Western Wireless ran cell networks in 57 rural areas of the American West, places the big carriers had passed over. It sold service under the Cellular One brand to more than 240,000 subscribers. It also owned new licenses for PCS, the digital cellular service that was just arriving. The Issaquah, Washington, company was run by John Stanton, a veteran of the early cell phone business. When it went public in May 1996, it was betting that ranchers and truckers needed phones too.

John Stanton's Rural Bet

Western Wireless was incorporated in January 1994, built from Stanton's earlier cellular ventures. The company bought licenses in rural service areas, where fewer people lived but long highways and spread-out towns made a mobile phone more useful. Roaming fees from travelers passing through added to revenue. At the same time, Western Wireless bought PCS licenses for larger cities, a second business that it kept separate from the rural one.

VoiceStream and Alltel

Western Wireless priced its shares at $23.50 in May 1996 and listed on Nasdaq. In 1999 it spun off its PCS business as VoiceStream Wireless. Deutsche Telekom bought VoiceStream in 2001, and it became T-Mobile USA. Western Wireless kept its rural networks and expanded abroad. In 2005 Alltel bought Western Wireless, adding its rural Western coverage to Alltel's own network.

Cover: Dial Rock, Red Buttes, Laramie Plains, Andrew Joseph Russell. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a lone rock tower on the plains (a cell tower out West).