Verizon Buys Alltel

[wcked]

EW YORK (AP) -- Verizon Wireless' deal to buy Alltel Corp. for $5.9 billion was applauded by investors and should mean a greater range of choices for Alltel subscribers, but some worried that Alltel's commitment to rural coverage will get lost.

Dan Yahro in Bishop, Calif., close to the border with Nevada, has two options for wireless service: Alltel and Verizon Wireless. Now that one is buying the other, he wonders what will happen.

"Alltel has twice the coverage of Verizon here. When you get into Death Valley National Park, which is where I spend a lot of time, Alltel is the only game out there," Yahro said.

Alltel's wide-ranging rural coverage in 35 states has given it 13.2 million subscribers and plenty of fans. In its area, mainly in the interior of the country and in the Southeast, it provides an alternative to the four big national carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA.

John Wilfong, 29, of Alexander, Ark., said he had service on his Alltel phone everywhere when he worked as a deliveryman.

"When I used to go into a lot of fringe areas, it got a better signal," Wilfong said. "When I was living at home before I got married, my dad had Cingular and he couldn't get a signal in the house, but I could."

Having the No. 2 carrier, Verizon Wireless, swallow the No. 5 carrier, Alltel, would catapult it beyond 80 million subscribers and past AT&T Inc. to become the largest carrier in the country. It could also reduce competition in areas where Verizon Wireless and Alltel overlap.

A Justice Department spokeswoman Thursday said the agency "would be interested in looking at the proposed transaction."

Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said the deal "merits the utmost scrutiny by antitrust officials and telecommunications policymakers to ensure that competition and consumers are fully protected."

The deal would also mean that Verizon Wireless, along with AT&T, will pull further away from the competition. No. 3 Sprint is in financial disarray and is losing subscribers. T-Mobile USA is a distant fourth.

"Anything that makes Verizon ... bigger will draw regulatory attention," said Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus.

Analysts said a likely outcome of a regulatory review would be an approval of the deal, on the condition that Verizon Wireless sells off spectrum licenses in areas where its coverage overlaps Alltel's. Ideally, that would let it maintain Alltel's coverage, while allowing another carrier to enter the market by taking over the divested license.

Verizon Wireless did not specifically address coverage questions, but spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said, "The great benefit of this relationship is to bring the best of each company together. For consumers, that means improved network coverage and reliability."

Verizon Wireless and Alltel already allow each other's customers to roam on their networks for voice calls, but they only switch over to the other network if there is no coverage at all on the home network - a weak signal is enough to keep the phone on the home network.

Alltel Chief Executive Scott Ford said customers will not see their rates or plans immediately change due to the Verizon Wireless takeover. Alltel has a popular My Circles option that provides unlimited calls to 5, 10 or 20 numbers for a monthly fee. Verizon Wireless lacks that option, but its customers actually pay slightly less on average: $51.40 per month compared to $53.64 at Alltel.

"My bill would be astronomical without My Circles," said Steve Cuccia, in Jefferson, Ohio. In addition, he likes Alltel's "truly unlimited" wireless data plan, which he uses for home Internet access. His plan is to get the best Alltel plan he can find, and hope that Verizon Wireless lets him keep it after the acquisition.

Alltel subscribers would reap some tangible benefits from the deal, like a wider range of handsets available through Verizon Wireless.

The deal could also speed the buildout of faster wireless broadband. Building out a fourth-generation network would have been a big task for Alltel. Verizon Wireless, on the other hand, has the scale to build out 4G and has unexploited spectrum licenses that cover nearly the entire country. Getting access to Alltel's cell sites will make that buildout faster and cheaper, Verizon Wireless Chief Financial Officer John Townsend said on a conference call.

On Wall Street, the deal went over well. Shares of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc., the controlling parent of Verizon Wireless, rose $1.98, or 5.4 percent, to close at $38.96, unusual for a company spending $28.1 billion including assumed debt on an acquisition. Verizon Wireless' other parent is Vodafone Group PLC of Britain, with a 45 percent share of the joint venture.

Alltel was public until November, when it was taken private by TPG Capital and a unit of Goldman Sachs Group. A group of banks financed the deal, with a view to selling the debt to investors. But the corporate credit market seized up much like the mortgage market, leaving the debt on their books.

