Official: Verizon Wireless Absorbing Alltel to Become Largest US Carrier


An excerpt from the story as posted on gizmodo:
We mentioned it yesterday, but now Verizon Wireless is kissing and telling: It will pay around $6 billion for Alltel, adding 13 million customers in 34 states to the Verizon subscriber ranks. That should put Verizon's total at 80 million—high above AT&T's last-reported 71 million customers. Though Alltel and Verizon share the same phone technology, Alltel serves rural markets that Verizon had not built out, so it should mean some nice network expansion too, and "seamless transition" for Alltel customers. Seems like the merger will be completed by the end of the year, and all things will be harmonious and groovy by the second year. We're not seeing many problems with this—it's certainly no Sprint-Nextel fiasco.

My question is:
First off, what does this mean for all current OKC Alltel customers, do they become Verizon customers?

Or does everything stay the same, but Verizon just takes over in a business\branding capacity?

Thoughts please!

Yeah, well when Alltel bought Cellular One about two years ago or so, they said it would be seamless. I can assure you it was anything but seamless! Maybe it was if you didn't need to make any changes, but that hit us right in the middle of a move across state lines. I swore I wanted out of the Alltel business as soon as my contract was up, but they eventually won me back over. I realized it was because they actually had some pretty good things going for them - like not extending your contract if you changed your plan. I'm not keen on another company change, but I don't suppose they asked me. On the other hand, it seems like they didn't ask me, so I could get out of my contract, couldn't I?

It's not decided whether Verizon will do a full takeover, or if it will keep the Alltel brand and run it from the background. My guess is Alltel is going to be pushing daisies soon. RIP Alltel... I never thought I'd say it, but I'll miss ya.

Maybe this means the end of the Alltel commercials with the annoyingly smug "Chad" character making fun of the other wireless services.

Or maybe, we'll see one in which the Verizon character eats Chad. One can only hope...

This will bring true high speed broadband to cell phones in OKlahoma City. Verizon's broadband offering is far and away the best in the country, which still lags far behind Asian countries. It will be good to have verizon in this market.

highly agreed....their phones and coverage have been the ONLY temptor for me leaving the sprint F&F plan i'm on..

For CDMA, they're definitely the best. I happen to adore my Tmobile service though I just wish we could get 3g data sooner, i'm sure we're way down on the rollout list....

Yep. You and me both! I love T-Mobile but will be awfully tempted with Verizon marching in with their wares. We'll see.

T-Mobile and Sprint may combine according to the rumors at least. Verizon's Alltel acquisition probably hurries that along.

These rumors have been around for four years or so and there is absolutely no truth to them. They come and go every six months or so. Deutche Telekom (T-Mobile) has tried to knock these out for good and they keep coming back. T-Mobile rolling out its own 3g network seems to clearly show that they have no interest in buying Sprint. Sprint is obviously in no position to buy T-Mobile. Everything points to this being FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) by fearful competitors.

Actually, quite the opposite. Any T-Mobile purchase of Sprint would now face even more antitrust hurdles than they would have had before. Add to the mix that the parent company is German and ..... just won't happen.

I think the source this time around was a Wall Street Journal article from May 4. The report was that DT was mulling a takeover bid of Sprint. There was another report on one of the Android blog sites about the same time.

I think a tmobile and sprint merger would be pretty awful to pull off. Not only is Sprint a bad egg at the moment, but their network infrastructure is completely different. Trying to merge a CDMA and GSM network would be....*shudders*. About as successful as the AOL TimeWarner merger, if anyone remembers that. Synergy!

So far, they haven't gone anywhere, although the Verizon guy is still winning the slap fight with the AT&T guy (well, who wouldn't, I suppose, especially when you bring out the 'chucks?)

Maybe they're still running those commercials to make a point - Verizon is still better than AT&T...and those other two guy...whoever they are... (T-Mobile and Sprint, yeah, I watch too much TV, BTW whatever happened to the other Sprint guy?)

