U. S. West Unit Agrees to Buy Cellular Firm
A subsidiary of telecommunications giant U.S. West on Thursday agreed to purchase the San Diego cellular telephone system being developed by Dallas-based Communications Industries.
Neither Gencom, the Communications Industries subsidiary, nor NewVector Communications, U.S. West’s Bellevue, Wash.-based subsidiary, would release a price for the proposed purchase, which must first be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the state Public Utilities Commission.
If it is completed, the sale would pit Denver-based U.S. West and San Francisco-based Pacific Telesis--both of which were created in the January, 1982, break-up of AT&T--in; head-to-head competition in the San Diego cellular market.
Gencom, which began offering cellular telephone service in August, has yet to complete its cellular, or mobile phone, system. It has been purchasing service on a wholesale basis from PacTel Mobile Access, the Pacific Telesis subsidiary which began operating in parts of San Diego County in August, and reselling it on a retail basis.
Officials at Gencom and PacTel Mobile Access on Thursday said their respective systems probably will be completed early next year. The systems will cover 1,200 square miles and stretch from Oceanside to the Mexican border and from east of El Cajon into the Pacific Ocean.
NewVector, which already provides cellular service in Phoenix and Tucson, wants to purchase the system because “San Diego is a key growth city . . . (that) creates synergy between our Phoenix and Tucson systems and with the entire U.S. West region,” said NewVector President Richard Callahan.
The sale stemmed from Pacific Telesis’ May decision to purchase Communications Industries. Communications Industries had planned to sell Gencom because federal and state law prohibited Pacific Telesis from owning both of the FCC cellular licenses that were granted in San Diego.
The PUC has scheduled a Dec. 18 hearing on the Pacific Telesis acquisition of Communications Industries. Bellevue, Wash.-based McCaw Communications has filed as an intervenor, hoping to derail the San Diego license transfer from Communications Industries to NewVector. McCaw, a part owner of cellular licenses in several other cities, hopes to win part of the San Diego license.
