View source for Advanced Mobile Phone Service

{{Infobox company
| name     = Advanced Mobile Phone Service, Inc.
| logo     = 
| vector_logo      = 
| type     = Defunct
| genre            = 
| foundation       = 1978
| defunct          = 1984
| founder          = 
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| location_country = 
| location         = 
| origins          = 
| key_people       = 
| area_served      = 
| industry         = Telecommunications
| products         = [[Advanced Mobile Phone System|AMPS]]
| revenue          = 
| operating_income = 
| net_income       = 
| num_employees    = 
| parent           = [[American Telephone & Telegraph Company|AT&T]] (1983-1984)
| subsid           =
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| company_slogan   = 
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| footnotes        = 
}}
'''Advanced Mobile Phone Service, Inc.''' was a subsidiary of [[American Telephone and Telegraph Company|AT&T]] prior to the [[Bell System Divestiture]]. Abbreviated '''AMPS''', the company was created in 1978 to build and operate the new [[Advanced Mobile Phone System]], also abbreviated AMPS. AMPS was developed by [[Bell Labs]] to replace older, severely limited [[radiophone]] services, such as [[Improved Mobile Telephone Service|IMTS]]. 

AMPS was one of first providers of cellular phone service, starting in [[Chicago]] on October 13, 1983, and in the [[Washington, D.C.]], area December 1983. After divestiture, AMPS was divided among the 7 newly created Regional Holding Companies, now known as [[RBOC]]s:
* [[Verizon Wireless|NYNEX Mobile Communications]]
* [[Verizon Wireless|Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems]]
* [[Ameritech Mobile Communications]]
* [[BellSouth Mobility]]
* [[AirTouch|PacTel Mobile Access]]
* [[Cingular|Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems]]
* [[AirTouch|U S West NewVector]]

==Evolution of Successor Companies==
Through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and re-consolidation among the Baby Bells, these 7 original mobile operating companies are now split as such -
*[[AT&T Mobility]]
**[[Ameritech Mobile Communications]]
**[[BellSouth Mobility]]
**[[Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems]]
*[[Verizon Wireless]]
**[[Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems]]
**[[NYNEX Mobile Communications]]
**[[AirTouch]]
***[[PacTel Mobile Access]]
***[[U S WEST NewVector]]

PacTel Mobile Access and U S WEST NewVector are owned by Verizon Wireless due to its co-ownership by [[Vodafone]]. PacTel Mobile Access was spun off into [[AirTouch]] in 1994, and U S WEST NewVector was spun off and merged into AirTouch in 1997. AirTouch was then acquired by Vodafone in 1999. Bell Atlantic and Vodafone combined their wireless operations to form Verizon Wireless in 2000.

Ameritech's [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]] n/w was divested and sold to GTE Wireless in 1999 as a condition of the former's merger with [[SBC Communications]]. In 2000, Bell Atlantic bought GTE and changed its name to Verizon Communications; at that point, GTE Wireless became part of Verizon Wireless.

==References==
*[http://www.att.com/attlabs/reputation/timeline/46mobile.html AT&T History]

{{Bell System}}

[[Category:Bell System]]
[[Category:Defunct mobile phone companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Telecommunications companies established in 1978]]
[[Category:Technology companies disestablished in 1984]]