephone Directory Service.
    Cincinnati Bell bought out all of Cingular’s share of Cincinnati Bell Wireless.
  • 2007
    Verizon sells off landlines in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to FairPoint Communications.
    Verizon sued and won against Vonage for patent infringement, Vonage appealed and lost, $120 million settlement.
    Verizon acquired CyberTrust, they provide information security services.
  • 2008
    Qwest drops Sprint and becomes reseller for Verizon Wireless
    Sprint Nextel forms Xohm, (a 4G WiMAX provider) and merges it with Clearwire taking a 54% ownership claim.
    Verizon takes over Rural Cellular Corp.
    T-Mobile acquired SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc.
    CenturyTel acquired Embarq and becomes CenturyLink. Embarq was the landline side of Sprint.
  • 2009
    Sprint’s Clearwire is renamed Clear. Xohm name is phased out.
    Verizon spun off more wirelines, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin to Frontier Communications.
    Verizon completes Alltel purchaser gaining 13 million subscribers to pass AT&T subscriber count.
  • 2010
    Verizon opens up 4G service in several markets.
    While this is not USA, it is T-Mobile related, T-Home and T-Mobile German merged to form a new DT subsidiary to become Telekom Deutschland  Gmbh and was no longer T-Mobile. Then T-Mobile UK became part of France Telecom’s UK and Orange (UK) joint venture to name it EE and it became the UK’s largest mobile network operator.
  • 2011
    AT&T attempted to take over T-Mobile, but it failed, which made Sprint very happy since they were considering a merger with T-Mobile.
    CenturyLink buys Qwest formerly US West.
    Verizon bought Telemark Worldwide, an IT services company.
    Verizon takes over CloudSwitch.
  • 2012
    T-Mobile mergers with MetroPCS Communications which closed in 2013 and the new leadership, John Legere, will lead for the next decade or so.
    Verizon buys Hughes Telematics, entering the automobile market with wireless products and services.
    Verizon completes purchase of AWS spectrum from Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.
  • 2013
    SoftBank invests in Sprint and takes 70% ownership.
    T-Mobile buys spectrum from US Cellular for $308 Million.
    Verizon buys upLink.
    Verizon buys EdgeCast.
    T-Mobile is now the “un-carrier”.
    TMUS goes public on the NYSE.
    Sprint and Softbank attempt to acquire a stake in T-Mobile US.
  • 2014
    T-Mobile buys 700MHz spectrum from Verizon Wireless for 2.365B.
    Verizon completes its buyback of Vodaphone’s 45% stake in Verizon.
    Verizon buys Intel Media.
  • 2015
    Sprint’s Clear is to be shuttered.
    Verizon acquired AOL, (what a disaster!).
    Verizon spun management of its tower division to American Tower Corp, ATC.
    AT&T purchases DirectTV and Time Warner.
    T-Mobile passes Sprint as the new #3 carrier in the US.
  • 2016
    SBC Communications buys AT&T and adopts the AT&T name.
    The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the FCC’s net neutrality rules which made broadband access a public utility, no longer a luxury. The telecom industry appealed the decision.
    Verizon Communications buys XO Communications’ fiber business.
    Verizon takes over Social Radar.
    Verizon takes over Fleetmatics.
    Verizon takes over Telogis.
    Verizon takes over Sensity.
  • 2017
    Verizon takes over Yahoo.
    Verizon buys Straight Path Communications.
    Sprint and T-Mobile end merger talks.
  • 2018
    T-Mobile starts the takeover of Sprint, with the blessing of SoftBank and an all-stock deal.
    Verizon takes over Niddel.
  • 2019
    Verizon rebranded the media division as Verizon Media, which included AOL and Yahoo.
    DISH Wireless enters the mobile market as part of an agreement to allow T-Mobile and Sprint to merge.
  • 2020
    T-Mobile and Sprint merger completed, Sprint name removed and terminated.
    T-Mobile acquired Assurance Wireless as part of the Sprint merger.
    Qwest became Lumen Technologies.
    Verizon launched a search engine, OneSearch.
    Verizon acquired BlueJeans Video Conferencing Service.
    DISH Wireless officially purchases Boost Mobile.
    CenturyLink, Inc becomes Lumen Technologies, Inc.
  • 2021
    Verizon completes acquisition of TracFone from American Movil.
    Verizon wins C Band spectrum from FCC Auction.
    DISH Wireless signs an agreement with AT&T to become MVNO.
  • 2022
    DISH goes live on their network in Las Vegas.
  • 2023
    T-Mobile acquired Ka’ena Corporation who owns Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile.
    DISH Wireless officially achieves 70% per FCC requirements for 5G coverage as required in the merger.

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