AT&T buy mom & pop cellular in California

**formercanuck** · 11-22-2010, 02:30 PM

No, this isn't Edge Wireless part 2.

Cellular One Customers in San Luis Obispo County to Join AT&T

Well, I'll finally get some good service in Cambria now!

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pi...pcode=wireless

**RCA** · 11-22-2010, 04:50 PM

We drove up and stayed in Cambria a couple of months ago when we visited Hearst Castle, the coverage was real bad. I really didnt pay much attention to my phone being we were on vacation but I dont recall it not showing AT&T.

Hearst Castle has cell Towers on the property so the coverage was great around that part of San Simeon. Matter of fact, it was 3G.

**formercanuck** · 11-22-2010, 05:53 PM

Hearst Castle site is actually the one that covers Cambria (or the north part of it, heading towards San Simeon).
The south end of Cambria is actually roaming on T-Mobile.
Downtown Cambria on my last visit gave essentially no service in downtown Cambria.

Cell One SLO has sites right in Cambria itself, and has the county covered pretty good on 850MHz. AT&T's coverage dies not long after you leave San Luis Obispo. Its a small area to cover - in typical fashion these days - easier to buy and convert than to build out. Cambria is pretty NIMBY on sites.

**RCA** · 11-22-2010, 06:27 PM

Hearst Castle site is actually the one that covers Cambria (or the north part of it, heading towards San Simeon).

Thats what I thought. We stayed on Moonstone Dr and I had to put my phone by the balcony to get a signal, and the signal was 3G.

Downtown Cambria on my last visit gave essentially no service in downtown Cambria

I've only been there once but I'm guessing downtown is Main St? I had 1 bar of GSM on Main St and successfully made a call where my Wife has Verizon and had no service.

By the way, the "Main Street Grill" has one of the best Tri Tip sandwiches I have ever had. Nice big Flat screen TV's everywhere, made for a great Sunday Football lunch

**ilvla2** · 11-22-2010, 08:23 PM

Too bad, now there is just one local carrier left in California, Golden State Cellular, and one regional carrier, U.S. Cellular-

http://www.uscellular.com A Band, CDMA 1X and EVDO provider in Mendocino (my home county

), Lake, Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen and Plumas Counties.

http://www.goldenstatecellular.com B Band, CDMA 1X and EVDO Provider in Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa Counties.

AT&T hasn't done a whole heck of a lot for us since talking over from Edge Wireless in 2008, maybe they'll do more for Cell One of SLO Country...yeah, right, this is AT&T after all

U.S. Cellular also serves our area, but they, unlike AT&T actually spend decent amounts of money on us

Edit-What AT&T has done for us-

1.Changed the MNC from 310-090 to 310-410 , whoopee

2.Changed the backhaul routing on the 3G portion of the network to AT&T's in the Bay Area, however, the EDGE part of the network is still routed to Edge's backhaul point in Medford, OR, and you can still get a "Welcome to Edge Wireless" message if you misdial a number on EDGE (AT&T took over Edge Wireless in April of 2008, to give you a time frame) lol

That said, they have turned up NO new sites, and no new 3G beyond where Edge Wireless had it turned up before being absorbed into the Borg Hive. Oh well, someday, over the rainbow... lol

The preceding editorial is NOT for Canuck, as he already knows all this

**formercanuck** · 11-22-2010, 09:29 PM

For AT&T to invest more into your part of NorCal, I suspect that they'd have to end up purchasing US Cellular, or wait until they have to use their 700MHz spectrum on LTE.

**i0wnj00** · 11-22-2010, 09:35 PM

Good news...
AT&T will do a great job with upgrading the network to 3G once they have the Cell A side, just like when they swooped in and purchased the remaining assets of RCC Unicel in Vermont from Verizon and upgraded the network to deploy 3.5G, including adding a second carrier. Actually, I did notice in my last weeks in Vermont that more places that I frequent had the second carrier turned on instead of only doing so in downtown Burlington...w0w!

