Verizon Buys Alltel To Expand EVDO Network

Alex · Last edited by Alex on Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:12 pm; edited 3 times in total

UPDATE: it appears to be a done deal now:

Charlie_r_m · EVDO Newbie Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 8

Yup looks like they're gonna try to buy them out. It may explain why my service with alltel has gotten worse and worse the past 2 months. Either way, if/when it happens Verizon is sure to slap their 5 gig cap on the service along with other changes and probably the enviable shrinkages for people who were lucky enough that they could get alltel's service in the backwoods of nowhere like me. Sadly, I see no reason alltel would go out of their way to fix any problems that people are facing at the moment. Hopefully Cellular South will open their wireless up to regular consumers and work on their towers some. The have a tower about 1 mile away from my house. It's only 1x right now though.

karlyn · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject:

This is like my worst nightmare. Crying or Very sad

dima · EVDO User Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 98

Well, so much for the exodus from Sprint to "bluer" pastures of "unlimited" service. And now that all the cable companies are putting caps on too, I guess C.A.P. is the order of the day.

But, ummm, shouldn't the devouring fish-mouth be RED? Instead of YELLOW? That's Sprint's color.

Azmyth · EVDO Junkie Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 208

well there goes my internet.

my 360 gaming is down the drain.

herlien · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:42 am Post subject:

Looks like it's a done deal.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080605/alltel_verizon.html

wgray05 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 1

I wonder what this will do to the Sprint/Alltel EVDO roaming agreement.

dhenninger · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

Rottweiler · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:57 am Post subject:

This is surely the worst news ever.

The universe surely has a sense of humor. Why else does it always seem that the worst companies always end up on top.

JoeCHecht · EVDO Junkie Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 345

Fed up with Sprint, I just bought into Alltel EVDO Sad

GRRRR!

dario

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/V/VERIZON_WIRELESS_ALLTEL?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-06-05-07-43-05

Verizon Wireless agrees to buy Alltel for $5.9B

By PETER SVENSSON
AP Business Writer
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Verizon Wireless has agreed to buy Alltel Corp. for $5.9 billion, which would make it by far the largest cellular carrier in the U.S.

Verizon Wireless would also assume $22.2 billion in debt in the deal, bringing the total value to $28.1 billion, the parties said Thursday.

The deal comes just seven months after Alltel was taken private by TPG Capital and a unit of Goldman Sachs Group. 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.

Alltel has 13.2 million subscribers in 34 states, mainly in rural areas away from the coasts. Added to Verizon Wireless 67.2 million subscribers, the size of the combined company would surpass the current U.S. cellular leader AT&T Inc., with 71.4 million subscribers.

The parties expect the deal to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory approvals. The deal is likely to face scrutiny by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, but analysts expect it to pass.

Shares of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc., the controlling parent of Verizon Wireless, rose $2.16, or 5.8 percent, to $39.14 by late morning. Verizon Wireless' other parent is Vodafone Group PLC of Britain, with a 45 percent share of the joint venture.

Verizon Wireless expects that the deal to add immediately to earnings, excluding transaction and integration costs. It expects the deal to generate "synergies" of more than $9 billion due to reduced capital and operating spending. Analysts believe Verizon Wireless pays Alltel hundreds of millions of dollars a year in roaming fees, since Alltel provides coverage in many areas where Verizon Wireless does not.

In a statement, Verizon Communications Chairman and Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg said Alltel is a "a perfect fit," given its valuable customer base and solid financials. He also pointed to the fact that the carriers share the same network technology. AT&T and another wireless carrier T-Mobile USA use an incompatible technology.

The $28.1 billion Verizon Wireless is paying, including debt, points to a small profit for the private-equity firms. The buyout happened at a difficult time in the credit markets, and the banks who financed the deal reportedly ended up holding some of the debt on their books, rather than selling it. That put pressure on the buyout group to cash out.

Talks between Verizon Wireless and Alltel were reported Wednesday by CNBC and The Wall Street Journal. Based on those reports, analyst Craig Moffett at Sanford Bernstein said the deal could yield significant economies of scale.

"The consolidation of Alltel takes another step towards rationalizing and consolidating the U.S. wireless industry, something that must be viewed as a positive" from an investor perspective, he said.

He said regulatory approval was likely, since the industry is already viewed as consisting of four players: the national carriers Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA. The deal signals that "the days for a mid-sized, regional stand-alone wireless operator are numbered," he wrote.

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Mackieman · EVDO Junkie Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 490

I wonder if Verizon will force Alltel's network to upgrade to MobileIP as the standard rather than the exception.

dima · EVDO User Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 98

Azmyth · EVDO Junkie Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 208

wonder if we are gonna get hit with the 5gig cap.

dima · EVDO User Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 98

5 Gig Cap? Of course. How can they possibly acquire Alltel users put thm under VZW and not do otherwise. They might keep the circle thingie though but I remember when Cingular bought AT&T they pretty much dumped AT&T stuff and stuck a usage penalty on us old TDMA users until we either got a new GSM phone or quit. I quit. Still have the old phone though. Even though I can't get ANY signal on it anymore lol.