SUNCOM

'SunCom' is a wireless carrier that has operated in the southeastern United States since 1999 and in parts of the Caribbean since 2004. SunCom provides digital wireless communications services to more than 1,000,000 customers, employs more than 1,900 people and offers international, national, and regional calling plans.

Contents

History

Cellular services

Southeast U.S. operations

Caribbean operations

Competitors

References

External links

History

Originally founded in January 1999 as Triton PCS Holdings, the company has gone through many deals with other cellular carriers. In December 2004, SunCom acquired 29,139 customers from Cingular Wireless as part of a deal of exchanging towers. In March 2005, SunCom sold 169 cell towers in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico to Global Signal Acquisitions. SunCom formed an agreement with Global Signal Acquisitions in June 2005 to lease tower space that they subsequently sold. In October 2005, SunCom agreed to sell the 29,139 customers from the deal in 2004 back to Cingular.
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Cellular services

SunCom's operations provide service across North Carolina, South Carolina, northern Georgia, parts of eastern Tennessee, and southwest Virginia, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Beginning in 2001, SunCom merged with AT&T Wireless that served states in the Great Lakes area including Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. This was short lived and lasted only a year.
SunCom Wireless currently provides wireless service utilizing GSM. TDMA is the technology platform that SunCom originally used when it constructed its wireless network and began offering service in 1999. In 2003, the company began overlaying GSM along with its associated GPRS technology, which has been available across SunCom's footprint since June 2004. GSM/GPRS offers more advanced wireless capabilities including data and video transmission. However, GPRS is a significantly slower protocol than UMTS/HSDPA.
Suncom Wireless operates in two separate and distinct regional areas: one in the Southeast U.S. and one in the Caribbean.

Southeast U.S. operations

The company's Southeast operations provide service across North and South Carolina, eastern Georgia, northeastern Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia. SunCom owns wireless licenses in the "28 Basic Trading Areas" as defined by the FCC which covers SunCom Wireless's southeast region. These licenses include the major metropolitan areas of Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh-Durham, and Charleston and in aggregate encompass a population of over 14 million people.
SunCom Wireless completed the migration of its remaining TDMA Customer Base to GSM on September 30, 2006. SunCom Wireless only operates on the GSM platform now.

Caribbean operations

In the Caribbean, Suncom operates in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The company owns 3 wireless licenses covering this territory, which has a population of more than 4 million people.

Competitors

SunCom competitors in order of United States customer totals:

★ AT&T Mobility

★ Verizon Wireless

★ Sprint Nextel

★ T-Mobile

★ Alltel

★ U.S. Cellular

References

★ SunCom Wireless Holdings Annual Report

★ About Suncom Wireless

★ SunCom Company Profile - Reuters.com

External links

★ Official website

★ Investor Relations website

★ Suncom Puerto Rico