**ilvla2** · 11-22-2010, 09:36 PM

Originally Posted by formercanuck

For AT&T to invest more into your part of NorCal, I suspect that they'd have to end up purchasing US Cellular, or wait until they have to use their 700MHz spectrum on LTE.

They could now, they have the money and resources, I have just come to realize AT&T is, well, lazy

They could co-locate on existing sites like T-Mobile has done, and how T-Mobile has expanded their coverage so quickly up here, but no dice there either, if they would just put up panels on Verizon and U.S. Cellular owned towers they could easily add a ton of coverage, and they could expand 3G beyond where it is, Edge was getting it out just fine until the Deathstar came along.

Edit-I can't see AT&T getting U.S. Cellular, they'd have to convert their entire network to GSM, 3G and LTE from 1X and EVDO, and with much of USCC being in rural areas, AT&T probably will not even consider it. If anybody got USCC, it would be Verizon, but I hope they don't, we'd lose one carrier and the competition that brings, USCC is actually dong very well and planning on testing LTE next year, with deployments to being in 2012, so I don't see that happening. Eliminating competition in this business is NEVER a good thing, seeing the smaller carriers get gobbled up like so many people's into a Borg Hive should be a cause for alarm, not celebration.

**awj223** · 11-22-2010, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by ilvla2

Edit-I can't see AT&T getting U.S. Cellular, they'd have to convert their entire network to GSM, 3G and LTE from 1X and EVDO, and with much of USCC being in rural areas, AT&T probably will not even consider it. If anybody got USCC, it would be Verizon, but I hope they don't, we'd lose one carrier and the competition that brings, USCC is actually dong very well and planning on testing LTE next year, with deployments to being in 2012, so I don't see that happening. Eliminating competition in this business is NEVER a good thing, seeing the smaller carriers get gobbled up like so many people's into a Borg Hive should be a cause for alarm, not celebration.

AT&T would get USCC, not VZW. If you look at the map, VZW and USCC have a lot of 850 MHz overlap, so VZW would be required to divest most of USCC if it bought it. AT&T on the other hand, has 850 MHz licenses that fit into USCC's coverage area like a jigsaw puzzle in most areas. AT&T converted (or is converting) most of Alltel to 3G fairly quickly (just watch what happens the rest of this year and early next). Another reason AT&T would buy USCC is that in Northern California, USCC covers most of where AT&T will have to build out its SMH network. It would be a lot easier to meet those build requirements by just putting SMH equipment on all the USCC towers.

**ilvla2** · 11-22-2010, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by awj223

AT&T would get USCC, not VZW. If you look at the map, VZW and USCC have a lot of 850 MHz overlap, so VZW would be required to divest most of USCC if it bought it. AT&T on the other hand, has 850 MHz licenses that fit into USCC's coverage area like a jigsaw puzzle in most areas. AT&T converted (or is converting) most of Alltel to 3G fairly quickly (just watch what happens the rest of this year and early next). Another reason AT&T would buy USCC is that in Northern California, USCC covers most of where AT&T will have to build out its SMH network. It would be a lot easier to meet those build requirements by just putting SMH equipment on all the USCC towers.

For our sake, and the sake of competition I hope that NEVER happens

USCC is a good company, I'd hate to think what AT&T would do to it. That's nice they're converting the entire Alltel network to 3G, if only they would do that with Edge's network, which still hasn't had any new 3G put up (beyond what Edge put up) since AT&T took over almost 3 years ago, that annoys me they take a completely unaffiliated network and spend more on it in a few months than they do on a smaller, and much easier (Read CHEAPER) to upgrade affiliate like Edge in almost 3 years. The Carlson Family, who own USCC would have to be hog tied and forced at gunpoint to sell to a company like AT&T, I can assure you of that.

**awj223** · 11-23-2010, 09:20 AM

Originally Posted by ilvla2

For our sake, and the sake of competition I hope that NEVER happens

USCC is a good company, I'd hate to think what AT&T would do to it.

