Editing Houston Cellular (section)

==History==
Houston Cellular was formed as a result of the October 1983 [[Federal Communications Commission]]'s ruling that set aside sufficient frequencies for the operation of two cellular systems in each metropolitan area. In the early 1990s, this ruling was expanded with the advent of the 800 and 1900&nbsp;MHz protocols, which are also known as [[Personal Communications Service|PCS]]).{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} The ruling reserved one system for application by local phone companies. In [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], the competing non-local company service was applied by [[GTE]] Mobilnet.

In June 2000, the above-mentioned FCC ruling was repealed{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} and GTE merged with [[Bell Atlantic]] to form [[Verizon Wireless]].  At that time, [[AT&T Wireless]] sold its 55% stake in Houston Cellular to [[BellSouth]]. AT&T Wireless then bought 20&nbsp;MHz of the [[CDMA]] spectrum owned by the outgoing [[PrimeCo]] (which was swallowed in the formation of [[Verizon Wireless]]). This purchase of frequencies was used to directly compete in the Houston market with [[D-AMPS]] (TDMA) service. Additionally, [[Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems]], a division of [[Southwestern Bell|Southwestern Bell Telephone Company]], was also partnered with GTE, a partnership which that was later dissolved.

In 2001, [[BellSouth]] partnered with Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems. This partnership renamed the division from [[BellSouth Mobility|BellSouth Mobility, LLC]] to [[Cingular Wireless|Cingular Wireless, LLC]]. It also transformed Houston Cellular into Cingular Wireless.