AirTouch
 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Nasdaq: AIT | |
| Industry | Cellular Communications |
| Predecessor | Pacific Telesis |
| Founded | March 5, 1994[1] |
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Fate | Merged with Vodafone into AirTouch by Vodafone, then was merged with Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Wireless |
| Successor | Verizon Wireless |
| Headquarters | One California Financial District, San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Products | Cellular Telephone Service, Paging |
| Website | airtouchinc |
AirTouch Communications, Inc. was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off of Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were located in the One California building in the Financial District of San Francisco, California.[2] After a series of mergers, the company's vestiges are now part of Verizon.
History
At the time of the Bell System divestiture in 1984, each Regional Bell Operating Company (Baby Bell) was given a portion of the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) network corresponding to its service area. Pacific Telesis, the Baby Bell covering California and Nevada, spun off its wireless services as AirTouch Communications in 1994.[3]
US West's US West New Vector was also created from AMPS. In July 1994, U S West agreed to a joint venture with AirTouch as a prelude to merging the cellular unit into AirTouch.[4] By 1996, all accounts were operated under the AirTouch name. Due to regulatory issues,[5] the full merger was not completed until February 1998.[6] As part of the merger, certain overlapping areas of coverage had to be sold to other wireless providers. Many of these went to GTE Wireless.
On June 30, 1999, AirTouch Communications merged with UK-based Vodafone, becoming Vodafone AirTouch, after rejecting overtures from Bell Atlantic.[7][8] In September 1999, Vodafone AirTouch announced a $70-billion joint venture with Bell Atlantic to be called Verizon Wireless, which would be composed of the two companies' U.S. wireless assets, Bell Atlantic Mobile (another AMPS spinoff) and AirTouch Cellular.[9] This wireless joint venture received regulatory approval in six months, and began operations as Verizon Wireless on April 4, 2000. On June 30, 2000, the addition of GTE Wireless' assets, in connection with the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Communications, made Verizon Wireless the nation's largest wireless communications provider. For the joint venture, Verizon Communications owned 55% and Vodafone owned 45%. AirTouch Paging was re-branded as Verizon Wireless Messaging Services. In June 2006, Verizon Wireless sold the paging division to American Messaging Services.[10] In 2014, Verizon Communications purchased the 45% owned by Vodafone, making Verizon Wireless a wholly owned subsidiary.
Verizon Wireless still maintains a call center in some of the buildings that used to house AirTouch Cellular's call center and administrative offices.
See also
References
- ^ "AirTouch.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
- ^ "Contact Information". AirTouch. Retrieved on January 10, 2010.
- ^ "Vodafone". Archived from the original on 2005-10-27. Retrieved 2005-12-10.
- ^ Bhattacherjee, Anol (1997). "U S West Global Village" (PDF). p. 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-07-06.
- ^ Federal tax legislation could force renegotiation of AirTouch/U S West deal
- ^ It's getting final: AirTouch to acquire U S West wireless properties
- ^ iWon Archived 2006-05-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "WIRELESS TELECOMMUNCATIONS [sic] BUREAU APPROVES AIRTOUCH/VODAFONE MERGER" (Press release). Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
- ^ Deblauwe, Francis (2000-01-07). "Bell Atlantic/Vodafone AirTouch/GTE US Mobile Partnership overview" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-08-17. Retrieved 2005-12-10.
- ^ "American Messaging Becomes the Second Largest Paging Company in the United States with the Acquisition of the Paging Operations of Verizon Wireless". www.businesswire.com. 2006-06-06. Retrieved 2020-07-07.