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Verizon Wireless To Buy Alltel For $28B

Posted by timothy on from the all-your-base-stations-that-is dept.

CWmike writes "Matt Hamblen reports that Verizon Wireless has officially announced an agreement to purchase Alltel for $28.1 billion, which would make the new company the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., with 80 million subscribers. The deal will undoubtedly provoke scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, they acknowledge. Who loses? 'This [deal] is another nail in the coffin for Sprint," said Michael Voellinger, an analyst at Telwares in Parsippany, N.J. 'Alltel is a highly valuable and strategic roaming partner to the top four providers, and this acquisition would put long-term pressure on pricing and terms of those arrangements.'"

6 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Can you say "Monopoly" ? by unity100 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    say it. now spell it.

    because this is it.

    although im a capitalist, im increasingly starting to think that big corporations need a MAJOR whack on their butts so that competition can be a possibility again.

    --
    Read radical news here
    1. Re:Can you say "Monopoly" ? by DragonWriter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But can we at least have one of these conversations without people throwing around the "M" word like it applies to any and every situation involving a public corporation?


      Yeah, its really annoying when people say "Monopoly" when the right term is "Oligopoly".

      Even without Alltel being bought by Verizon, the four-firm concentration (combined marketshare of the top four firms) in the wireless market is over 80%.

      What it certainly is not is a open, competitive market.
  2. Re:Consumers? by robo_mojo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fewer choices and greater prices.

  3. Re:yeah.. but.. by Constantine+XVI · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nextel == iDEN phones & network, running nothing of note
    Sprint == CDMA phones & network, running J2ME
    Result: disaster

    Verizon == CDMA phones & network, running BREW
    Alltel == CDMA phones and network, running BREW
    Result: probably much better

    --
    "I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
  4. Re:Great...Ordering of Priorities by DigDuality · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and if you give up your freedom for safety/security, then you're protecting nothing.

  5. Customer backlash? by jyunderwood · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No doubt the Alltel customers who are use to My Circle and relatively un-crippled phones compared to Verizon will not like this.

    Would customers be able to get out of their contacts when they merge?