Buffaloes once roamed the plains, great in number. But there was excessive hunting of these majestic beasts and while they still live in select areas, their herds are not what they used to be.
It’s the same with regional and rural wireless carriers. By the 2000s, they were great in number. Competition to the four national carriers was provided by some combination of these regional carriers and the MVNOs.
Acquisitions by Verizon and AT&T
The big one was Alltel. Verizon’s $28.1 billion acquisition of Alltel was covered in June 2008 by Fierce Wireless. Verizon had been making major strides in coverage during that decade, but still had big gaps in rural coverage. This deal went a long way toward filling those gaps.
TracFone, the national’s largest MVNO, was purchased by Verizon in November 2021. Verizon in recent years has acquired Bluegrass Wireless, Chat Mobility, Blue Wireless, and some of the wireless assets of Chariton Valley Wireless. GTE was a big regional carrier acquired by Verizon in 2000.
RELATED: Chariton Valley sells its wireless spectrum to Verizon, AT&T, UScellular
Verizon in 2014 bought Golden State Cellular and Mobi PCS, while agreeing to purchase the wireless spectrum of Cincinnati Bell, as Cincinnati Bell was exiting the wireless business. Golden State Cellular and Mobi PCS were regional carriers in California and in Hawaii, respectively. Mobi PCS continues to operate, but competes as an MVNO.
The Alltel deal was complicated, and AT&T wound up with part of its assets. Dobson Cellular was a carrier with operations in parts of 17 states that was purchased by AT&T in 2007. Other AT&T regional carrier acquisitions within the past dozen years include Corr Wireless of Alabama, Cellular One of East Central Illinois, Element Mobile of Wisconsin, Long Lines Wireless of Iowa, and Plateau Wireless, among others. Plateau Wireless was a regional carrier competing in parts of New Mexico and Texas.
Oh yeah, and AT&T gained its Cricket Wireless brand via the acquisition of Leap Wireless, which had coverage of roughly one-third of Americans. Technically, Cricket was thought of as “a disruptive carrier,” not a regional carrier.
RELATED: AT&T scoops up 40,000 customers, spectrum assets of Plateau Wireless
Which regional carriers are left?
With nearly 5 million subscribers, UScellular is easily the largest regional carrier in the U.S. The carrier competes in parts of 21 states, with major coverage across much of Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Maine. For more than a year, UScellular has been running a branding campaign, touting “America’s Locally Grown Wireless,” as covered by Inside Towers in April 2021.
C Spire reported in 2018 that it had “nearly 1 million subscribers.” The carrier has a robust network in Mississippi, along with coverage in Memphis and part of southern Alabama. No other regional carrier has a million subscribers, or anywhere close to that number.
Out in the Great Plains, Viaero Wireless operates more than 1,000 towers, as the carrier tweeted on April 18. The carrier provides coverage for sparsely populated areas in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas.
Carolina West Wireless proudly covers part of small town North Carolina and recently gained some attention for making its best deals available to all customers. GCI, Union Wireless, and Appalachian Wireless provide coverage of remote areas in Alaska, Wyoming and eastern Kentucky, respectively. If you’re a Packers fan in Green Bay, you can choose Cellcom over the national carriers, as Cellcom covers much of northern Wisconsin. Southern Linc has a network with broad coverage of Georgia and Alabama, focusing its efforts on business and government customers.
RELATED: Carolina West joins ‘best deals for all’ club
Real competition for the national carriers?
Asked about competitors for the national carriers years ago, I would often talk about regional carriers like Alltel, Cincinnati Bell Wireless, and Dobson Cellular. Now, I would talk mostly about Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile, which have posted record adds of wireless subscribers in recent quarters, fueled by family lines with unlimited data at approximately $30/month.
The truth is that the regional carriers are a distant second to the cable companies in terms of providing wireless competition. Sure, UScellular is a robust competitor in Dubuque, Iowa, and C Spire no doubt holds its own in Jackson, Mississippi, but cities with a fourth facilities-based carrier are very much the exception, not the norm.
A continuing role for the regional carriers is coverage in areas where there is an adequate signal for few if any national carriers. They still provide roaming to national carriers, and they know their operating areas better than anyone else. I’ll cite the 1,000 towers operated by Viaero Wireless in the Great Plains as a great example.
Buffaloes and regional carriers
The buffalo and the regional carrier have both seen better days. Still, both have an interesting history, and it is good to see both alive and well, if only a shadow of their former selves.
Jeff Moore is Principal of Wave7 Research, a wireless research firm that covers U.S. postpaid, prepaid, and smartphone competition. Jeff has 25 years of telecom industry experience, including 13 years of competitive intelligence work for Sprint. Follow him on Twitter @wave7jeff.
Industry Voices are opinion columns written by outside contributors—often industry experts or analysts—who are invited to the conversation by FierceWireless staff. They do not represent the opinions of FierceWireless.