Taylor believes that cellular’s future lies with truly portable phones. “That means that when you fly from New York to Washington, you’ll be able to take your phone with you.” Taylor also believes that all cellular phones will be interconnected through a national network — “a universe unto itself’ where cellular phones would share a single area code. To increase competition, the FCC allows resale of cellular service. In New York, for example; where cellular currently is provided only by Nynex.

Mobile Communications, Western Union advertises its own cellular service. Western Union will install equipment made by its E.F. Johnson subsidiary in the customer’s car, provide a telephone number, and do the billing. Though the actual service comes through Nynex, Western Union pushes the quality of its equipment and service.

Rent-A-Car companies – Hertz, Avis, National, and Budget among others – are also resellers. They buy number from the phone company, install equipment in their cars, and hook up meters that tick away as calls are made – local calls only, thank you, except with telephone credit cars – and then charge customers a premium for the privilege of driving a car with a cellular phone as well as for calls actually made. In Indianapolis, Budget charges a premium of $7.50 a day, plus 50 cents a minute for use of the phone. Other resellers include GM’s Buick division and Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury division, both of which offer mobile phones as optional extras on some models.

The resellers’ rewards may be more than short term. LIN Cellular Communications, a subsidiary of New York’s LIN Broadcasting Corp., an independent TV and radio company, is waiting for FCC permission to provide cellular service in Los Angeles. In the meantime, it is whiling away the time as a reseller for Pactel Mobile Access, a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis, parent of the former Bell operating companies in California and Nevada. LIN Cellular President Richard Verne points out that his company’s contract with Pactel allows customers to take their phone numbers with them should they decide to switch from Pactel to LIN after LIN gets the nod to start service. That is an important concession. A customer who gets a mobile number is likely to print it on stationary and business cards. If the number can’t be transferred, the customer is all but handcuffed to the cellular supplier that assigned it.

The telephone companies got a head start in cellular by agreeing not to file competing applications to provide service in the top 30 markets. They agreed that AT&T’s seven operating companies would take 23 of these top markets and General Telephone & Electronics seven. No such amity ruled among nontelephone companies wanting to get into cellular, and they lost precious time scrapping with one another for markets. Only recently have such companies as Metromedia, Western Union, Millicom, and Maxell Telecom Plus – all prominent in the rush for cellular – got together in what they call “the grand alliance.” Under this alliance, encouraged by the FCC, only one partner will bid for a place in 55 of the next 60 cellular markets.

While the nonwire companies were still scrapping, the telephone companies rushed forth to snare what the industry calls “pent-ups” — customers so eager for mobile phones that they’ll pay almost any price to get them. In New York, for example, there were hundreds of them, many with phones installed weeks before the Nynex system was switched on in late June. When Nynex got approval, hundreds of early-bird customers began to line up. “This city’s a zoo,” exclaimed Bart Robins, manager of cellular installation at a Manhattan branch of Potamkin, a Cadillac and Toyota dealer. By the end of the first day after the switch-on, Robins was exasperated. “Everybody’s got to be first. Me. Me. Me.”

The carriers want to be first too. Nynex was subjected to a number of delays before it was allowed to switch on cellular service. When the FCC finally sent word to the company’s Pearl River, New York, headquarters, that it was okay to go ahead, one employee ran around the office shouting out the news “like Paul Revere,” recalls Morgan J. Kennedy, Nynex Mobile’s president. Then everybody went out and drank champagne.

Cellular One, a nonwire system, got a brief head start in the Washington-Baltimore market, where it competes with Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems, a subsidiary of Bell Atlantic. Wayne Schelle, chairman of Cellular One, figures being the early bird is worth “about two percentage points of market share a month.” This calculation, he says, led to the formation of Cellular One, the first significant joint venture among competing nonwires.

When Schelle bid for the Washington license in 1982, the company he headed was named American Radio Telephone Service. ARTS, originally a beeper company, had operated a trial cellular service for four years. There were four other contenders: the Washington Post Co.; Metromedia; Metrocall, another paging company; and Metropolitan Radio Telephone System, a cellular consulting firm.

ARTS and the Post’s cellular business merged, which cut the number of competitors by one. “We thought that the joint venture gave us a good combination, our experience and their big league size and commitment to communications,” says Schelle. But the FCC was moving slowly, ponderously mulling the applications of the three contenders. “I began to worry that the advantage we had, the four-year trial period, would be lost to a head start by Bell Atlantic.”

So he began to think of some kind of further merger. In September, he sold the ARTS-Washington Post partnership to Metromedia for cash and part of the business. Cellular One was formed and won approval as the nonwire operator in the Washington Baltimore market. The company’s system began operating in December, four months ahead of Bell Atlantic. A marketing battle has ensued, but Schelle claims that the head start he gained has indeed paid off — Cellular One has 3,000 subscribers to an estimated 600 for Bell Atlantic.

Manufacturers of cellular equipment also face a competitive struggle. Competition will be especially tough because there is little to differentiate products. Salesmanship makes the difference. Motorola, the dean of mobile telephony, lost a piece of business in its own backyard when Ericson snatched the contract to build a switching station for Rogers Radiocall, a metromedia subsidiary and Ameritech’s Chicago competitor.

