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Research Project – AT & T Wireless Services Abstract Although AT & T Bell Laboratories invented cellular technology, it wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that AT & T Corporation actually got into the business of providing wireless services to the public. AT & T, who was still not in the wireless business, was polled as the public’s favorite provider of wireless service. People had no idea who was really providing their services, and at that time, AT & T was strictly a long distance company. They had, back in the 1980’s, built cellular systems in Chicago and Washington D.C., but nothing started moving and growing until McCaw Cellular Communications was actually bought out by AT & T Corporation. AT & T Wireless is now entirely dedicated to wireless communications since the split into four separate companies, providing an array of exciting, cost-effective communications solutions, including voice, data, internet, and text services. AT & T Wireless puts customers first. They have a passion to satisfy them by working to make their lives more exciting and more complete. History Wireless or cellular service was actually invented in 1947 by AT & T Bell Laboratories. However, it wasn’t until 1984, that AT & T Corporation built the first cellular systems in Chicago, IL and in Washington D.C. At that time, AT & T wasn’t even a wireless provider; they were mostly involved in equipment, technology, and providing long distance services. McCaw Cellular Communications was moving right along as a wireless service provider, using AT & T’s technology and equipment. This brought about the creation of the North American Cellular Network, thus making automatic roaming possible for their wireless customers. In 1993 McCaw developed the nations first digital packet technology allowing for wireless connectivity for personal computer users. Las Vegas was the first market to demonstrate and use this technology (AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., July 23, 2002). http://www.attws.com/our_company/aboutus/history.jhtml. In 1992, almost 50 years after AT & T had invented cellular service, the wireless industry conducted a survey asking the public, “Who is the number one cellular provider?” They said it was AT & T. Well; obviously it was not because AT & T still was not a wireless provider at that time. That was an eye-opener and it certainly didn’t take them very long to become a wireless provider (J. Fischer, personal communication, August 2, 2002). By 1994, AT & T Corporation purchased McCaw for $11.5 billion (ATTWS-History, 2002). With this purchase came a huge customer base for McCaw, and what AT & T got was the fact that McCaw was a very creative and innovative company, thinking out of the box all the time and able to make do very well with what they had. With the purchase, AT & T swept in with big corporate products and was able to do financially, in a few months what it would have taken McCaw on its own, years to do. The processes and the actual business took about four years to completely get on board with human resources as well as the processes of DH & S and what gets done with government filings. One of the disadvantages of the buy-out is that big companies tend to want to put processes in place; they try to make things idiot proof – USE A GUIDLINE. Too many times with large companies, people are caught up in those guidelines and the bureaucracy. It takes a long time to do things, unlike the days at McCaw, where things were done rather quickly.
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