I think AT&T would be more likely to upgrade an 850 MHz network than a 1900-only network. With 1900, you just have to build too many towers for a rural area -- it's better to buy out one of the 850 MHz incumbents. As far as competition goes, USCC and AT&T have very little overlap; AT&T simply can't compete in most markets where USCC operates because it's 1900 only. USCC is a backwards company, stuck in the past because they chose the "wrong" technology, still doesn't use SIM cards, and still only offers international roaming in TWO other countries, one of which is a British overseas territory: http://www.uscellular.com/uscellular...nal/index.html (Puerto and the USVI don't count because they're part of the US). In this day and age, this is somehow acceptable? USCC's international roaming options look very limited even compared to VZW and Sprint, for crying out loud.

**ilvla2** · 11-23-2010, 09:45 AM

Originally Posted by awj223

IUSCC is a backwards company, stuck in the past.

No offense, but your so wrong there. They offer the best coverage in the markets they serve, including mine, good international roaming does NOT a good company make, and many (myself included) rarely, if ever use International Roaming. They happen to be doing very well, and are planning to test LTE next year in select markets with a full rollout to start in 2012, now I will admit they have been slow in the past to rollout new things, but they have really stepped up their game lately with 3G, LTE and Android Phones. They have better customer service than AT&T, better ethics and serve their markets better than AT&T does, what exactly is so "backwards" about that? If you ask me, AT&T is backwards, do a search on which company is more admired, hint-USCC will beat AT&T by far on that search. Check out their Belief Project, AT&T should hope to do anything that customer oriented.

Edit-Now, why don't I have them you ask? Well, in my work I am often off of their native network (I work everything north of Sonoma County and Sacramento to the Oregon and Nevada Border's), so I would end up going afoul of their off-network roaming clause.

**zephxiii** · 11-23-2010, 10:12 AM

I used to have USCC, but at the time with my traveling and ****** phones they had to go, good company btw. I think it would be great if ATT bought em if they gain a lot of new 850 markets!

oh btw:
http://mobile.engadget.com/2010/11/1...yment-in-2012/

It's going to be an LTE world!! I kinda feel bad for silly Sprint lol.

**formercanuck** · 11-23-2010, 03:47 PM

The 'old style' regional carriers are pretty much gone now.
All that is left are:

A) National (AT&T/VZW/Sprint/T-Mobile)
B) Urban (Metro PCS / Cinci Bell)
C) Mom & Pop (muni/county sized / co-op or a roamer service) - Commnet, Plateau Wireless, Alaska Wireless

Many of the regionals don't have the cash to compete with National, and typically end up supporting rural areas with low profit margin (Urban carriers charge roaming or limit access/features - like long distance/data). I suspect that the next big push will be urban carriers as the land lines die off.

**ilvla2** · 11-23-2010, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by formercanuck

The 'old style' regional carriers are pretty much gone now.
All that is left are:

A) National (AT&T/VZW/Sprint/T-Mobile)
B) Urban (Metro PCS / Cinci Bell)
C) Mom & Pop (muni/county sized / co-op or a roamer service) - Commnet, Plateau Wireless, Alaska Wireless

Many of the regionals don't have the cash to compete with National, and typically end up supporting rural areas with low profit margin (Urban carriers charge roaming or limit access/features - like long distance/data). I suspect that the next big push will be urban carriers as the land lines die off.

Well, that is true that USCC's big foucs is rural to smaller town/city America, but they serve some VERY big Urban centers, like Chicago (their HQ), St.Louis and Oklahoma City. USCC has plenty of cash, and is not in debt up to their eyeballs like many larger carriers are, so I think they are in a good position to take on the "big boys". They have 3G EVDO on 100% of their network, and are going to be testing LTE next year, with full rollouts to starts in 2012.

Edit-Metro PCS is no longer just an Urban Carrier, they serve my rural area, and many other rural areas in NorCal (ie.the Sacramento and Northern Sacramento Valley's).