CenturyTel today announced its return to the wireless business, this time as a mobile virtual network operator reselling Cingular’s GSM and SMS services. The rural independent carrier said it would launch service in a select few markets by the end of the year in preparation for a territory-wide launch.

CenturyTel, however, stressed that its involvement in wireless would be on a much smaller scale than its previous wireless venture, which it sold to Alltel in 2002.

CenturyTel ran its own network, which in many areas did not overlap its wireline telco markets, eventually building up a customer base of 700,000 customers before selling off its network and licenses for $1.65 billion. This time around, CenturyTel plans to bundle wireless with its local, long-distance and new digital broadcast satellite services (through a partnership with DISH network).

"I don’t think we’re necessarily limited to offering wireless separately, but right now we’re only planning on offering them as part of our bundle," a CenturyTel spokeswoman said.

CenturyTel said that Cingular’s GSM network covers the majority of its markets, but because of the rural nature of its CenturyTel’s wireline footprint there are gaps where Cingular can’t offer service. But the agreement with Cingular doesn’t prohibit CenturyTel from finding other resale partners. CenturyTel may seek out resale agreements with rural wireless providers in the future to give it full coverage, the spokeswoman said.

While the Cingular agreement allows for voice and SMS services, CenturyTel has not yet made a decision on whether to pursue a mobile data service, though Cingular’s network might make such a service prohibitive. Cingular’s GPRS/EDGE overlay doesn’t have the same coverage of its GSM footprint.

CenturyTel has not yet decided which markets to initially launch the service in, but whichever it chooses will undergo extensive testing before the carrier rolls out the service territory wide, the spokeswoman said.

"We want to make sure when we roll out these services on a large-scale basis we have everything right," she said.