Centennial Communications also offered its customers with Internet access directly from their handsets as well as AirCards for laptops and computers and the ability to download games, ring tones, and other applications.

In February 1997, former Centinental chief Emanuel Pinez was arrested on charges of unlawful insider trading and for running a fraudulent scheme to overstate results.

[4] Two other business executives, including former Centennial chief financial officer James Murphy, would be convicted with Perez as well.

Centennial Wireless, a wholly owned subsidiary of Centennial Communications, was a regional wireless telecommunications provider that operated a GSM network in the Midwest states of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana as well as the Southeastern states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, Centennial’s largest stockholder, agreed to vote in support of the transaction.

The delay was announced shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice began an investigation on AT&T and Verizon Communications for anti-competitive behavior due to both carriers' massive growth.

[8] AT&T temporarily continued to operate Centennial's CDMA networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, rather than immediately move all customers to GSM/UMTS.