what was t-mobile called before it was t-mobile
T-Mobile US T-Mobile US traces its roots to the 1994 establishment of VoiceStream Wireless PCS as a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation. Spun off from parent Western Wireless on May 3, 1999, VoiceStream Wireless was purchased by Deutsche Telekom AG in 2001 for $35 billion and renamed T-Mobile USA, Inc. in July, 2002. In 2013, T-Mobile and MetroPCS finalized a merger of the two companies. The two companies began trading as T-Mobile US.[9][10][11][12]
History of mobile phones Prior to 1973, mobile telephony was limited to phones installed in cars and other vehicles.[20] Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, his rival.[26][27] The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 1.1 kg (2.42 lb) and measured 23 cm long, 13 cm deep and 4.45 cm wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge.[28]