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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.'"

12 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory by Skeet112 · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Nails
    2. Hammer
    3. Coffin
    4. Profit!!!

    1. Re:Obligatory by mapsjanhere · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, I'm one of the Alltel customers, I found out when I got a call from an unknown number, asking me
      "Can you here me now?"

      --
      I'm aging rapidly, I bought a new game and had no idea if my machine was good for it.
    2. Re:Obligatory by contrapunctus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I had verizon. I hated the phone lockdown. So I switched to Midwest Wireless. They were awesome. They didn't mess with the phones. They were friendly. If you canceled or got a new phone they would prorate the cancellation penalty (If you sign a 2 year contract, and cancel after 1 year, you would only pay half the penalty, etc).
      Alltel bought Midwest Wireless. I can't get google calendar notifications (until very recently) anymore. Not so friendly. I was pondering leaving Alltel.

      It's full circle, if Verizon buys Alltel, I'm back with Verizon.

      Fuck it. Time to get an iPhone.

  2. 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.
  3. Thank goodness by Jor-Al · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does that mean now that the horrible Alltel commercials will finally end?

  4. Re:Consumers? by robo_mojo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fewer choices and greater prices.

  5. 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."
  6. First of many by afidel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As many market watchers have pointed out the weaken US economy combined with a likely end to the lazafaire practices of the Bush administration means there are likely to be a fairly large number of mergers started in Q2 and Q3 so that they can get past regulators before a new government is in place.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  7. 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.

  8. 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?

  9. Re:yeah.. but.. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Running nothing of Note? Nextel IS the phone of large companies.

    NexTel started out as fleet dispatch frequencies and moved into the cell phone range. NexTel has always been an excellent niche between 2 way radios and full blown cell phones.

    Our factories have numerous repeaters in them so that we have full coverage in the building. Push to Talk is used constantly. It seems to be the same for all other friends of mine that work in the manufacturing world. AT&T, Verizon are great for upper management and executives but anyone that might get grease on their hands uses a NexTel

    J2ME, BREW is all junk for our work. Most of our phones show 4 lines of black on green. They'll all survive a drop from a second story building, being plunged under water and being left in dash in the sun. The batteries also last twice as long as any 'consumer' cell phone I've used.

    NexTel definitely has something to bring to the table.
    -
    While I've never used them AllTel has seemed to drive a bit of competition. First they had the "5 friends" thing then it seems everyone had that. Now they're up to "Any friend on any network" which other people seem to be copying.