"The banks couldn't move their paper. Because they couldn't move their paper, the debt traded at a discount," Alltel CEO Ford told reporters at the company's Little Rock headquarters. Verizon taking over the debt "puts liquidity back into the banking system. I think this is one of those things where federal regulators ... will all look at this and say, 'Thank goodness.'"

The private equity firms came out slightly ahead on the deal, but nowhere close to the huge gains that are the goal for such investments. They paid $24.7 billion for the stock and took on $2.7 billion in debt, bringing the value of that deal to $27.4 billion.

[Tigerz]

Dam I wonder what thats gunna do to sprint...

[XxHoM3leSSxX]

Damn, I might actually have to go back to sprint now. Guess I better pay them that money I stiffed them on :fencing:

[Andy65OU]

“ Originally Posted by Tigerz ”

Dam I wonder what thats gunna do to sprint...

I'm worried more about us Alltel users.. I just hope that my "all inclusive" plan stays in tact and doesn't go up in price...

[Tigerz]

I Can guarantee you price goes up.... Make the smart choice SWITCH TO SPRINT!!!

[Andy65OU]

If I read the above news correctly, Verizon has to sell off the places that they overlap with Alltel in....My problem is that I don't think they're in the Okc area... So I'll have to stay with Verizon for another year and a half... Ugggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

[XxHoM3leSSxX]

“ Originally Posted by Tigerz ”

I Can guarantee you price goes up.... Make the smart choice SWITCH TO SPRINT!!!

Thats what I'm thinking. Now if sprint will just get over their mms issues with htc I'll be happy to go back.

[torrance.green]

“ Originally Posted by Andy65OU ”

I'm worried more about us Alltel users.. I just hope that my "all inclusive" plan stays in tact and doesn't go up in price...

you actually wont have to worry i work for alltel and i know for a fact that this deal is gonna be better for alltel users because we get to keep all of our plan features so my circle will essentially be unlimited since we will be part of the verizon network (which will be the largest network) plus tmobile is supposed to purchase sprint so you will only have to add the at&t users and tmobile users it they but sprint. so for alltel its good and for anyone thinking about going to alltel now is the time to do it because you will be godfathered into your plan which is hands down cheaper then verizon.

on another note this has been in planning for at least a year when we annouced being bout by tpg and goldman sachs this was all in the plan to be sold. the investment firms bought at an awesome time we had a 50% increase in profit and adde like 200,000 users last year so they got the profits from last year plus they get another like half a billion from the trade. the only thing im worried about is what kind of severnce pay they are gonna off. unfortunately im in an area that is saturated with alltel and verizon both so most likely either they are gonna keep me and promote me or pay me to leave. and at that point ill just apply for a better job at verizon or even at&t

[Psycho]

“ Originally Posted by Tigerz ”

I Can guarantee you price goes up.... Make the smart choice SWITCH TO SPRINT!!!

No company can beat Sprint's 99.99 a month plan for unlimited everything! GPS, Live TV, Power Vision, Unl Texting, Unl Minutes, and more, but, Alltel, like every cellular company of which has been bought out, will probably grandfather in the old plans, and make you switch plans when you wish to upgrade your phones, unless you buy your phone outright... but in 2 years, it will be hard to find alltel phones to purchase outright, and you will either have to live with your old phone, or switch to verizon, sprint,T-mobile , or AT&T. (kinda suprised AT&T hasn't bought out T-Mobile yet...) wonder if the new comercials for alltel are going to exclude Verizon from them :) Kinda funny if they did...

It almost seems as thought the dominant cellphone type specific company is buying out all of their competition, AT&T bought out cingular, and cell one. Verizon is buying out Alltel, and there are rumors of Sprint buying out US Cellular. Methinks that eventually there will be one CDMA Company, and one GSM Company, and I hate to say it, but it looks like Verizon and AT&T are going to be the 2 companys in America.

[torrance.green]

“ Originally Posted by Psycho ”

No company can beat Sprint's 99.99 a month plan for unlimited everything! GPS, Live TV, Power Vision, Unl Texting, Unl Minutes, and more, but, Alltel, like every cellular company of which has been bought out, will probably grandfather in the old plans, and make you switch plans when you wish to upgrade your phones, unless you buy your phone outright... but in 2 years, it will be hard to find alltel phones to purchase outright, and you will either have to live with your old phone, or switch to verizon, sprint,T-mobile , or AT&T. (kinda suprised AT&T hasn't bought out T-Mobile yet...) wonder if the new comercials for alltel are going to exclude Verizon from them :) Kinda funny if they did...

