The news about AT&T getting Alltel remains can make people who live in rural areas happy since the carrier should improve its services soon. The company has decided to get Alltel which was earlier purchased by Verizon Wireless. Does it sound weird to you? It should not. I think it is good because you will have chance to unlock AT&T and Alltel.
It happened this week, on Tuesday. This was when one of the biggest U.S. mobile operators reported the AT&T buy Telenetwork Alltel news. The agreement to acquire ATNI whose retail carrier was well-known as Alltel was signed that day. This deal will cost AT&T $780 million in cash. What does AT&T get for this price? According to announcements made by the company, it will get over 580,000 subscribers. Besides, it will be also netted wireless properties.
About the Deal
As AT&T gets Alltel it also gets wireless properties, as we have mentioned above [including Alltel retail stores, licenses and network assets]. The service improvement should be felt by customers who live in rural areas in North Carolina, Idaho, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio and Illinois. Also AT&T have plans in Europe too.
The “AT&T get Alltel” deal also allows the carrier to harmonize its network with wireless spectrum in the three bands. They are 850MHz, 700MHz and 1900MHz. Even though Alltel is CDMA carrier, AT&T believes it will upgrade the company’s network to provide customers with a better mobile Internet services.
Review Process
The deal hasn’t been closed yet. It should be reviewed by the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] and only afterwards AT&T will be able to get its hands on Alltel. Analysts expect this deal to close in the 2nd half of 2013.
What do you think about such a deal? Do you believe that it can truly improve the service for customers who live in rural areas in the southeastern part of the United States? According to Alltel’s representative, the deal with AT&T can bring new better experience to Alltel’s clients as they will be able to access to the 4G network. It is unclear now how this can be possible since Alltel’s CDMA-based network isn’t compatible with AT&T’s GSM network. We just have to wait till the deal is closed to learn all the details.