Although AT&T had begun research and development of wireless telephony as early as 1930, it was not until October 2000, that AT&T Corporation announced to the business press and its shareholders that the company would split into four publicly held companies, AT&T Broadband, AT&T Wireless, AT&T Business, and AT&T Consumer, each trading as a common or tracking stock. AT&T Wireless, trading on the New York Stock Exchange as AWE, on July 9, 2001, became the largest independently traded wireless carrier in the United States. The company claims to operate one of the largest digital wireless networks in North America. The company claims 18 million subscribers, and it's first complete 10 K filed in July, 2002, showed revenues of $13.6 billion. AT&T Wireless has a business model of offering customers high-quality wireless voice and data communications services in the U.S. and internationally ("Restructure" , Online).
Karlgaard (1997) in a long essay in the Wall Street Journal traced the dilemma that companies such as AT&T faced because of their technology. AT&T, for instance, owned many thousands of miles of "hard wire" (coaxial cable that moved voice messages after converting them into analog pulses across phone lines). "Point A could talk to Point B if both of them were connected by hard line. Transmitting data, however, was a different story. The early data requirements of the fax machine gave hints of how the system would have to change (Kaarlgard, 1997, 4). The development of AT&T Wireless is a good indication of how much has changed.
Within the wireless industry, AT&T Wireless is the third largest, trailing Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless. AT&T Wireless offers service nationwide. The company operates over its own network (19.9 million subscribers) and through affiliates, such as Virginia-based TeleCorp PCS, which AT&T Wireless has acquired. The company formerly traded as a tracking stock of AT&T and was spun off in 2001 ...