ea. This new technology led the Federal Communi- cations Commission (FCC) to allocate two 20-megahertz bands (later increased to 25-megahertz bands) in each local area, one to the incumbent local company and one to a second, independent carrier. It would take almost ten years before licensing policies were finalized and cellular service could begin. In 1983 the first cellular service began operation in Chicago. The Rapid Growth of Wireless Telecommunications The antitrust decree that divested the Bell operating companies from AT&T in 1984 conveyed the local cellular licenses in their franchise areas to the divested Bell companies. 6 These companies vied with the second, independent carrier in local duopolistic markets that were free from any entry threat for the next decade. In 1993, however, Congress included in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act an instruction to the FCC to begin auctioning spectrum for new wireless services, thereby creating a major increase in competition. Wisely, it also instructed the FCC and the states to forbear from regulating wireless rates unless the carrier enjoyed "market dominance." The result is that a decade later wireless rates are now essentially unregulated and very low. 8 In 1994 the commission launched the process of auctioning spectrum by offering two 30-megahertz bands for the new personal communications services (PCS), which would evolve into digital cellular services. Subse- quently, the FCC auctioned off another 60 megahertz for this purpose, and an entrepreneurial carrier, Nextel, succeeded in persuading the com- mission to allow it to convert 10-15 megahertz of spectrum from another wireless service to its own digital cellular service. At first, the FCC viewed wireless as a strictly local service and issued li- censes for narrow metropolitan areas. Over time, the local licensees com- bined into larger regional and, eventually, national carriers through an undoubtedly costly process that probably slowed the growth of U.S. wire- less. McCaw began this trend with a lar