Economics, politics could force Verizon Wireless away from Alltel purchase

This is exactly what I want to hear.
This sounds to me like great news for Alltel & it's customers.

I really hope Verizon could stay away from buying Alltel,
and maintain a good relationship instead with roaming agreements.

 

Not surprised at all. When I first heard this merger announcement I didn't think it would be easy due to a lot of factors. There's been too much consolidation already and prices are going to creep up if they keep allowing these mergers to happen without enough divestings.

 

Still hoping for the Alltel 800 band in SC for AT&T.

 

Did you read the article? if the deal doesn't close, how is Alltel going to come up with 8 billion to refinance their debt? What do you think will then happen to the company? In this climate it is possible a BK filing could be their only option. Then Verizon will come in an pick the carcass clean on the cheap.

 

Verizon thinks their doing everybody a favor by adding more divestment markets. If you look at the 850 areas there are still a ton of areas where Verizon would own both.

If Verizon doesnt go thru with the deal TGP might break up Alltel into pieces and sell it off.

 

This was the idea when Alltel sold to the private investment firms to begin with. That is if they could not find a single buyer, then chop it up and sell it off to whomever.

 

I think when VZW says they're "willing" to divest 15 more markets, it just means that they found a buyer in those markets for the extra license. As much as they want to have all the spectrum, they probably don't want to pay for it in the current market. I bet they already have deals lined up for the other 85 markets they planned on divesting.

If the acquisition doesn't go through, then refinancing in this market may be an issue too--parting Alltel out has more of a chance of happening now.

 

Wirelessly posted (Opera Mini on Alltel HTC 6800: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.1.11355/786; U; en))

Does anyone have a list of the 15 additional markets?

 

Here's an image. It should expand when selected.

 

Man, South Carolina is really getting chopped up pretty good.

Now Anderson County is on the divest list,

but that county is not it's "own" market,
it is part of the "Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson" market.

What about for those who live on the Anderson & Greenville County line,
which is Urban Greenville in lots of places along I-85.

You wouldn't be able to cross county lines without crossing a "new" license border,
and calls will drop at license borders between different carriers.

.....

My only hope for Alltel customers in South Carolina,
is to migrate over to the 800 "A" side (Verizon's current network).

 

Looking better all the time. Now if they will turn the Greenville and Pickens SC area red.

 

Well there is no guarantee att gets it. US Cellular would look really nice with a lot of the divested properties.

 

Wirelessly posted (Opera Mini on Alltel HTC 6800: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.1.11355/786; U; en))

I was thinking the same thing many of the divested markets could be a good fit for USCC. I used to work for them in VA, I would much rather turn my stores into USCC stores than VZW stores.... ironically USCC will now be in 5th place if the Alltel VZW merger completes.

 

Just the divested areas are bigger than alot of the bigger rural companies that got sold in the past.

A ton of the old Western and Midwest Wireless will be up for sale again. Think of the customer frustration there.

Honestly I hope Alltel lives as Strunke put it.

Alltel is my companies biggest competitor in my area and it creates good competition between the two and benefits the customers on both sides as both companies put new towers up in hillybilly heaven where i live.

If you look at Mountain Wireless there are a few dozen more areas that Verizon would have to sell off. I can think of about 3 RSA in Michigan where Alltel and Verizon are both built out heavily with towers and both in the 850 band.

Unfortunately Alltel would have to come up with some cash and risk the traditional investment firm break ups.

 

I understand that. I would hope AT&T sees a need for the 850 freq and would go after it. For building penetration it is needed.

 

I wonder if Sprint would be interested in any of the markets to be divested? Probably not but I sure would like to see US Cellular at the front of the line because we need them to get bigger so there will be more competition around.

 

Wonder what VZW is selling in Nebraska RSA #5 :headscrat
Cellular providers in Nebraska RSA #5 are US Cellular and Alltel.
VZW does has a PCS license (D block) for part of the market due to the Qwest Wireless purchase.

 

I sure hope that if the merger doesn't go through that Verizon will buy the Vidalia Georgia Market from Alltel. Vidalia is in two counties Montgomery & Toombs and two different Cellular Markets. Verizon has the Montgomery side and covers it pretty good. Alltel has both markets but has poor spotty reception especially in Montgomery County & south of Vidalia going into Uvalda.
I have Alltel at work & Verizon for my personal phone and for me Verizon has far better coverage, phone choices, & customer service.

 

Here is some more info.

 

Yeah.....no, if Alltel is having such a hard time keeping up with their debts, it MAY be good for Verizon to take over. Dont get me wrong, I'll feel bad for Alltel customers for I have respect for the company and Verizon's service plans are one of the highest priced, granted the quality is somewhat above average. But Alltel having over 20 billion in debt??? wow, someone posted about better to be bought now than picking up pennies on the dollar when they go BK. On the business side that'll be good for Alltel, bad for the buyer if they themselves cant keep up. The market IS bad now, but it's been bad before. I'm pretty young but i know someone of how the markets have been in the 90s and 70s, we always hit a bad spot every decade and bounce back up, so I wouldn't expect much of a difference in trends.

 

That debt was created by the private equity that bought alltel. They used the company to help finance the purchase of the company. Not sure exactly all the details. Before that they were fine, in fact had the best debt ratio of al us carriers i believe. They should have never allowed themselves to be bought and stayed public.

 

not sure what happened there with the financing, but ouch... i didn't learn too much about alltel's debt ratio until you told me. There must've been reasons for it that would've made more sense to make that move....but everyone makes wrong choices, guess this time it was just, a little more costly. Ouch for Alltel, hope whatever happens is for the best.

 

I wonder if the private firms have any way to make Alltel a public, (not private) company again,
then hopefully everything goes almost back to the way it was before, someway.

 

Ford has got to be kicking himself now.