Verizon gets official with $28 billion Alltel acquisition
By Donald Melanson 
posted June 5th 2008 10:52AM
posted June 5th 2008 10:52AM
It looks like those talks between Verizon and Alltel were pretty deep after all, as the two companies have just come out and made the acquisition official. According to the official announcement, the aggregate value of the transaction is $28.1 billion, and the two companies are aiming to have it completed by the end of the year -- assuming all the necessary regulatory approvals come through. For its part, Verizon is of course boasting that this is a win for customers all around, saying that the merger will create an "enhanced platform of network coverage, spectrum and customer care to better serve the growing needs of both Alltel and Verizon Wireless customers for reliable basic and advanced broadband wireless services." Alltel President and CEO Scott Ford also echoed that sentiment, although his role with the future company seems to be less than defined at the moment, with the official announcement only going so far as to say that he will continue in his current position as head of Alltel "until the merger is completed."
[Via ArkansasBusiness.com]
[Via ArkansasBusiness.com]
sure verizon is more expensive for if you look at it based on the number or minutes and how you have to pay for everything, but it makes sense for some people.
i live in new england and everyone, and i mean everyone, has verizon, so everyone i know is IN. i spend probably 500 mins on my own talking to my girlfriend, friends, and family. Plus my mom uses 300 mins on her own calling friends and family plus we use it for long distance, which is probably 100 mins a month. Thats 900 mins easily, of which probably 700 is IN. The cheapest family plan with Verizon costs us $70 + $10 texting for me - $15 discount. Even without the discount thats $80 a month.
Here are the prices of the plan I would need to get with each carrier to have the same convenience:
Sprint - 1400 mins - $90
ATT - 1400 mins - $90
T-Mobile - 1000 mins - $70
The only that makes sense price-wise is T-Mobile, and its still the same price. So am I getting less "anytime" minutes? Yes. But with the number of minutes I need, I would still have pay the same amount.
And even if I switched, I would have to worry about going over on busy months b/c im not IN. For example, my dad was in the hospital for heart surgery in December. I was off at school and my dads family lives across the country. We easily used 2000 mins that month calling family and friends with updates. Assuming $0.25 per minute extra, thats $150 for the 1400 min plans or $250 for T-Mobile. Because all of our family and friends are in, no extra cost because we only used 500 mins that month of our 700.
Finally, even if i did get enough mins to cover my cell usage, I leave my friends and family in the dirt because now I am using up their minutes too because I am not in. There is no way I could talk to my girlfriend as often as I do if I wasnt IN because she doesnt have that many minutes.
And as far as the crappy UI and having to pay for everything: as someone said, just flash your phone. I flashed my RAZR V3m to the alltel firmware and never had any problems. I make my own ringtones and backgrounds and transfer them to my phone from the computer using BitPim. A group of people as techy as you all claim to be should be able to handle that sort of thing. try howardforums.
haha sorry for the rant :-P but its something that people dont take into consideration in these discussion boards. if there was a cheaper alternative, trust me I would be all over it. anyway just my $0.02
@ Hold McGroin
"a screen resolution higher than 320x200. Plus VZW has their awful UI and go ahead and lock your phone down by disabling features like BT file transfer."
My Moto Q has a resolution of 320x240 and BT file transfer and it's nearly 2 years old. 5 MP camera phones are a joke, the lens is the most important thing about a camera, and unless thats good you're quality is going to be no better than 2MP, regardless of file size. Not to mention the fact that Verizon is opening their network to outside devices soon, which will allow pretty much any device from another network, with untouched UI's to be used, you're points are lost.
Did i mention my wireless broadband is faster than yours?
@HoldMcGroin
First off for all of you bitching about the fact that there is no competition or that you can't get service in an area- blame the FCC!! If any of you knew how the wireless industry is regulated, you would know that any provider cannot simply just throw up towers in any one area because it wants to. It has to either a) purchase the license for the airwaves from the government or b) purchase the people that hold the license. This creates what is known as a barrier to entry into the marketplace which stymies competition. The government doesn't need to do more, it needs to do less! And I'm sorry to say, to provide NATIONWIDE service it takes a BIG company! Everyone bitches about prices but I can remember when it used to cost .45 cents a minute to use a cell phone that only worked 10% of the time; now look at all the options that are available. M&A's don't necessarily mean that prices will go up; actually they can go down because now the merged company can provide service at a lower cost (think of how much Verizon and Alltell now save from roaming charges and how much they will bring in from Sprint- that money goes in some form or fashion to the customer).
