Alltel announced an asset sale and trade with U.S. Cellular to he...
Alltel announced an asset sale and trade with U.S. Cellular to help it satisfy a major part of merger conditions imposed last summer by federal regulators in approving the firm’s merger with Western Wireless. Alltel gives U.S. Cellular 6…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
markets in Kan. and 9 markets in Neb. In return, Alltel gets 2 markets in Idaho and $50 million in cash. The deal helps Alltel meet the most significant condition imposed on the merger sale within 120 days of the Aug. 1 closing of Western Wireless’s Kan. and Neb. assets overlapping Alltel assets, an Alltel spokesman said Tues. Alltel still must sell off markets covering 4 counties in Ark., and the Cellular One brand. These assets are being run by a trustee pending a sale. U.S. Cellular said the Neb. and Kan. markets help the carrier strengthen its Midwest focus. The carrier gets some 125,000 retail customers, 193 cell sites, 15 company-owned retail locations and 89 authorized agents - in an area with about 1.4 million people. The markets Alltel gains in Idaho will make that carrier a bigger player in the state. Alltel previously picked up parts of northwestern Ida. from Western Wireless. It adds markets along U.S. 84 and U.S. 15 through heart of the state, taking in Twin Falls, Pocatello and Idaho Falls. The markets touch but aren’t really contiguous to markets Alltel already owns. The carrier adds 91,000 customers, 84 cell sites, 6 company-owned retail locations and 32 authorized agents in an area of some 500,000 potential customers.