FCC approves Verizon's Alltel buy, deal all but done

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 4th 2008 at 4:57PM

Following the DOJ's approval last week, the FCC has voted unanimously today to approve Verizon's acquisition of Alltel, promising to create a CDMA network of insane proportions that'll eclipse AT&T to become the US' largest wireless carrier. Like their fellow feds over at the DOJ, the FCC guys attached some conditions to the approval, including a requirement that Verizon continue to honor Alltel's existing roaming agreements for four years -- presumably in an effort to protect and appease rural carriers who've been solidly against the merger all along. This'll almost certainly lead to some job losses in the Alltel camp, but look on the bright side, guys: you just might have a crack at that wild LG VX9600 now.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: Alltel, Verizon Wireless

Tags: acquisition, alltel, breaking news, BreakingNews, verizon, verizon wireless, VerizonWireless

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Jak Crow @ Nov 4th 2008 9:26PM

Pfffttt! Who needs competition.

Neutral

N.Rosario @ Nov 4th 2008 9:57PM

cha ching, thats great

Neutral

BigNasty @ Nov 4th 2008 10:38PM

As a VZW customer in one of the states they have to totally get rid of, what does this mean for me? The big 3 here are VZW, Alltel and Sprint, if VZW has to leave, and Alltel will become VZW, does that just leave me with Sprint?

Neutral

Azeron @ Nov 17th 2008 5:33AM

You're already a Verizon customer. So nothing will change for you. If you were an Alltel customer in an area where Verizon must divest an Alltel market...rather than become an Alltel customer you would become a customer of whomever Verizon partners with to divest this spectrum to.

Neutral

shaquitasoraus @ Nov 4th 2008 10:56PM

wait so does this mean alltel phones will be available for vzw

Neutral

MIke Haines @ Nov 5th 2008 7:46AM

Bignasty

what I think you will see there is

Verizon, Sprint, and a thrid company they sell off the alltel off to. Maybe us celluar but you will have more choices if I am right and if I am wrong I am sure some one else will chime in

Neutral

Drew @ Nov 5th 2008 6:57AM

I sure hope I don't lose my job. As far as phones go, you guys should already know that anything we sell can be used with VZW. CDMA carriers do not lock phones. VZW has an open platform and you can use any CDMA phone. We're already starting to drop "cooler" phones like the Diamond, and just tomorrow the Samsung Delve (instinct) and more to come.

Neutral

Pete @ Nov 6th 2008 5:49PM

Actually, when I worked my stint at VZW, the ongoing thing told to customers was that only VZW phones could be activated on their network...whether or not that was a sales pitch, I'm not sure, but finding someone that would activate just any CDMA phone (even though Alltel and US Cellular phones are pretty much the same) due to sales quotas if nothing else.

And before you ask, this was in a corporate store...actually, the largest corporate store on the east coast. :[