The only thing that makes me really nervous about this whole thing is the idea of getting stuck in cell phone jail again. I wasn't too keen when Alltel bought Cellular One and the acquisition was really bumpy, but once things settled down, it hasn't been too bad. You've got some freedom to move around in your plan and once you have your contract, the expiration date on that contract doesn't change unless you buy a new phone. If you just want to change your plan, you can change it without extending your contract. I've heard that's not the case with Verizon, which I think is a bunch of bull. Considering the whole "purpose" of the 2-year contract (does anyone remember when they were 1-year contracts) is to subsidize the cost of the the cheap phone you're getting, then what does changing your plan have to do with your contract? Better than that, couldn't you just pay full retail (or e-bay, somehow) and get service without the contract? Under Alltel you could. Under Verizon, who knows? From what I've heard, it's back to cell phone jail.

Maybe I'm worried about nothing. It's not like I can stop the sale, but I suppose I can cancel my contract when they send me the "new terms" if I don't like what I see. If so, they'll probably try to sell me some bull about "early termination fees," but I don't buy it. They don't get to make one-sided contracts, and I didn't sign a contract with Verizon. I think I'm going to go out and get my boxing gloves out of storage this evening.

Doesn't really matter to me. I've had T-Mobile since it was VoiceStream and been mostly satisfied, but I'm about to bail to AT&T for the 3G iPhone.

Oklahoma City is one of the few remaining large metropolitan areas where Verizon is not currently in the marketplace. I would most certainly think that Verizon would want to come into our marketplace. They are already in Tulsa. I hear from lots of people that they are very happy with their wireless phone service with Verizon. Anything is better than Sprint, and besides, a bit more competition in the marketplace would be good since OKC is being more metropolitan and people moving here from different places that already have Verizon service. I say "bring it on".

It's not really more competition, it's just a replacement of a company that's been here. But it would be something different, and people would look at it for that reason. The lines at the Alltel store after they bought Cellular One were ridiculous. I just hope I don't have to ever go through THAT again.

In a way, though, I'm stuck with whoever takes over for Alltel. I have the option of moving around, but my other family members only have Alltel where they live. In order to talk to them for free (and they're pretty much the only ones I really talk to on the phone), I need to stick with the same company. It also makes it more convenient for traveling out for visits and that sort of thing. I know I've got coverage. AT&T does not cover odd portions of their area, so I'd never know I was was roaming or still doing the national plan thing. So truly, no matter what happens, I'm still probably stuck in cell phone jail. I sure hope Verizon turns out to be a kind master.

when did alltel buy cellular one? At&t bought them last June.

At&T has no roaming you either get service or have no service.

Yes, in one sense it is a replacement of one company for another, but competition wise and name "branding" it is new competition for the marketplace. Verizon is know internationally and is one of the largest telecommunication company around. I mean come on, Alltel does not have that well known reputation. Also, Verizon from a product standpoint offers a better product and has more widespread coverage. That is why IMPO this is new competition.

Alltel bought most of Cellular One's area about 2 1/2 years ago. I think they weren't allowed to buy this area because of anti-trust concerns? Before Alltel bought them, I'd been on Cellular One for close to 10 years. I moved into this area just as the transition was taking place, so not only did I have to deal with the company transition, I also had to deal with a location change. It did NOT go well. I must have spent 12 hours standing in lines in their stores.

I will NEVER get AT&T service as long as I can possibly avoid it. So no iPhone for me. Oh darn.

You are right about them being better known. But having a better product? That remains to be seen. And as for widespread coverage, I don't know about that. Certainly, as far as them having a presence in the area, but if you're talking about travel and having "more bars," I haven't found that to be true. If this be jail, it's a not a bad jail. There are definitely worse places to be with your cell service.

And as for AT&T and roaming - are you sure? Most cellular companies like to push their customers onto the more expensive national plans that allow you to travel around without paying roaming charges, but it is possible to get plans from most providers that are cheaper and more basic. The first thing to go is usually the national coverage. They just don't advertise them and most people don't even know they're available. You have to ask about them.