泰勒认为，蜂窝系统的未来取决于真正的便携式电话。“这意味着当你从纽约飞到华盛顿时，你可以随身携带电话。”泰勒还认为，所有的蜂窝电话将通过一个全国性的网络进行互联，它是一个“自成一派的世界”，在这一网络中，蜂窝电话将共享单一的区域代码。为了提升竞争，联邦通信委员会允许对蜂窝服务进行转售。例如在纽约，当前提供蜂窝服务的仅有Nynex一家公司。

Mobile Communications和西联银行都在推销其自身的蜂窝服务。西联银行将在客户汽车中安装由其子公司E.F. Johnson制作的设备，提供电话号码以及计费服务。虽然最终的服务仍由Nynex提供，但西联银行提升了其设备和服务的质量。

租车公司，例如赫兹、阿维斯和Budget等等，也都是转售商。它们从电话公司购买号码，在其车中安装设备，并将之与通话计费仪表相连，然后调高蜂窝电话车辆的租用费，并按照实际呼叫时长收取话费。在印第安纳波利斯，Budget额外征收7.5美元/天的费用，以及按50美分/分钟的价格来计算话费。其他转售商包括通用汽车的别克品牌部门，以及福特的林肯-水星品牌部门，这两个厂家在一些车型上将移动电话作为可选配置。

转售商的回报可能不仅仅是短期的。纽约独立电视电台公司LIN Broadcasting Corp.子公司LIN Cellular Communications正在等待联邦通信委员会批准其在洛杉矶提供蜂窝服务。与此同时，它还是Pacific Telesis（此前Bell公司的母公司，Bell在加州和内华达州均设有公司）子公司Pactel Mobile Access的转售商。LIN Cellular的总裁理查德·凡尔纳指出，其公司与Pactel的合同能够让客户在他们决定从Pactel转投LIN（在LIN获得经营批准后）之后依然使用原来的电话号码。这是一个重要的让步。获得移动电话号码的客户可能会将其印刷在物品或名片上。如果这一号码不能从一家公司转到另一家公司，那么客户就只能一直使用分配这一号码的蜂窝服务供应商。

各大电话公司已达成协议，在前30强市场提供服务时不会提交竞争申请，并借此抢占了蜂窝市场的先机。它们同意AT&T的7家运营公司将占据23个30强市场，而General Telephone & Electronics则占据7个。那些想要进入蜂窝领域的非电话公司之间可没有这么和睦的关系。它们因相互抢夺市场而失去了宝贵的时机。直到最近，像Metromedia, Western Union、Millicom和Maxell Telecom Plus这些在蜂窝热中涌现的知名公司才成立了它们所称的“大同盟”。根据同盟的规定，同时在联邦通信委员会的鼓励下，只有一位合作伙伴将参与投标，从而在未来60个蜂窝市场的争夺战中争取进入其中的55个市场。

尽管非有线公司仍在相互竞争，但电话公司却站了出来，并祭出了行业所称的“需求积压”策略。客户对于移动电话异常渴望，哪怕价钱再高，他们都愿意购买。例如在纽约，这样的人有数千个，很多人在Nynex系统在6月底上线之前便已经安装了移动电话。当Nynex获批之后，数百名先知先觉的客户开始排起了长队。Potamkin（卡迪拉克和丰田经销商）曼哈顿分公司的蜂窝电话安装业务经理巴特·罗宾斯称，“这座城市成为了一个动物园。”在系统运行后的第一天快要结束时，罗宾斯感到恼火不已。“所有人都想争当第一。我、我、我。”

运营商也希望成为第一个。在获批运行蜂窝服务之前，Nynex曾经历了数次延期。Nynex Mobile的总裁摩根·肯尼迪回忆道，当联邦通信委员会最终向公司位于纽约珍珠河的总部发话，允许公司开展这一业务时，一名雇员像“保罗·李维尔”那样一边喊着新闻，一边绕着办公司奔跑。然后所有人都走出了办公室，并打开了香槟酒。

非有线系统公司Cellular One在华盛顿-巴尔地摩市场抢占了短暂的市场先机，它在那里的竞争对手是Bell Atlantic 子公司Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems。Cellular One董事长维恩·舍勒认为，充当头鸟相当于“每个月约2%的市场份额”。他说，这一计算结果催生了Cellular One公司，它是处于竞争关系中的非有线电话公司所成立的首个意义非凡的合资公司。

当舍勒在1982年申请华盛顿牌照时，他所执掌的公司更名为American Radio Telephone Service(ARTS)。ARTS最初是一个传呼机公司，曾作为蜂窝服务试点运营了4年。当时还有四家竞争公司：华盛顿邮报、Metromedia、另一家传呼机公司Metrocall以及蜂窝咨询公司Metropolitan Radio Telephone System。

ARTS与Post的蜂窝业务合并了，此举将竞争对手的数量降到了1个。舍勒说：“我们认为合资企业将我们的经验与他们不俗的团队规模以及在通信领域的敬业精神很好地结合起来。”但联邦通信委员会的动作十分缓慢，同时也在慎重考虑其他三名竞争者的申请。“我开始担心我们所拥有的优势，也就是4年的试点，无法与Bell Atlantic所获得的市场先机相媲美。”

因此，他开始思考进行进一步的整合。9月，他将其在ARTS-Washington Post的股份出售给了Metromedia，以换取现金和其部分业务。Cellular One得以成立，并获批成为了华盛顿-巴尔地摩市场的非有线运营商。公司的系统于12月开始运行，较Bell Atlantic早了4个月。一场营销大战接踵而至，但舍勒称，他所抢占的市场先机确实带来了回报，Cellular One斩获了3000个用户，而Bell Atlantic大概只有600个。

蜂窝设备制造商同样面临着竞争困境。这场竞争将变得尤为激烈，因为产品基本上没有差异化可言。真正发挥作用的是推销技巧。移动电话制造界的大哥大摩托罗拉在自家后院丢失了一块领地，当时，爱立信一举夺得Rogers Radiocall的转换站修建合同。Rogers Radiocall是metromedia的子公司，也是Ameritech在芝加哥的竞争对手。