His network of licenses in the major markets was used as a lever to buy, sell or trade licenses in other markets that were not considered profitable, at a considerable discount. The Baby Bells started the process of buying their own licenses, only to find that McCaw owned enough of most of the major markets to lock them out unless they purchased spare licenses from him, at a huge profit. It was around this time that the first wave of analog cellular telephones were starting to enter the consumer consciousness. In 1987 he sold the cable business for $755 million and used this new capital to buy even more cellular licenses. McCaw then succeeded in using the licenses and collateral, based on the AT&T projections, using that collateral to take out loans and buy more licenses, and eventually buying billions of dollars of spectrum. By 1983, McCaw Communications had purchased licenses in six of the 30 largest US markets. Intrigued, McCaw found that the licenses for cellular spectrum were being sold at $4.50 per "pop", meaning he could build a base for future subscribers for very low cost. In 1981 McCaw came across an AT&T document about the future of cellular telephony, which predicted that by the start of the 21st century there would be 900,000 cellular subscribers in the United States. Craig took an increasingly central role in the development of McCaw Communications, and by the early 1980s had grown the company from 2,000 subscribers to about $5 million in annual revenue. Elroy McCaw sold one of his cable television holdings in Centralia, Washington to his three sons, including Craig who was 16 years old at the time. In 2002, the company was spun off from AT&T to become AT&T Wireless Services. AT&T purchased 33% of the company in 1992 and arranged a merger in 1994 that made Craig McCaw one of AT&T's largest shareholders. Partnering with AT&T as a technology provider, McCaw introduced their "Cellular One" service in 1990, the first truly national cellular system. The company purchased MCI Communications's mobile businesses in 1986, followed by LIN Broadcasting in 1989, giving them widespread access in all of the major US markets. Savvy licensing of cellular spectrum in the early 1980s put McCaw Cellular in an extremely strong position, quickly outpacing the growth of the "Baby Bells" in the emerging market. Main article: McCaw Cellular CommunicationsĪT&T Wireless began in 1987 as McCaw Cellular Communications, a cellular telephone pioneer in the United States. After the merger, Cingular was renamed AT&T Mobility in late 2006 and remained the largest wireless carrier until 2009 when Verizon Wireless acquired Alltel to become the largest wireless service provider by a number of subscribers. Cingular became wholly owned by the new AT&T in December 2006 as a result of the new AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth. In late 2005, SBC (the majority partner in Cingular) acquired the original AT&T, and rebranded as "the new AT&T".
The legal entity "AT&T Wireless Services, Inc." was renamed "New Cingular Wireless Services, Inc." On November 16, 2004, AT&T Wireless stores were rechristened under the Cingular banner. On October 26, 2004, AT&T Wireless was acquired by Cingular Wireless, a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth, to form the largest wireless carrier in the United States at the time.
AT&T Wireless Services, formerly part of AT&T Corp., 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.
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