I posted this in the Alltel forum but I guess no one has heard anything on this. Anybody here know anything, I heard on it on the grapevine.... Is Alltel trying to buy Metro PCS in Florida? this coverage area - http://www.metropcs.com/coverage/coverageareas-florida.php?currentNav=none It make sense to me, get a network in a growing market (miami, palm beach, orlando. they currently have service along the west coast of FL), it's a good idea..... If they bought the Metro PCS in Detroit they wouldn't have to go on VZW in that area....if they went with the California network they would finally get a real presence on the west coast in San Fransico....
Who besides you heard this rumor? It's nowhere else on the net. You didn't perchance get that rumor from that kid who works in that kiosk at the mall did you?
Haha, I heard it from here.... http://www.phonescoop.com/carriers/forum.php?c=7 this post... http://www.phonescoop.com/carriers/forum.php?fm=m&ff=7&fi=713477 And the guy that posted it doesn't seem to be just saying it to spread rumors.... It really would make a lot of sense. They are trying to move into more metro areas.... The guy at the kiosk thought Alltel was bought by T-Mobile. I lost faith in him after that.....lol.....
And also there is a the second guy who is pretty much saying it is going to happen, it's just a matter of money/time for Alltel to buy it out....
Metro PCS is in the process of building a network in Los Angeles right now. I doubt that they are going to make any deal to be bought out.
I really want to see how this new LA network is going to be profitable. They've got a massive amount of sites to build to have a "decent" network. Hell, carriers that have been here over 10 years are still adding sites to get good coverage.
The original post was talking about them just buying the Florida network, I just threw in the Detroit and California thing as good ideas.
I know. I've been saying for a while that's there no chance any new carrier will ever be able to build a quality network here. It's taken the other established carrier's 10 years to battle NIMBY's and find new sites to improve coverage and even those carriers are still not close to perfect. It's even tougher with 1900 Mhz. I just don't think Metro will have a chance with today's new strict cell site policies by most cities. At some point money will become a factor and they will have a rough time keeping customers.
At point there is no offical news that Alltel will get the Florida Network from Metro PCS. It would not surprize me that Metro PCS might sell a network or 2 so they can get more money to build in LA Metro and pay for AWS licenses in the the upcomming AWS auction. Cricket has sold a bunch of licenses and some networks to Dobson, Verizon and now Pioneer/Enid Cellular
Yep Metro is sure going to need some additional cash to build out LA metro. It's probably going to take them 4 or 5 years. I don't know why they think they can launch in 2007. No way is that happening.
Maybe they would enter into a network sharing agreement in CA.... or maybe not since such heavy network usage could adversely impact the shared network. Can Metro not just colocate onto existing towers (or is it not that simple)? Alltel buying MetroPCS in FL would allow them to gain entrance into the larger markets but what will happen to customers' plans? Surely Alltel isn't going to allow selected customers to have unlimited minutes and no contract on top of it
They're going to be hard pressed to get someone to share the network with them out here as they don't really have anything to offer. TMobile and Cingular both had markets to offer each other for shared access. It's not like they can pull of what Virgin is doing as Virgin gets paid by the minute. Metro's whole selling point is being unlimited. *shrugs* I guess we'll see, getting it running within a year outa be interesting:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:
No, co-location is not as feasible here in So. Calif as it is in other markets. Most sites are disguised and not in tower form. The towers that do exist are very short and pretty much maxed out already with 2 or 3 carriers. Sure there are towers that they still can share but it's only a drop in the bucket compared to the coverage they need to serve this market.
Thanks for the explanation; it looks like their hands are tied. We'll see how fast will they take off (or how hard will they fall) in SoCal when they launch
Larry nailed it. Just about any existing tower that would support more than one carrier already has it. Several sites have been extended higher to support another colocation.
They'll probably be similar to what Sprint had when they launched back in 11/97 here in LA metro. It sucked. Metro plans to launch service here in summer 2007. What a joke.
I suspect Alltel is interested in Orlando and Miami mainly because of lots of roaming going on by Alltel customers in those areas. I wouldn't be surprised to see Alltel try to buy Atlanta/Athens from Metro as well, given the rather large amount of roaming that Alltel customers from east/west/south GA, AL, the Carolinas, etc. do on VZW in north GA. This would also give Alltel a reason to build out coverage in Dalton, an otherwise isolated Alltel license area. Detroit makes somewhat less sense; California and Dallas really make no sense at all given that they are rather distant from other Alltel license areas. -SC
Actually the Metro PCS California network in San Francisco and Sacramento would connect to Alltel's network in Nevada and give them a big stride toward becoming national. They already have a strange looking footprint into california out side san diego, fresno, and sacramento. See http://alltel.com/corporate/media/downloads/usmaphires.jpg. Alltel has a ton of customers that roam on VZW in Detroit, considering the rest of Michigan is an Alltel "stronghold". Not sure where Dallas came from....
