The first half of this year has produced several landscape-changing events in the wireless industry. If completed, the proposed mergers between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. could put several significant cellular markets up for grabs by way of the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum-cap rules.
The Bell Atlantic/GTE announcement also brings up questions of what will happen to the personal communications services markets held by PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P., a joint venture of Bell Atlantic and AirTouch Communications Inc. The parent companies agreed to a non-compete clause in conjunction with PrimeCo, which operates several markets in common with GTE.
Assuming the proposed mergers are consummated and some of PrimeCo’s markets end up back on the auction block, following is a snapshot of what could be in store:
Chicago
MSA Population: 7.3 million
Rank on RCR’s Top 40 Cellular Markets List: 3
Conflict: Combined SBC-Ameritech would be over the 45- MHz spectrum cap
Cellular Carriers: SBC and Ameritech
PCS Carriers: AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (30 MHz), PrimeCo (30 MHz), NextWave Telecom Inc. (10 MHz), Pocket Communications Inc. (30 MHz), Sprint Spectrum L.P. (20 MHz total).
Who can’t play for Chicago: AT&T, PrimeCo and Pocket.
Who could make a play for Chicago: Most analysts speculate SBC will sell off Ameritech’s CDMA property. Sprint could keep both of its PCS licenses at 10 megahertz each and still stay under spectrum-cap rules if it acquired the Chicago cellular license. Cellular carriers United States Cellular (which uses both Time Division Multiple Access and Code Division Multiple Access technology), Comcast Communications Inc. and Alltel Corp. (via 360
