Future of Verizon/Alltel Combined Company?

[walkguru]

well i wish them the best, but ill miss thier silly comericals.

[ta206]

I think I have have hit most of the levels of mourning - anger/loss/acceptance

I would love to be able to stomp my foot and declare that I will never let myself be forced into going back to a company that I left years ago for CS that was subpar in comparison to the gold star people I deal with at Alltel.

Being in a completely rural area I don't have any dillusions about going to At&t or T-moble. So I will pray that my contract will be grandfathered in as painlessly as possible. I have a couple of spare phones that I hope will be accepted on Verizon's network if something happens to my new one so I don't have to go onto one of their higher rate plans too quickly.

I have many friends at Alltel in sales and am hoping for the most part that they can continue in their capacity at the local Verizon stores and show them what true CS is.

Hopefully they see the customers and employees that they are inheriting in this business deal and can find a way to SERVE them in a manner that can be beneficial to all involved.

Sorry - I guess I'm in the sad and melancholy stage of acceptance.

[KyleAndMelissa22]

I still think My Circle and other Alltel features will be grandfathered.
T-Mobile decided to keep UnPlan for SunCom customers.
(and nevermind that SunCom commercials are still on the air and UnPlan is still offered here).

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by Eric47

alltel was owned by an investment group....was this really such a suprise??? the whole reason they even owned alltel was to resell...it was inevitable.

Right but the speculation at first was that they were going to hold onto Alltel for roughly five years, generate cash to buy spectrum and build Alltel into a much larger carrier and then sell them off for huge profits.

TPG ended up making a bunch of money without having to put out for spectrum or wait for the networks to be built out, as long as the sale goes through.

The rumor is that Alltel made three separate offers to buy Sprint and all three were rejected.

[RJB]

Originally Posted by KyleAndMelissa22

I still think My Circle and other Alltel features will be grandfathered.
T-Mobile decided to keep UnPlan for SunCom customers.
(and nevermind that SunCom commercials are still on the air and UnPlan is still offered here).

My circle may be grand fathered but I don't see Verizon letting you keep Mobile to Mobile as well.

[bikebryan]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

All mobile contracts are pretty standard... All carriers leave a passage in the contract that allows them to amend the agreement if they so desire.

-Jay

Exactly. Alltel's service agreement is also online and can be viewed from their website

[KyleAndMelissa22]

Originally Posted by RJB

My circle may be grand fathered but I don't see Verizon letting you keep Mobile to Mobile as well.

Well I thought all / most of Verizon's plans include M2M aka "IN" calling....
So IMO, if My Circle could stay, then so can all other Alltel features.

[virgorickie]

Ok we all know that Verizon bought Alltel...

My concern is that are we going to loose the my circle numbers... nights starting at 7pm.. data service... and all the other things that Allte offers....

I really do not think that this is far... we are going to be forced to go to Verizon reather we like it or not... if we drop are service becaise of Verzon taking over.. do we still have to pay the cost to shut are service off... i have a friend who has Verizon and his service sucks... Verizon doesn't even offer service in much of West Virginia... is this going to change... will they start using Alltel cell towers or what... I think that us (Alltel Customers) derserve a answer from Alltel and yes also Verizon..... Is Verizon trying to take over all the cell phone companys...????

I would love to hear you feedback on this....

[KyleAndMelissa22]

Originally Posted by virgorickie

Ok we all know that Verizon bought Alltel...

The deal is not official yet, still pending FCC approval.

Originally Posted by virgorickie

My concern is that are we going to loose the my circle numbers... nights starting at 7pm.. data service... and all the other things that Allte offers....

Customers will be grandfathered, or else almost 13 million people will be mad at Verizon and leave.
Some people will stay, but most will not.
So if Verizon wants to keep most Alltel customers, Verizon will honor Alltels plans & features.

Originally Posted by virgorickie

I really do not think that this is far... we are going to be forced to go to Verizon reather we like it or not... if we drop are service becaise of Verzon taking over.. do we still have to pay the cost to shut are service off... i have a friend who has Verizon and his service sucks... Verizon doesn't even offer service in much of West Virginia... is this going to change... will they start using Alltel cell towers or what... I think that us (Alltel Customers) derserve a answer from Alltel and yes also Verizon..... Is Verizon trying to take over all the cell phone companys...????

No, Verizon is not trying to take over the industry, but they are greedy .

I think if customers want out, then they could get out without paying ETF,
but only if the carrier violates the contract and/or service terms.

Not honoring Alltel's features is a violation of service terms, therefore you can get out without ETF.
But I think we can all complain to customer service enough if they try to take it all away, or just threaten to leave.
In my area, Alltel and Verizon are both offered, and are both very good overall.
Lets just hope that the spectrum doesn't get divested.

[MOTOhooligan]

Verizon will, most likely, grandfather in all of Alltel's features but will not offer them in the future. The contract will not change, therefore if you cancel service while still under contract you will be billed an ETF. The Alltel contracts will carry over to Verizon and they will be leagally binding.

There is a clause in the Alltel terms and conditions that says:

"Assignment

We may assign this Agreement to another entity without any advance consent from or notice to you. You may not assign this Agreement without our consent."