It almost seems as thought the dominant cellphone type specific company is buying out all of their competition, AT&T bought out cingular, and cell one. Verizon is buying out Alltel, and there are rumors of Sprint buying out US Cellular. Methinks that eventually there will be one CDMA Company, and one GSM Company, and I hate to say it, but it looks like Verizon and AT&T are going to be the 2 companys in America.

yea there will be a 3 year grace period but till they really start making it so people change off of there Alltel plans but in all reality who knows what they will be offering in 3 years there may only be completely unlimited plans through everyone. and the sprint unlimited plan just shows how much more like cricket sprint is getting. i dont know about where you live but sprint isnt that great here and nobody really has it and with all of the legal issues and network problems from nextel i dout theyll make it to 2011 and add to the fact that they have horrible customer service and verizon is going to be virtually seemless with the acqusition of alltel things are looking real grim for sprint. there only chance is the fact that alot of the churn from verizon is no no longer going to have alltel as an option and they have the best walkie talkie service for the construction industry. sorry but sprint just isnt that great ( at least in NM)

[Andy65OU]

Thank You, Torrance.. And please keep us Alltel users on here informed, when anything new arises.. Your knowledge is Greatly appreciated...

[rico002]

5.9 billion....pshhh, thats pocket change for me......haha sike im as broke as it gets :Flush:

[torrance.green]

ALLTEL-VERIZON MERGER

here are some FAQ with answers just the basics

1. Why are Alltel and Verizon Wireless merging?
This merger will create the best wireless company in the country and will enhance the
opportunity for both companies to serve their customers. We will have the largest network footprint in the country, the most customers roughly 80 million, and annual revenues of about $56 billion.

Since going private last year, we have delivered outstanding financial and operational results. This transaction delivers a solid return to TPG and Goldman Sachs for their investment in Alltel and it also is a good deal for Verizon shareholders since this transaction allows Verizon to buy some of Alltels debt at a discount from banks.
Verizons decision to acquire Alltel is a smart and resourceful move to create a powerhouse wireless company.

2. When is the transaction expected to close?
The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

3. Will Verizon maintain a local presence in (name of local community)?
These decisions will be made during the transition process.

4. Is my contract still valid?
Yes, this is business as usual and your current agreement is still valid. We will
continue to provide the products and services you enjoy today.

5. Will my rate plan change?
Your rate plan will remain unchanged throughout the term of your agreement.

6. Will my coverage area change?
Your coverage area will remain the unchanged until the deal closes. When the deal closes you will be able to take advantage of the combined Alltel and Verizon Wireless networks.

7. Will my bill look different?
Your current bill and bill format will remain the same.

8. What do I need to do today?
There is No Action required on your part. Your products and services will remain
in place just as they are today.

9. Will I need to get a new phone?
Verizon uses the same technology as Alltel so there is no need to worry about
whether or not your handset will work on the Verizon network.

10. Will you let me out of my contract when the two companies combine?
Your current terms and conditions will be honored when the two companies
combine.

[Andy65OU]

Thank You, Torrance... You ROCK!!!!!

[seanborn1979]

This is kinda funny. I just switched to Alltel from Verizon because I just moved to a Alltel dominated area. Oh well!

[scenexkid]

“ Originally Posted by Tigerz ”

I Can guarantee you price goes up.... Make the smart choice SWITCH TO SPRINT!!!

Haha using Sprint in Ohio is like using a $5 walmart walkie talkie and expecting to talk to your friend 3 blocks away

[kaos]

“ Originally Posted by scenexkid ”

Haha using Sprint in Ohio is like using a $5 walmart walkie talkie and expecting to talk to your friend 3 blocks away

not if you get airave it isn't . airrave gives you 5 bars .

[scenexkid]

lol well i work at alltel and my bills free so i dont really care

[Mike20PR]

looks like Alltel will have to take the Verizon guy out of the commercial....


or have a scene that the Alltel guy starts working at a Verizon store, and the other three carrier guys see him LOL

[scenexkid]

From what i've heard from my manager at work verizon and alltel r staying seperate companies under one roof basicly the only real merger goin on is the sharing of phones and towers and i've actually confirmed that the touch pro will be coming out on alltel late 2008 or as early as jan-feb of 2009