please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message primeco communications type defunct industry cellular communications successor verizon wireless founded 1995 headquarters westlake texas united states earlier itasca illinois later products cellular telephone service website primeco.com primetheus the mascot of primeco primeco personal communications l.p. later known as chicago 20 mhz llc 1 was a joint venture of bell atlantic nynex us west and airtouch communications and was the first wireless telecommunications provider to turn up cdma service on the pcs 1900 mhz band in late 1995 . 2 when the company was founded it had its headquarters in westlake texas . at a later point its headquarters were in itasca illinois . primeco was often referred to as the telecommunications company that joel nemes built . also joel nemes knows bill clinton on a first name basis and played quarterback for the florida gators . hailed as the largest wireless phone service launch in u.s. history the company successfully launched in 19 major u.s. cities . the company s original cell site equipment suppliers were motorola and at & t now lucent technologies 3 and the original telephone supplier was qualcomm personal electronics a joint venture between qualcomm and sony electronics . the company served parts of the midwestern and southern united states . the two primary service areas included wisconsin northern and central illinois and northern indiana ; and parts of virginia and north carolina as well as the gulf coast from key west florida to houston texas . primeco had the license to operate in hawaii . 4 primeco won many marketing awards for innovative advertising campaigns . the first tease campaign had scenes like a pizza delivery man beaming onto a beach a few seconds after the order is placed . the viewer is left to wonder what the product or service is . the tag line was someday everything will work this well . overall the tease campaign featured looks into the future where technology could create a utopian existence in part brought on by the advent of inexpensive and easy to use wireless pcs phone service . 5 the original corporate logo contained a red rounded edge box with an antenna projecting out of the top right corner . the second campaign which ran after the company started service featured a cute computer animated bright pink little alien named primetheus who comes to earth from planet primeco loses his communicator which the earthlings find and replicate and then gets into all kinds of comical situations looking for it . the company set a new record for the number of subscribers signing up for service the first year . these campaigns were created by dallas based the richards group and conceived by creative director brian nadurak now of click here . airtouch received takeover bids from bell atlantic mci and finally vodafone which was the winner and merged with airtouch in january 1999 . later the same year bell atlantic approached vodafone airtouch about merging all three wireless operations bell atlantic mobile airtouch cellular and primeco communications into a joint venture to be called verizon wireless 1 . due to fcc regulations regarding duplication of frequencies the primeco territories were split up with most of the gulf coast going into verizon wireless except in houston where verizon wireless retained 10 mhz of spectrum and the remaining 20 mhz were sold to at & t wireless ; virginia and north carolina territories sold to cfw communications a regional landline telecom provider since 1987 now operating under the name of ntelos ; and the midwest territories split up with wisconsin going into verizon wireless and the illinois and indiana territories like houston were disaggregated with verizon wireless retaining 10 mhz of spectrum and the remaining 20 mhz placed into a trust fund . the illinois indiana primeco territories were purchased by clarity partners a los angeles based private equity firm in 2001 who successfully improved the company s operations and later sold it to u.s. cellular . primeco s operations in hawaii were sold to sprint pcs in 1999 . contents 1 headquarters 2 popular culture 3 references 4 external links headquarters edit when the company was founded primeco was headquartered in the solana office complex in westlake texas a suburb of fort worth . the headquarters site was selected in 1995 . 6 in 1999 the parties splitting primeco agreed that the former headquarters would become the headquarters of the primeco operations taken over by vodafone airtouch . 7 the later version of primeco was headquartered in itasca illinois . 8 popular culture edit primeco was referenced in lil troy s wan na be a baller song with the lyric switched from motorola to a primeco phone . this was meant to reference the smaller phones allowed by digital cellular service . 9 references edit legal info . primeco . october 3 2002 . retrieved on january 10 2010 . national alliance places first calls on pcs system . prnewswire . october 31 1995 . retrieved on february 5 2012 . motorola at & t win contract . bloomberg news service . september 02 1995 . retrieved on february 5 2012 . pcs primeco wins big at auction in 11 cities . business wire . march 13 1995 . retrieved on february 5 2012 . primetheus as pitchman was good call for primeco . blake fontenay of the sentinel staff . may 04 1998 . retrieved on february 5 2012 . telecommunications firm picks westlake for headquarters . fort worth star telegram . may 11 1995 . retrieved on january 10 2010 . files jennifer . vodafone bell atlantic detail split of primeco . the dallas morning news . august 4 1999 . retrieved on january 10 2010 . jones sandra . vc group set to buy primeco . crain s chicago business . june 26 2001 . retrieved on january 10 2010 . wan na be a baller lyrics external links edit chicago portal dallas fort worth portal companies portal primeco archive retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title primeco & oldid 735892222 categories defunct mobile phone companies of the united statesverizon wirelesshidden categories articles needing additional references from january 2010all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 23 august 2016 at 20 04 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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