Verizon Wireless to purchase Alltel for $28.1 Billion

Interesting... I'd like to see those Chad commercials now...

Anyways, I wonder how they will treat the "My Circle" plans in the crossover? How about the phone UI? Please, Verizon... end this vicious cycle. Stop the horrible UI.

Verizon Wireless to purchase Alltel for $28.1 Billion

Wireless phone service providers Verizon Wireless and Alltel Corp. plan to combine to create the nation's largest wireless company in a transaction valued at $28.1 billion, including debt assumption.

Full Article at Link

Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/06/02/daily68.html

This will be funny from a marketing perspective with the "Chad" commercials making fun of Verizon Wireless (and the other three "Big 4" carriers) and all.

Alltel had pretty much become a nobody. If they didn't sponsor a NASCAR team (do they still?), I wouldn't have known they existed.

There's still decent competition in the cellular market. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are the big boys. Almost every industry maxes out at three large competitors, so Alltel getting sucked up is no big surprise.

There will always be other smaller businesses. Metro PCS in Atlanta offers unlimited calling for $35 as long as you stay in the metro area. It's a pretty big area, but it's pretty much a glorified landline. I don't travel too much out of metro Atlanta, but I like knowing it'll be free.

I do wish the big companies would start a price war for the lower end. Most people don't need that unlimited plan, so that was a non-issue to me. A whole bunch of us would LOVE cell phone plans to drop $10/month because, well, we don't even use all of our minutes. I maybe use 100 minutes/month. I'd use more if I actually had people to talk to (and time to do it). I don't plan on buying a landline ever unless it's a last resort, which is why I'm all mobile.

Was just reading this on The Reg.

80m customer base (Vs AT&T's 71m). Crikey! Seems a bit of a steal for $6bn cash (plus the debt they're taking on).

Sure hope this doesn't happen. I've been with Alltel for a decade. They provide the best service and customer relations of anyone in my area. I've had all the other major companies with work phones and none came close to the coverage of Alltel. Not to mention I've been with them so long that I get great rates because I've been grand-fathered in to my current plan.

Anyone know if a contract is still enforced when a company gets bought out like this? If not, maybe I can get out and get the iPhone! Could be the only positive...

Michael CM1 said:

Alltel had pretty much become a nobody. If they didn't sponsor a NASCAR team (do they still?), I wouldn't have known they existed.

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Really? They gained 1 million customers last quarter alone.

I am really mad about this. I have had Alltel for the past 6 years and the service, coverage, and openness of the phones has been great. I know people in my area with Verizon and do not want to deal with that company.

If their wireless service is anything like their landline service then I say good riddance.

Michael CM1 said:

AT&T, Verizon T-Mobile and Sprint are the big boys.

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I think you could have left out the last two.

AT&T and Verizon would control over 60% of the US cell phone market on their own, maybe as much as 65%.

I don't think Sprint or T-Mobile break 20%. And it goes way down from there...

If Verzion is doing anything like buying out Alltel, nothing good can come from it.

Unspeaked said:

I think you could have left out the last two.

AT&T and Verizon would control over 60% of the US cell phone market on their own, maybe as much as 65%.

I don't think Sprint or T-Mobile break 20%. And it goes way down from there...

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Only counting the Big 4...

Sprint - 53 million (23%)
T-Mobile - 28 million (12%)
Verizon (plus Alltel) - 80 million (34%)
AT&T - 71 million (31%)


With the rumors of T-Mobile buying Sprint, we could be going for an even three way split soon.

Syrus28 said:

Only counting the Big 4...

Sprint - 53 million (23%)
T-Mobile - 28 million (12%)
Verizon (plus Alltel) - 80 million (34%)
AT&T - 71 million (31%)


With the rumors of T-Mobile buying Sprint, we could be going for an even three way split soon.

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Sprint is losing users fast....if T Mobile does buy them, I'm sure Sprint will be much smaller, by the time a deal is reached

zap2 said:

Sprint is losing users fast....if T Mobile does buy them, I'm sure Sprint will be much smaller, by the time a deal is reached

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I agree with this, but at least it would mean a strategic re-commitment by T-Mobile to the US market. The problem with the top five US mobile carriers right now is that Alltel is not really a national carrier, and Sprint and T-Mobile are not competing aggressively. So while Verizon taking in Alltel and T-Mobile taking in Sprint would lessen the number of players in the market, at least there would be three reasonably large and strong companies to compete with each other nationally, as opposed to the current situation, where the fight is really just between Verizon and AT&T. So in that sense, I think it's actually an improvement over the current situation for the competitiveness of the national market.

PlaceofDis said:

sprint/nextel use different technologies than T-Mobile, so i don't really see why there would be a merger possiblity there personally.

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Actually, Nextel wasn't on CDMA, for instance, when Sprint bought them, right? Now that deal admittedly has been DCX-esque colossal failure, but not clearly because of the switching of Nextel's customers to CDMA devices.

Of course, Nextel customers probably feel they have been traded around far too many times, and Sprint itself doesn't really have anything special about them, and as pointed out, is bleeding a lot of customers. So perhaps it would make more sense for T-Mobile to just invest the money in aggressive marketing and promotions and new phones to herald its late 3G entrance, and just win customers instead of buying them.

But I do still think it would be good for the market if a company were in serious competition nationally with Verizon and AT&T.

Hmm, wonder what this will mean for us. We're in the middle of moving from Sprint to Alltel at work, about 50 phones and Blackberrys. Sprint's customer service is horrible, the worst I've seen...so far Alltel's seemed pretty good. Hopefully it'll stay that way if this happens.

Syrus28 said:

Interesting... I'd like to see those Chad commercials now...

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Yep, Chad this is my boss.

Big Amazon walk over to look at Chad then pinches him on the ass.

Amazon smiles stuffs a wad of cash in Chads pants and says, "I'll take him," as she tosses him over her shoulder and steps into a van which starts rocking soon after.