iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| reply to Noah Vail
Re: Up and coming prepaid operators Sorry, I don't get subtle humor this early in the morning 
There are plenty of GSM operators who own their own networks in the US...their own towers, transmitters, all that. Heck, Sprint doesn't own any of their towers anymore, but companies like CinBell do.
CinBell does indeed run their own network, hence the regional reach. They roam on T-Mobile outside of their home coverage area if I remember correctly.
WCW also runs their own network. They own some of their own towers, rent space off of others, and use a lot of microwave backhauls to get (a small amount of) bandwidth to more remote towers. They use Nortel equipment for most of their network, and are GSM/EDGE only at this point.
I'm pretty sure WCW has been around since before 2004, though at that point their network was TDMA or analog rather than GSM. I know the component that's where I live (former Five Star Wireless) has been around for 15+ years; the company moved from analog to TDMA, then to CDMA, then to GSM as their primary technology, though they're keeping their CDMA towers online until roaming revenue runs low.
What's interesting is that WCW owns the 850MHz band in all the markets they serve (the B side license, to be exact). AT&T owns the A side, thanks to their purchase of CellularOne-Dobson, which had purchased CellularOne-Concho earlier. So in central TX there's no EvDO on 850MHz...Verizon is at 1900 just like Sprint.
WCW is actually owned by Central Texas Telephone Cooperative, and Five Star Wireless (which served fur counties until they were merged into WCW) was a cooperative effort between three or four telephone companies, a few of them cooperatives. |
