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Who Owns the Largest Cellular Network in the U.S.?
onyx00 asks: "Cellular phones are everywhere nowadays. It seems that anywhere you go almost everyone has a cellular phone. Originally the high cost of air-time hindered their success, but now even ten-year-olds can afford to have one. With the many different cellular companies however, I wonder who owns the largest segments of the cellular networks? Some companies offer nationwide service, but is this by their own network, or by use of others? Who really "owns" the cellular network? Do any companies actually use satellites to help link their cellular segments?"
Sprint Claims they have the largest
There are larger networks; there are larger networks that can do digital, but not larger all digital networks. If you live near a major highway or metropolitan area, you are on their network. I have sprintPCS and i'm quite happy. They have local and national plans that beat the pants off the competition, at least for now. The most popular plans are $50/500minutes national or $75/1000. If you add $15 you can share that airtime with another phone. If you add $10 you can use the airtime for either wireless web or talking. Its great if you get stuck in a traffic jam and wonder whats goin down on slashdot while you're stuck.
I think Horizon Wireless (Nextel + Bell Atlantic merger) is an up and coming candidate.
At this time, Sprint can claim the largest
Throughout the world I think it's probably Vodafone (or phone depending on whether theyre trying to be fasionable this week) - they own Airtouch in the USA, and Mannesmann on continental Europe, as well as their own branded network in the UK and most other places in the world - i think they also run an asian network.
Here in europe though almost every network has 90%complete coverage though network sharing agreements, so you can use the same phone with the same number in about 16 countries (its quite cool the first time you get a phonecall in Germany on your British phone from an Italian person).
here's a bit from there site:
more info can be found here
bpd
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This is absolutely correct. AT&T has great coverage and it looks like Verizon should be good as well. I have the AT&T 1 rate plan. I am constantly travelling all over North America and I am very happy with the service. Many of my friends and people I work with have service from CellOne or SprintPCS. They often do not have service when I do but I always seem to have service when they do. Also, the 1 rate plan is great for people who travel a lot because there are never roaming charges if you are w/in the U.S.
Currently, I am on one of the smallest providers in the area (Fido/Microcell) which is a GSM provider in Canada. Coverage only exists in metro areas, but I was amazed at how well I could roam to other providers.
I did a road trip 4 weeks ago from Ontario to Florida, and was only out of signal for 1 hour out of 24, never had a problem receiving calls, voice mail worked perfectly, and the charges weren't all that bad.
While it would be nice to be on a full coverage network, it roams so well, who cares?
In terms of the actual coverage size of a single network, it's a toss-up between AT&T and the new Bell Atlantic/Vodaphone joint venture, Verizon. SBC/Bell South are also merging their wireless networks, but I don't think they have the same nationwide coverage that the other two ventures do. Sprint does have the largest _all-digital_ network but their digital network is not the largest- it's a little disingenuous, considering that there's really only one other all digital nationwide network (Voicestream/Omnipoint/Aerial). The digital networks of AT&T and Verizon are still larger than Sprint's, but they still have analog coverage in some areas. As for who will really give you the most seamless coverage across the country, AT&T's 1-rate plan will let you roam into all sorts of crappy little local providers' (i.e. companies that resell as Cellular One) areas with no roaming charges, although Verizon will also apparently do this now (they've started quite recently).
Cellular networks really are owned by the provider, or at least the radios on the towers and the spectrum rights. There's a trend in the industry towards tower consolidation, where independent companies buy the towers from cellular providers and then resell tower space to other providers in the area.
No cellular company uses satellites. There is at least one satellite company (Globalstar) that sells phones that use terrestrial networks as long as you're in range and then switch to satellite service when you're not. These services are often resold under a local provider's name, but the cellular company does not own or operate the satellites.
Coverage in the bay area is very bad. I have had dropped calls driving down a couple of city blocks in downtown Berkeley, and San Jose. Sound quality is poor, and much of the time I'd be out of range, even in a major metropolitan area. I strongly urge you to reconsider choosing Sprint if you live around here. Also, if you're going up to Tahoe/Reno then don't count on any service past Sacramento, cuz you won't get any.
Sprint's rates are great, and it's cool that you can check how many minutes you've used over the web, but actual phone service sucks! To their credit, I know people who live on the East Coast and have no problems with Sprint, except when they come out here that is.
I've also had experience in this area with GTE (super expensive, but great sound quality and coverage) and Pac Bell (great price, lots of features, great quality and coverage but doesn't work in buildings) and can recommend them both.