Verizon Wireless’s acquisition of Alltel is approved by the DOJ
Thanks to a deal that has been quite a while in the making, AT&T is now on the verge is getting booted from its position as the nations largest wireless carrier. The Department of Justice approved on Thursday the $28 billion purchase of Alltel by Verizon Wireless. It comes at a price though, as Verizon will be required to divest their wireless holdings in 100 markets that span 22 states. According to Thomas Barnett, assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division, the divestitures required are among the most extensive required by the department in a wireless case and include the entire states of North Dakota and South Dakota, major portions of Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming, and sections of Alabama, Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. The next hurdle for Verizon is the FCC which will vote on the acquisition in its next meeting on November 4th and is expected to mirror the DOJ divestiture requirements in its decision. So what do you all think? Is a bigger Verizon Wireless necessarily better for consumers? Chime in and let your opinion be known.
Tags: acquisition, Alltel, DOJ, verizon wireless
Better Verizon than AT&T. At least you can make calls and use data on Verizon.
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my girlfriend tells me that bigger is always better! ha
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you got it a little backwards there buddy. you can simultaneously make calls and use data on at&t not verizon. and i use my at&t phone places where verizon phones choke…
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i had an iphone for a year and couldn’t stand at&t’s network. it was horrible. i switched back to verizon and have a curve. waiting for the storm. i would never recommend at&t to anyone. ever!
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This wont turn into another Verizon vs AT&T debate.
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I am not a business man, so somebody please explain what this means… For example, will people in North Dakota no longer be Verizon customers? If not, do local carriers take over those networks?
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i am an att fan but they are getting waaaay too high for less. Switching to tmobile because atleast in the north east they have a decent signal and far better pricing. Verizon has great coverage here but are too much for my blood. Also i hope the Altel people are ready for the elimination of my circle. The myfaves is one of the reasons i am switching to tmobile.
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What do they mean by divest? I’m a Vzw customer in Ga, is this going to affect me?
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I think it’s terrible for customers. Less competition means less chances of better prices. Alltel & Sprint have both been driving some good affordable plans when it comes to the CDMA market (Alltel w/ MyCircle & Sprint w/ Everything unlimited @ 99). I don’t have a lot of confidence in Sprint standing up to the VZW juggernaut now.
BTW, I’ve always been with AT&T and have always loved it. My wife switched over to AT&T from Verizon and she loves it too. To each his own…
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I hope all the Alltel users know their sweet Alltel calling plans are history. Higher prices and more restrictions will be new words in their Vocabulary.
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Well usually old plans get grandfathered in, because otherwise you have to void everyone’s contracts and such- I believe that there are some people who are still on the ancient GSM plans from the old AT&T Wireless, for example.
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In all honesty, does anyone ever actually use data and voice at the same time? I can’t really think of any situations where that would make sense, so to me its a moot point. But whatever.
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how about the VZW guy killing Chad the Alltel guy in a driveby? or maybe just being beaten to death by the angry VZW network mob?
VZW - less functionality for more $$. Atleast in my experience.
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What does divest mean? Will my VZ phone no longer work in those places?
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So does that mean that the most expensive carrier will have less competition and will increase it’s rates once again to cover the purchase? Hmmm not good folks.
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Actually you can use both voice and data together on verizon, i do it all the time
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so what does this mean to those in alltel (but not in contract) right now? Will we get money off a new verizon phone? Will we still have myCircle? When is the official date that they will switch? ive been hearing about this since last year but nothig has been going on
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Those places they need to divest are places that they would have a monopoly in after the merger. Meaning if only Verizon or Alltel had service in that area before, they need to sell off their licenses to other companies who can then “compete” with them to prevent a monopoly in said areas.
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@Robert
There are plenty of times where I wish I could use both voice and data. I’ve been on phone calls where I need to access emails, talking to someone and needing Telenav to work, phone calls that come in while I’m tethered to my pc for data, receive PIN/Blackberry messages while on the phone, not being bombarded with emails once I hang up, the list goes on and on. While you have a right to your own opinion, it would actually be something that a lot of business users and consumers could benefit from. I blame the CDMA providers for not implementing EVDV and now that AT&T has started rolling out HSDPA, they are once again ahead of the game. Back to the merger, the US has four major carriers at this time which are Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, and T-Mobile so if this deal goes through well now there are three major carriers left. While Cricket, Leap, MetroPCS, and the other smaller providers are an option for some people, its my opinion that greed is going to run through the major providers blood and screw us all. It has already happened. Text messages are now $0.20, every plan keeps going up and providing less (from my experience with Sprint) and what are we the consumers going to gain from this? Not a whole lot in my eyes. The technology is so far behind here in this county and yet we pay so much for it. With Verizon Wireless basically being Vodafone, one would think that they’d do a lot more to improve their networks to meet other countries offerings, create more attractive pricing plans, and bring the top notch phones here to America. if they want to improve retention and customer service, stop out sourcing the calls. There is nothing more annoying that someone half way across the world speaking to me using scripts to assist them. No offense to anyone but I’d rather speak to someone here in our own country rather than being placed on hold 15 times because I used a word that the associate did not understand. Plain and simple, we’re getting screwed and the providers are making us pay for the dinner too.
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I’m still on the original Blue plan but hates this new AT&T. the Original Blue wireless was the best. If I ever renew or force out of my plan I go to T mobile.
And for Alltel and Verizon, who needs more CDMA phones in the market?
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If the CDMA providers had implemented EVDV you would have the same problems that at&t is having with it’s 3G network.
The problem is that if at&t has say, 20Mhz of spectrum in a market, then if they dedicate 5Mhz to 3G, then that 3G spectrum has to share both data and voice for all 3G phones in the market. W-CDMA has the added problem that you can only expand in 5Mhz blocks.
When EV-DO is deployed in a market, they can do it in 1.25Mhz blocks, and because voice remains on the 1xRTT network, issues on the EV-DO network don’t cause problems with voice calls.
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I’ve been an Alltel customer for several years. With my Blackberry 8830 I can talk and use data at the same time.
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You can not use Voice and Data at the sametime with CDMA 3G, you would be able to if CDMA carriers would have rolled out EVDV, which no carrier choose to roll out, Sprint was thinking about it but they changed their minds.
Like EPS said above in his/her post: CDMA carriers would have to same problem 3G GSM carriers have, if they would have choosing that route.
Now when LTE is rolled out, then things will change…
And in most cases people don’t really need to be using voice and data at the sametime.
I would say in the case of blackberry users, that would be a different story.
I personal carry a BB8330, and it would be nice to talk to someone, and get important E-mail, or pin message(s), and be on Google maps at the sametime, while following GPS directions…
I don’t know if thats safe for me, or other drivers around me, but hey we need to multi-task more these days.
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“entire states of North Dakota and South Dakota, major portions of Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming, and sections of Alabama, Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.”
What about that state that Alltel is headquartered in? a.k.a. Arkansas
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1st off, I called this so long ago…
Ok, now that that’s been said… Good job Verizon. I might be joining your network this year if the Storm is all I’ve hoped for… So get your firmware right on the Storm. No point in purchasing a phone that doesn’t even work correctly.
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