[racquetballer]

Originally Posted by KyleAndMelissa22

I still think My Circle and other Alltel features will be grandfathered.
T-Mobile decided to keep UnPlan for SunCom customers.
(and nevermind that SunCom commercials are still on the air and UnPlan is still offered here).

You're probably right that they'll grandfather the plans. Had Airtouch before it was VZW and they grandfathered the plan and continue to do so.

But there is an out for Alltel if necessary. When "My Circle" originally rolled out I remember seeing somewhere on my paperwork there was a fine print disclaimer that said Alltel reserved the right to discontinue the program "My Circle" at anytime.

[bikebryan]

Originally Posted by virgorickie

Ok we all know that Verizon bought Alltel...

My concern is that are we going to loose the my circle numbers... nights starting at 7pm.. data service... and all the other things that Allte offers....

I really do not think that this is far... we are going to be forced to go to Verizon reather we like it or not... if we drop are service becaise of Verzon taking over.. do we still have to pay the cost to shut are service off... i have a friend who has Verizon and his service sucks... Verizon doesn't even offer service in much of West Virginia... is this going to change... will they start using Alltel cell towers or what... I think that us (Alltel Customers) derserve a answer from Alltel and yes also Verizon..... Is Verizon trying to take over all the cell phone companys...????

I would love to hear you feedback on this....

English please?

Alltel employees have no answers for you yet, and NO, Verizon has NOT bought Alltel...yet. It is all preliminary at the moment and nobody knows anymore that you have already heard in the news. When there is more to know, you WILL be notified via mailings and bill inserts, so watch your bills.

[bikebryan]

Originally Posted by MOTOhooligan

Verizon will, most likely, grandfather in all of Alltel's features but will not offer them in the future. The contract will not change, therefore if you cancel service while still under contract you will be billed an ETF. The Alltel contracts will carry over to Verizon and they will be leagally binding.

There is a clause in the Alltel terms and conditions that says:

"Assignment

We may assign this Agreement to another entity without any advance consent from or notice to you. You may not assign this Agreement without our consent."

There is also a notice in it that states they can change the agreement at any point as long as they give you notice, but does not absolve you of having to pay any termination fees due to that. Oh, you could take them to court.......................oh wait, no you can't. You also agreed to BINDING ARBITRATION should you have any disputes.

Read those agreements closely, folks.

[PTCO911]

Originally Posted by MOTOhooligan

I couldn't agree more. I feel like we got sold out. There were so many opportunities to make Alltel a better, larger company and increase competition but they were never taken advantage of.

I thought Alltel would live to fight on. They had been independent for so long I figured they knew what they were doing. I thought the point of selling to the equity firms was to get capital for spectrum, then go public again once the new, larger network was up and running to make back the initial investments by TPG and Sachs Goldman and then some. If that wasn't the plan, I can't understand why Alltel went private in the first place.

The only thing I can figure is that the mortgage crisis somehow affected the amount of capital available to Alltel for the purchase of spectrum and that's why they weren't able to buy any. I honestly believed that Alltel was going to come out of that auction with the puzzle piece major metro areas they currently lacked and in four or five years really take on VZW and AT&T. I can't tell you how disappointed I am that didn't happen and how even more disappointed I am that they're selling to VZW and decreasing the number of major carriers in the US Telecom landscape.

Moto when Alltel got sold the the investment group the end was near. Some of the most recent incentives were there for gaining customers to make the deal more lucrative. I agree we (the Alltel customers) were sold out.

[PTCO911]

Originally Posted by bikebryan

There is also a notice in it that states they can change the agreement at any point as long as they give you notice, but does not absolve you of having to pay any termination fees due to that. Oh, you could take them to court.......................oh wait, no you can't. You also agreed to BINDING ARBITRATION should you have any disputes.

Read those agreements closely, folks.

Thank you for the cheerful news. As far as the sale of Alltel, it is a foregone conclusion. There may be some divestiture but the sale will go through.

[RJB]

So if alltel customers leave where are they going to go? Honestly for the technology and what the users are used to using Alltel and Verizon are about as close as any to carriers could be. (I am talking about the technology, frequency, phone processors, not phone ui, plans and things like that).

[spleck]

Originally Posted by bikebryan

There is also a notice in it that states they can change the agreement at any point as long as they give you notice, but does not absolve you of having to pay any termination fees due to that. Oh, you could take them to court.......................oh wait, no you can't. You also agreed to BINDING ARBITRATION should you have any disputes.

Read those agreements closely, folks.

Such cheerful Alltel customer service!

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by PTCO911

Moto when Alltel got sold the the investment group the end was near. Some of the most recent incentives were there for gaining customers to make the deal more lucrative. I agree we (the Alltel customers) were sold out.

Yeah... I still had hope they'd own the 700MHz auction but I should have known better. I thought Alltel really could have shaken up the industry if they had come out of that auction with a lot of major metro areas.

Oh well. I suppose when they sold to private capital firms I should have known this was inevitable.

[Eric47]

Originally Posted by MOTOhooligan

Yeah... I still had hope they'd own the 700MHz auction but I should