Unicel Completes Purchase of Southern Minnesota Wireless

[jones]

Rural Cellular Corporation Completes Purchase of Southern Minnesota Wireless Markets
Tuesday April 3, 4:05 pm ET


ALEXANDRIA, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rural Cellular Corporation ("RCC" or "the Company") (NASDAQ:RCCC - News), has completed its $45 million cash purchase of southern Minnesota wireless markets.

Richard P. Ekstrand, RCC's president and chief executive officer, commented: "The addition of southern Minnesota, including Hutchinson, Mankato, Owatonna, Willmar and others, is a milestone for our Midwest territory. I want to welcome our new customers and employees to Unicel®. Over the next several years we anticipate increasing our distribution and network presence throughout your communities."

Ekstrand continued: "This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of providing high-quality wireless communication services to main street America and allows us to leverage our Alexandria-based operations."

These markets include 28 counties in southern Minnesota, and as of March 31, 2007, support a postpaid customer base of approximately 34,000. With these new properties, the population covered by RCC's Midwest territory marketed networks increases by approximately 621,000 to 2.1 million. The southern Minnesota service area is adjacent to RCC's northern Minnesota service area and includes approximately 80 cell sites and 33 distribution points. RCC purchased network assets and A-block cellular licenses covering Minnesota RSAs 7, 8, 9, and 10. The southern Minnesota RSAs acquired utilize CDMA technology consistent with the Company's northern Minnesota networks.

Rural Cellular was advised on the transaction by Falkenberg Capital of Denver, Colorado.

About Rural Cellular Corporation

Rural Cellular Corporation, based in Alexandria, Minnesota, provides wireless communication services under the brand name Unicel to Central, Midwest, Northeast, South and Northwest markets located in 15 states. For additional information on the Company and its operations, please visit its Web site at www.unicel.com.

[jones]

Good coverage.

[Fire14]

Alltel Completes Sale of Southern Minnesota Properties to Meet Divestiture Requirement

Alltel (NYSE: AT) today announced that it has completed the sale of four rural southern Minnesota markets to Rural Cellular Corp. in order to comply with divestiture requirements related to Alltel’s October 2006 purchase of Midwest Wireless.

The divested properties include licenses, retail stores, employees, customers and network assets. A trustee appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice has managed the properties since October.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission have approved the sale to Rural Cellular.

Alltel is owner and operator of the nation’s largest wireless network and has nearly 12 million wireless customers.

http://news.morningstar.com/news/Vie...gid=qtqnPress1