Dobson Cellular
Encyclopedia
Dobson Cellular Systems, Inc. now part of AT&T Mobility, was a wireless telecommunications provider in several regions of the United States, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Dobson Cellular Systems was a wholly owned subsidiary of Dobson Communications Corporation based in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...

. It was the provider of Cellular One
Cellular One
Cellular One is the trademarked brand name used by several cellular service providers in the United States and Bermuda. The brand was sold to Trilogy Partners by AT&T in 2008 shortly after AT&T had completed its acquisition of Dobson Communications...

-branded services in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Dobson operated under the brand name of Cellular One
Cellular One
Cellular One is the trademarked brand name used by several cellular service providers in the United States and Bermuda. The brand was sold to Trilogy Partners by AT&T in 2008 shortly after AT&T had completed its acquisition of Dobson Communications...

, and provided service on a D-AMPS and GSM network. The company purchased the rights to the Cellular One name from Alltel
Alltel
Alltel Corporation is a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before an acquisition by Verizon Wireless, it served 34 states. After the merger, Alltel continues to serve six states, mostly in rural areas...

 in December 2005.

Corporate history

Formed in the 1920s, Dobson Communications originally operated a small wireline telephone network in Oklahoma. In 70 years, Dobson had evolved to become the nation's largest independent rural wireless provider. Dobson's operations in 60 markets were acquired through several purchases within the last 10 years.

On June 29, 2007 AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

 announced that they had reached an agreement to purchase Dobson Cellular division. The closing price was $2.8B USD, or $13 per share. AT&T also agreed to assume the outstanding debt of $2.3B USD.

The sale completed on November 15, 2007, with market transition beginning December 9, 2007. The Cellular One
Cellular One
Cellular One is the trademarked brand name used by several cellular service providers in the United States and Bermuda. The brand was sold to Trilogy Partners by AT&T in 2008 shortly after AT&T had completed its acquisition of Dobson Communications...

 brand name was sold to Trilogy Partners in February 2008.

The Federal government prevented AT&T from taking certain Dobson markets In Kentucky along the Ohio border and the I75 corridor, due to the potential monopoly this would create in this area. After placing these markets in a trust for one year, they were sold to Verizon wireless in November 2008 with market transition to be completed by November 2009.

Network

Dobson was, for the most part, a rural provider. It claimed to be the largest provider of cellular services in Alaska as well as in Michigan. It was also the exclusive provider of GSM technology in many of its markets and has a few resellers such as TracFone and smaller MVNOs in particular states. It also provided voice and data roaming capability for many AT&T and T-Mobile customers. Dobson had recently upgraded a majority of its GSM/GPRS towers with an EDGE
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM...

overlay, providing an even faster data rate for their customers.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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