Verizon Wireless completes Alltel acquisition
Verizon Wireless announced on Friday that it has completed its acquisition of Alltel. Verizon paid $5.9 billion for the equity of Alltel and assumed all of Alltel’s approximately $22.2 billion in debt. Verizon will gain an additional 12.9 million customers, making Verizon the largest wireless carrier in the US with 83.7 million total customers. Verizon will maintain the Alltel brand and customers of Alltel will retain their current handsets and calling plans during the transition. Verizon will notify customers about changes that will impact future service so we assume at some point Alltel customers will have to forfeit their Alltel plan and select one of Verizon’s calling and/or data plans. Most customers will be able to keep their current handsets after the transition since both networks support the same CDMA technology. Verizon will also maintain Alltel’s existing GSM networks. Re-branding will begin in Q2 2009 and will continue through Q3 2009. No imminent layoffs were announced but the press release states:
Alltel employees below executive level will continue in their present jobs as Verizon Wireless assesses staffing needs required to best serve customers and achieve synergies.
When a company starts throwing around buzz words like “assess staffing needs” and “achieve synergies”, you can assume that layoffs will be announced at some point before the merger and re-branding is complete. As part of the conditions of the merger, Verizon Wireless will also divest overlapping properties in 105 markets that span 24 states and will affect nearly 2.1 million customers. When all is said and done, some of you will be leaving Verizon and a whole bunch of you will be joining Verizon. if you’re among those who will be affected, let us know in the comments if you are pleased, disappointed or ambivalent about the impending changes to your cellular service.
Does that mean no more Alltel commercials?
I mean, I live in the greater Seattle area, but we don’t even have Alltel in Washington State, except around Spokane.
The commercials sure as hell won’t make fun of Verizon any more; I can tell you that.
can you say cdma DUOPOLY?
This blows. My family in N.C. are going to hate losing the Alltel “My Circle” plans. They were probably the best deal in wireless
I have Alltel since 2004 and they have been great! Good coverage, helpful service, good rate plan. I think I live in one of the overlapping markets that will be sold so I have no idea what we will end up with.
At risk is Alltel’s “My Circle”. It allows us unlimited calls any 10 numbers without using our minutes. I understand this plan costs Alltel money when calls are made to other cell carriers. Some have said it’s doubtful that Verizon will offer “My Circle”.
so when can I get out of my contract for free?
Get out of your contract and go to what? AT&T? LOL, LOL, LOL!
are we still talking about this?
Let’s just hope Alltel’s “Chad” is the first one laid off, whether the commercials go away or not.
Come and get your ass-raping Verizon looove! Chad you’re now a Verizon ding dong.
I highly doubt there is going to be any “get out of contract free” option. Verizon paid to acquire you as a customer and obtain your contract. If they release a contract buyout option who knows how much they would lose on their investment. Just wouldn’t make sense on their end, waiving termination fees so you can leave the company.
@GetOverIt- Yeah but when the Alltel customers signed the contract it was to grandfather them into whatever Alltel price plan the choose to have so if Verizon forces them to loose it and change then Big Bad Red is breaching the contract and has to let them out of it. At least that sounds right to me haha.
We VZW reps were told that Alltel peeps would keep the my circle plans. Who knows if that’s gonna happen…
Bye, bye my circle.
haha, better hold onto your alltel plans as long as you can!!!!!!!
Its good to know you’re bringing your full expertise on contract law to the table.
Now, please go back to asking customers “You want that super-sized?”
wow…have you guys not heard of something called the “grandfather clause”
Google it and you’ll see Alltel customers can keep whatever plan they have now.
I bet Verizon will allow alltel customers to keep my circle, but the first time they need to upgrade their phone or change their calling plan, no more my circle. It will be phased out after a couple of years.
OH GOD AGREED! i hate that dude, and someone help him if i see him on the street
I have beautifully illustrated this merger as shown below:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a167/rhyno_richmond/AllizonTakeover2.jpg
Watch it is going to be the same as when Cingular took over AT&T. Alltel customer will be able to keep their plan as long as they don’t change their phone and if they want to they will have to buy it for full price. If they upgrade for the discount price VZW is going to force them to a new plan. VZW is all about making $$$$$.
Being grandfather into a plan is not a law, A company can at anytime not honor that plan, google that and u will see what i am talking about. Here some stuff i google.
I just did some research and a company dont have to honor a company old contract. It up to that company if they would like to do that read this about a satellite provider. And there is more cases, if you like to google them.
http://www.savingadvice.com/blog/200…/> claus.html
Until I went to prepaid cell service, I used to get this spiel all the time from various phone companies. They change their packages every day it seems and I was always getting grandfathered in, only to be told several months later that they would no longer honor the grandfather clause. Needles to say, I went through a lot of cell phone providers.
I understand that companies have the right to do what they want with their offerings. But I also have the right to get fed up when I’m promised something and it is later taken away. I’m certain that keeping customers on older packages and giving them free services costs the providers money. But I also know that it costs them even more money to attract a new customer once an existing customer is lost. Especially when an economy is in the toilet as ours currently is.
So what can you do if you’re grandfathered into something and it later gets taken away? Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot consumers can do. If a company is bent on eliminating that service or package and doesn’t mind losing customers in the process, your choices will be limited. However, there are a couple of tactics you can try before you give up entirely.
hahaha someone has a little too much time on their hands.
Alltel customers will stay on alltel plans until thier contract is up. this means you keep mycircle, you keep your old as hell plans in some markets, you keep it all.
However you won’t get Vcast, VZnav, or any of the Verizon services, like INcalling.
once you a buy a Verizon phone, you get a Verizon plan, and in order to get a Verizon phone you must be Out of Contract.
therefore there ill be NO get out of jail free cards, because nothing has changed on your contract. there is no gray area, don’t try and read into it, it is simply the words I typed out, it’s not hard to get, and there are no loopholes.
that is the final word, that is how it goes, no I won’t go into more detail, and if you doubt if any of this is fact simply check my reports on this website that have been given to BGR.
That would suck big donkey balls if you have to give up “My Circle” to take advantage m2m w/both. Sprint and att gave that off top, no plan change necessary