Everyone on here can complain all they want about handset lineups, but let's face it- the average familiy of 4 going in to buy cellphones is not concerned with spending thousands of dollars on equipment or really cares whether their UI is "crippled". They simply want their phone to work when and where they want and need it to. One must also realize that every carrier shows you the graph of total available service, not its LICENSED service areas. ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile cannot service equipment or improve coverage that is on their roaming network (ref. FCC above).
You can complain all you want about prices, but the simplest rule of economics is the something is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. If Microsoft chose price Windows at $1000 per license, do you not think that the market would produce someone offering something cheaper? And you can always find something cheaper, but markets work on perfect subsitutes- Verizon may cost more, but is T-Mobile's network a perfect substitute for the one Verizon offers?
There is my little lesson for you all on how the marketplace functions.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! One of the best cell companies is about to be destroyed by one of the worst!
:'-(
As a current Alltel customer, I welcome this news. Why?
My first Alltel phone was totally unlocked, purchased in 2005. I could do whatever Motorolla(the E815, not a RAZR) decided to do with it, and I was a very happy camper. Move on to 2007. Contract is renewed. I stick with Alltel, because they have great(EVDO coverage even!) service in my very rural home town. I get the ROKR Z6m. MP3 ringtones are somewhat gimped, I can't get rid of Celltop(very buggy!), and the Axcess Store is really slow and has poor selection. Basically, Alltel was starting to limit their phones after the initial purchase by the equity firm. So, now VZW owns Alltel. More coverage, a better variety of handsets, more programs, an open network option....I could seriously go on. I'm excited to be a new VZW customer after being with Alltel for 3 years. I do hope they adopt some of Alltel's rate plans though, but the "In" plans now cover most of my friends, who for the most part have VZW.
This, may actually be good for the average Alltel consumer.
Why does everyone hate Verizon so much? Is it because its such a big company with by far the best service in the US? Yeah, it is slightly more expensive than the likes of Sprint, but the service is sooo much better. Go look at VZW's 3G coverage map and show me another carrier that provides nearly the same level of service. There is a reason why Verizon is consistently ranked the number one mobile carrier in the US year after year. Saying Verizon is too expensive is like complaining that a BMW is too expensive because it costs so much more than a Kia.
Yeah, they do cripple their phones, and it's really annoying if you want to have the pimpest ring tones on the block, but it's easy to hack and they are opening their network this year anyway. Besides, Alltel already announced their plans to start selling and updating phones in a similarly crippled fashion this year even before Verizon decided to buy them.
I guess Engadget is just filled with a bunch of angry iPhone owners who are stuck with AT&T...
As soon as you said "pimpest ringtone", I knew you were trolling.
4/10. You made me RAGE.
this does nothing for VZWs piece of crap central new jersey service
i dont even think anyone in new jersey has an alltel phone
oh VZW, when will you ever learn to bring us as good service as your landline counterpart? oh right, NEVER!
@ p3t3b2
I find it hilarious that you actually believe anything that Sprint tells you. It seems to me that you haven't been around the Sprint Customer Service world for a while. They are known for blatantly lying to your face to have you believe what they want you to believe. They've done it to me numerous times and that's why A) I'm no longer with Sprint, and B) They are about to go out of business unless a miracle happens.
Switch to a carrier that actually cares about its customers, like T-Mobile.
Verizon's customer service reps do the same thing to me all the time. Online reps tell you one thing (like a non-smartphone requiring a dataplan), in store reps and over the phone reps tell you another thing. They told me i *had* to change my plan (to a more expensive plan) because the phone i want has internet capabilities (so did every phone ive had the past 3 years), and when i told them i dont use the internet on my phone because verizons coverage sucks so bad where i live (and my only option), their answer? i still need to because the phone has internet capabilities. but of course if you talk to an over-the-phone rep, the answer is the opposite. I had a few headaches last week.
