In the UK, with two national cellular franchises, users who want to use their portable phones nationally have no problem, but while a few Americans put in enormous distances on business travel, the majority seldom leave their home region, and if they do, and want to use their phones across the country, they have to sign up with the local cellular franchise holder in every city they intend to visit. Now GTE Corp hopes to make things a little simpler, turning itself into a one-stop shop for cellular service US-wide. GTE has franchises in 34 cities and has signed resale agreements with operators in 189 of the 305 cities where it does not have its own system. Under the agreements, GTE will sell the companies’ service, and handle installation and billing, so subscribers would have a single point of contact for all their cellular needs.
