More on cellular carrier names
Cellular One began in 1984 as the name for the first non-wireline cellular system in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area. Delighted with the moniker the partners making up Cellular One decided to cheaply license it throughout the U.S.A. Soon, Cellular One seemed everywhere, although no one company was behind it. As Murray in Wireless Nation (Perseus, 2001) relates:
"It's very likely no one outside the D.C. metropolitan area would ever have heard the name Cellular One if it hadn't been for a second decision the group made. In a brilliant stroke, the partnership decided to license the name, making it available to other non wireline systems essentially for free. The wirelines, many with their RBOC roots and Bell names, had the automatic advantage of regional name recognition, an advantage that threatened to overpower the nonwireline's scattershot marketing strategies."
"But following the decision to license the 'Cellular One' name, it gradually spread across the country, eventually gaining even greater recognition than any one of the names of the giant AT&T offspring. Through there was in fact no national 'Cellular One' company, soon the ubiquity of the name had the effect the nonwirelines hoped: Consumers knew it and trusted it. At last, the nonwirelines had found an advantage of their own."