Verizon and Alltel to join in holy matrimony January 9th

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 4th 2009 at 10:49PM

Following a good half year of courtship while the regulatory miscellany ran its course, Verizon's finally ready to take the plunge and call this $5.9 billion deal done. The combined juggernaut will amass a staggering 78 million subscribers, putting it roughly 3 million ahead of its closest rival, AT&T, though it'll do so at the cost of assuming some $22.9 billion in Alltel debt. Ultimately, the merger means some positions at Alltel headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas will get axed -- but hey, AT&T Mobility HQ's just a stone's throw away in Atlanta, so Verizon's headcount loss could ultimately be AT&T's gain.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: Alltel, Verizon Wireless

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

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

Sarge @ Jan 4th 2009 11:10PM

Fantastic!! I figured it would happen first of the year. Jan 9 works for me. Blackberry Storm in sight, Finally!! Hopefully Verizon will actually patch a few holes we have in our network up here in the sticks... Lol. ;)

Neutral

Matt S @ Jan 5th 2009 12:08AM

they probably wont even combine the 2 networks to "roam" on each other for a few months anyways..

Neutral

William Becker @ Jan 5th 2009 1:47AM

Out here in Eastern NC it's wierd. Alltel's coverage is alot better in the "sticks" then Verizon. The only other carrier out here that is better then Alltel is US Cellular.

Neutral

andrew @ Jan 5th 2009 10:52PM

I think they both roam off of verizon.

Neutral

Toledo Guy @ Jan 5th 2009 10:22PM

My parents have told me the same thing about coverage in the Florida Keys. Verizon coverage was lousy (c'mon how hard is it to cover an island), but their neighbors with Alltel had no problems. Of course, simply switching to AT&T solved the problems of coverage and having to deal with Verizon.

Neutral

Tiffany @ Jan 24th 2009 3:37AM

Actually, it's Verizon and the other networks that were roaming off of Alltel. I went to school in Eastern NC and when I first switched to Verizon back in 2003, I ordered my phone over the internet and could not activate it because I was not on Verizon's network while in Greenville, NC. Alltel in my opinion has the best coverage but Verizon's phones (in my opinion) are nicer.

Neutral

Ryan @ Jan 5th 2009 2:46AM

I'm wondering if I could go to the local vzw store saturday and upgrade to a storm (I'm an alltel customer with 6 months left on my contract). I doubt it would work, but i'm bout desperate enough to try ;)

Neutral

ken @ Jan 5th 2009 7:33AM

Goodbye Chad, my circle, nights/wkds at 7.....Hello red OS screen, locked down phones,.......

Neutral

Andrew @ Jan 5th 2009 10:53PM

Goodbye Chad, my circle, nights/wkds at 7.....Hello red OS screen, locked down phones,.......

Are u serious... You have a point with my circle and n/w @7 but if your already an alltel customer then i dont think they can or are going to change that.

Now the phones please alltel cannot even compete with big red on that. They may limit some things but they dwaf what alltel has to offer.

Neutral

Russell @ Jan 6th 2009 2:36AM

I for one am glad there will be no more Chad! I am sick of the dumb Alltel commercials

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Robert @ Jan 30th 2009 11:36AM

I am a big fan of Alltel. They have the best coverage around here by far. The only complaint I ever had was phone selection so hopefully this will open up more choices soon.

Neutral

cwj @ Jan 5th 2009 1:40PM

Aww...so nice to see a traditional courtship. I miss the good 'ol days.

Is 522 miles a stone's throw?

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Jeff O'Malley @ Jan 5th 2009 3:15PM

My wife and I have moved from Naples, Fl. to the Orlando area. We still have over a year on our 2 year Alltel contract that we signed in Naples. However, our phone service is not that good here in Orlando. On both our phones, we have to run outside and across the street to receive calls or texts. Same to send them. I was told that Alltel doesn't have towers in this area. Will our reception improve with Verizon? We've been waiting for this merger and don't intend to keep our Alltel service, contract or not, if it doesn't improve. Does anyone out there have any answers for me? Thanks! Jeff O.

Neutral

Max @ Jan 7th 2009 12:06PM

Jeff,

Alltel recently came out with a new prl that prefers Verizon over Sprint. If you go back to an Alltel covered area and dial *228 and select option 2 it might fix your coverage at home.

Neutral

andrew @ Jan 7th 2009 3:15PM

Of couse it will i dont think verizon is giving any towers away in florida at all (verizon or alltel) as part of the merger so that means you will now get two companys worth of towers that your phone will pick up.

Now alltel roams off of sprint now so your prob. wondering why you have no service from roaming. that is because the carriers dont want the phone to roam so it only goes in roaming if their is absolutly no coverage (poor coverage dosen't count)

I have Verizon now and it deff works great in Orlando and am from Naples and it works great here to.
You will deff be happy with verizon service...

Neutral

albert @ Jan 14th 2009 7:13PM

if you are having service issues i would go to my alltel store and ask if you can get out of your contract do to lack of signal or service. it worked for me when i had verizone and to switch to alltel. good luck.