In a developing story, AT&T is set to purchase assets covering 18 former Alltel markets from Verizon for up to $2.5 billion in cash with 6 markets being bid on by private equity firms and U.S. Cellular, according to CNBC and the Wall Street Journal.
The asset divestments were part of the requirements put forth by the FCC and the Department of Justice in order for the Verizon-Alltel merger to receive final approval earlier this year, and Verizon has until early July to complete the divestiture.
Of course, not a surprise. I guess no other carrier has the cash to buy them. Let me correct that, can’t out bid AT&T. I guess it’s too much to ask for the little carriers or TMO or Sprint to get chance to purchase them. I guess its wrong of me to say Keep AT&T out of the bidding or purchase.
So what exactly are they buying? Will there be anyu benefits for AT&T customers? Alltel doesn’t even have service here so I doubt it would benefit me anyway. Plus, I thought Alltel was a CDMA carrier? So what could they have thaty AT&T wants?
Spectrum.
They are purchasing the wireless assets, spectrum and customers. The advantage to existing AT&T customers is it will expand the number of customers included as mobile to mobile calls. Alltel is a CDMA carrier however did a GSM overlap on most of their CDMA network to accommodate GSM roamers. So what AT&T gets is wireless equipment and assets in 18 states so they won’t have to pay roaming fees to another carrier. They also gain another 2 million plus subscribers paying monthly access fees.