AirTouch

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U.S. communications company

title: "AirTouch" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1994-establishments-in-california", "1999-mergers-and-acquisitions", "2006-disestablishments-in-california", "companies-based-in-san-francisco", "corporate-spin-offs", "defunct-companies-based-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area", "defunct-mobile-phone-companies-of-the-united-states", "technology-companies-based-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area", "telecommunications-companies-disestablished-in-2006", "telecommunications-companies-established-in-1994", "verizon-wireless", "vodafone"] description: "U.S. communications company" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirTouch" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary U.S. communications company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	AirTouch Communications, Inc.
logo	Airtouch logo.svg
logo_size	200px
logo_alt	AirTouch logo
type	Public
traded_as
foundation
defunct	2006
location	One California
Financial District, San Francisco, California, U.S.
industry	Cellular Communications
products	Cellular Telephone Service, Paging
fate	Merged with Vodafone into AirTouch by Vodafone, then was merged with Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Wireless
predecessor	Pacific Telesis
successor	Verizon Wireless
::

AirTouch Communications, Inc. was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off of Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were located in the One California building in the Financial District of San Francisco, California. After a series of mergers, the company's vestiges are now part of Verizon.

History

At the time of the Bell System divestiture in 1984, each Regional Bell Operating Company (Baby Bell) was given a portion of the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) network corresponding to its service area. Pacific Telesis, the Baby Bell covering California and Nevada, spun off its wireless services as AirTouch Communications in 1994.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/USWNV.PNG" caption="U S WEST NewVector Group logo"] ::

US West's US West New Vector was also created from AMPS. In July 1994, U S West agreed to a joint venture with AirTouch as a prelude to merging the cellular unit into AirTouch. By 1996, all accounts were operated under the AirTouch name. Due to regulatory issues, the full merger was not completed until February 1998. As part of the merger, certain overlapping areas of coverage had to be sold to other wireless providers. Many of these went to GTE Wireless.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Cellular_Phone_-_AirTouch_1990s.jpg" caption="An AirTouch cellular phone from the 1990s."] ::

On June 30, 1999, AirTouch Communications merged with UK-based Vodafone, becoming Vodafone AirTouch, after rejecting overtures from Bell Atlantic. In September 1999, Vodafone AirTouch announced a $70-billion joint venture with Bell Atlantic to be called Verizon Wireless, which would be composed of the two companies' U.S. wireless assets, Bell Atlantic Mobile (another AMPS spinoff) and AirTouch Cellular. This wireless joint venture received regulatory approval in six months, and began operations as Verizon Wireless on April 4, 2000. On June 30, 2000, the addition of GTE Wireless' assets, in connection with the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Communications, made Verizon Wireless the nation's largest wireless communications provider. For the joint venture, Verizon Communications owned 55% and Vodafone owned 45%. AirTouch Paging was re-branded as Verizon Wireless Messaging Services. In June 2006, Verizon Wireless sold the paging division to American Messaging Services. In 2014, Verizon Communications purchased the 45% owned by Vodafone, making Verizon Wireless a wholly owned subsidiary.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/AirTouch_thermal_tote_bag.jpg" caption="A tote bag bearing the AirTouch logo."] ::

Verizon Wireless still maintains a call center in some of the buildings that used to house AirTouch Cellular's call center and administrative offices.

References

"AirTouch.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". [[WHOIS]].
"[https://web.archive.org/web/19980222065911/http://www.airtouch.com/airtouch/contact/ Contact Information]". AirTouch. Retrieved on January 10, 2010.
"Vodafone".
(1997). "U S West Global Village".
[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3457/is_n31_v15/ai_20639667 Federal tax legislation could force renegotiation of AirTouch/U S West deal]
[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3457/is_n5_v16/ai_20298254 It's getting final: AirTouch to acquire U S West wireless properties]
[http://www1.iwon.com/home/careers/company_profile/0,15623,1210,00.html iWon] {{webarchive. link. (2006-05-07)
["WIRELESS TELECOMMUNCATIONS sic] BUREAU APPROVES AIRTOUCH/VODAFONE MERGER". [[Federal Communications Commission]].
Deblauwe, Francis. (2000-01-07). "Bell Atlantic/Vodafone AirTouch/GTE US Mobile Partnership overview".
(2006-06-06). "American Messaging Becomes the Second Largest Paging Company in the United States with the Acquisition of the Paging Operations of Verizon Wireless".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::