RCC Unicel Being Bought Out?

[CrossroadsTech]

There's rumors that Unicel is in the process or negotiations or something with another wireless carrier. Unicel in Mississippi has laid off their Inventory staff and has all their employees on pins and needles as they've been told they may not have a job in a couple months. Anyone else heard any rumors or have any speculation as to what's up? Personally, I hope big blue gets them...

[agentHibby]

Of Course Big Blue is going to buy them!

[jones]

it's no laughing matter when you are in this situation.
I have a friend who works for NTELOS that was Laidoff
and has moved on since.

[agentHibby]

I agree loseing a job is no laughing matter I did not mean to laugh at that.
I meant only to laugh at big blue buying RCC.
I only lost a job becuase I decided to quit and move on.
I have had friends lose their job and it it hard and very sad when it is not their fault.

[roamer1]

Originally Posted by CrossroadsTech

There's rumors that Unicel is in the process or negotiations or something with another wireless carrier. Unicel in Mississippi has laid off their Inventory staff and has all their employees on pins and needles as they've been told they may not have a job in a couple months. Anyone else heard any rumors or have any speculation as to what's up? Personally, I hope big blue gets them...

As far as major carriers go: If it's only the Mississippi property, Alltel makes good sense because of the lack of overlap. If Alabama is involved as well, the only one of the majors that can buy all of Alabama is VZW -- Unicel overlaps way too much with both Alltel and Cingular in rural areas where divestitures would likely be required, while there is no overlap (not including 1900) at all between VZW and Unicel. Of course, Unicel could sell off only parts of Alabama, but given the way the AL/MS network is built I really don't see them doing that.

I can't see the smaller GSM carriers like Dobson and Centennial being interested...but you never know.

-SC

[Chris L]

Originally Posted by roamer1

As far as major carriers go: If it's only the Mississippi property, Alltel makes good sense because of the lack of overlap. If Alabama is involved as well, the only one of the majors that can buy all of Alabama is VZW -- Unicel overlaps way too much with both Alltel and Cingular in rural areas where divestitures would likely be required, while there is no overlap (not including 1900) at all between VZW and Unicel. Of course, Unicel could sell off only parts of Alabama, but given the way the AL/MS network is built I really don't see them doing that.

I can't see the smaller GSM carriers like Dobson and Centennial being interested...but you never know.

Didn't RCC decide to go GSM here? That would indicate T-Mobile as a good suitor, although I don't know that they're really interested in covering the boonies (and when the biggest city you cover is Tupelo, you're covering the boonies).

If CDMA is in the mix, I could see Alltel buying the Mississippi bits and Cellular South (who've been on a bit of an expansion kick) getting the Alabama bits. On the other hand, there are a bunch of investors down in Lake Charles who just made themselves beaucoup bucks and might want to go back into the biz as an independent operator.

I just don't see the strategy here for VZW... picking up the universal service requirements at 800 in a very odd collection of markets makes little sense when they can just build out 1900 coverage with their existing licenses where they need it and "extended network" the rest of it via other CDMA carriers. At least Alltel and CS specialize in rural CDMA... that's not so much VZW's bag.

Quite a headscratcher.

[DemoMan]

Perhaps Alltel is planning to trade the property that they are being forced to divest in Nebraska and Kansas for RCC's Mississippi markets.

[CrossroadsTech]

Originally Posted by DemoMan

Perhaps Alltel is planning to trade the property that they are being forced to divest in Nebraska and Kansas for RCC's Mississippi markets.

Something like that would make sense! Also keep in mind that I know for a fact there are Alltel Sales Managers drooling over acquiring Unicel's west Alabama properties (Butler, AL) too. Even with Alltel's overlap in Kansas and Alabama, lets say Alltel acquires the entire company. Whoever they divest the WW overlap could also take the Unicel Kansas properties and south Alabama. Unicel's Mississippi, West Alabama, Minnesota, Vermont, and Oregon properties would fit well with the Alltel/WW footprint.

[roamer1]

Originally Posted by Chris L

Didn't RCC decide to go GSM here? That would indicate T-Mobile as a good suitor, although I don't know that they're really interested in covering the boonies (and when the biggest city you cover is Tupelo, you're covering the boonies).

If CDMA is in the mix, I could see Alltel buying the Mississippi bits and Cellular South (who've been on a bit of an expansion kick) getting the Alabama bits. On the other hand, there are a bunch of investors down in Lake Charles who just made themselves beaucoup bucks and might want to go back into the biz as an independent operator.

I just don't see the strategy here for VZW... picking up the universal service requirements at 800 in a very odd collection of markets makes little sense when they can just build out 1900 coverage with their existing licenses where they need it and "extended network" the rest of it via other CDMA carriers. At least Alltel and CS specialize in rural CDMA... that's not so much VZW's bag.

Quite a headscratcher.

Unicel has indeed built out GSM in AL/MS.

As for VZW: keep in mind that Unicel has always been a thorn in VZW's side in Alabama because of the gaps Unicel creates in VZW's highway corridor coverage (between the Georgia state line and Opelika/Auburn on I-85, east and west of Anniston on I-20, around Clanton on I-65, around Troy on 231, etc.) and the poor coverage the VZW/Unicel license boundary creates in places like Winfield. While VZW has been able to fix some of the gaps, such as the one east of Anniston, with 1900 coverage, they haven't been able to fix all of them... If VZW does land up taking over AL/MS, it'll likely be mainly to fix the gaps, with the rural areas (= less reliance on Alltel/CS) being just a bonus. Still, VZW has not ever taken over a carrier with GSM, while Alltel has taken over two (PSC and WWCA)...still, very few if any Unicel customers in AL/MS have GSM right now, so you never know.

-SC

[jjdu42]

Very interesting stuff.......Butler and Talladega would be great for Alltel to gain......looking forward to see whats ahead!

[BillRadio]

Originally Posted by CrossroadsTech

There's rumors that Unicel is in the process or negotiations or something with another wireless carrier. Unicel in Mississippi has laid off their Inventory staff and has all their employees on pins and needles as they've been told they may not have a job in a couple months.

The Inventory staff layoffs may be an isolated event. Could that be combined or contracted out?

If there were to be a takeover that involves a company that is not already invested in Unicel, it would take a lot longer than a couple months to get regulatory and shareholder approval. I'm betting anything announced this month won't close until the end of the year.

Go ahead and shop for Christmas, but don't buy a car.