I've been with Sprint for 10 years, there were times when I would get the run-around. It's been over 2 years since I dealt with customers service, I now only deal with Exec service.
It also helps having a corporate sponsored account.
I think the most important thing here is not the fact that Alltel consumers will be raped by Verizon, but in fact, it is the average citizen. Think about it people, this is the end of the "Wireless Thugz" The entertainment value they have filled our Living Rooms with. An advertising campaign that has warmed our hearts, that maybe, just maybe, there is a Wireless carrier out there that cares. Seriously though, the irony is killing me. Altell has easily been the one carrier to put the most effort into directly attacking the other companies. I would love to see the Alltel is now the "New Verizon" ads. Oh its amazing how all these things about how Alltel was different can be foiled by something as trivial as Money.
@ Sean M.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
I have tried all the carriers out the there, and VZW is by far the best for Nothern New Jersey, or anywhere for that matter. Each one of my friends has either Sprint or T-Mobile, and they always need to use my phone to make a call, because thier hot new GSM phone can get service, even if they had a mobile cell tower strapped to thier back. But I'm not too surprised people always seem to complain about something.
GSM = Fail
Or you could just get the fuck out of Jersey.
I personally think Verizon Wireless has horrible service unless your in a big city. I took a trip to Pittsburgh(which is about 45 minutes away) and i only had service(which sucked) about halfway there then i completely lost service and even in downtown Pittsburgh had no service in PNC Park. I was really mad because my mom tryed to call me. Also another complaint about Verizon is they have no My CIrcle of Rollover or anything that Alltel or ATT have. Now with the merger will Verizon/Alltel have a My Circle and better coverage?
Sweet, no more of those dumb ass "Chad" commercials.
If you bought your phone to make phone calls (reliably). Then Verizon is a completely reasonable carrier for the practical mobile consumer. They have decent plans and the IN network calling, free nights & weekends and extremely cheap (pennies) international calling makes the "crippled phones" issue almost moot. I bought the Moto v710 & Q on day one. I was pissed to find out the OBEX protocol was not installed/disabled. More out of principal then anything else but there are always ways to leverage existing services to get the usability one would typically want (use).
I've decided that Verizon customers don't realize that every major cell service has a version of "IN" free mobile-to-mobile and nights and weekends. I sure hope I don't lose My Circle, which gives essentially gives me unlimited minutes.
JONATHAN:
he/she wasnt saying that ONLY VZW does IN. was only saying that its reasonable for everything they offer. Every carrier is getting close to each other as far as prices/plan options go. A lot of people on here probably even remeber when back in 2001 nights and weekends was an option and not the standard and M2M wassn't even an idea.
@McGroin:
I have the Nokia N82 that I used when I was in Germany. 5MP + Xenon. It was great. But pointless at the same time. You do realize that a 5MP picture does not go over the network right? ALL networks resize it. Not to mention that out of all the cell users only 5% or so are worried about camera quailty. So again....not every cell user out there cares about all the bells and whistles. Hell, howardforums users only make up about 2% of all cell users and those are usually the groups that care about the bells and whistles.
@ Deeznuts
Sprint is CDMA just like Verizon, not GSM
For all of you who think Verizon phones suck...kick rocks you lames because if you knew anything about the wireless industry you would know none of these companies make their products they are just service providers including AT&T Sprint and Alltel. So don't talk crap about Verizon maybe you should direct your comments to LG or Motorola.. the manufactures of the products. This merger of Alltel will be taking the Best to the Biggest network and there’s nothing you guys can do about it can you say Monopoly
It's so weird to hear people complain about Verizon's phone selection in comparison to unlocked GSM phones. I'm going to assume that most people on this board are cell phone/gadget geeks. We are in the MINORITY of phone users. Most of the people that use phones just want something they can talk on and maybe text. To that end Verizon works perfectly.
Maybe it's a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for.
As far as the UI is concerned, again, the average user (non geek) doesn't care b/c it's easy as crap to use, and there's no learning curve going from one handset to the next. I am a self professed geek and would no way in hell use that so I got a BlackBerry because it doesn't have that UI.
Before anyone says anything I have an unlocked Nokia N71 also on T-Mobile. Here's a true story. I was in Philly last year standing outside of Wachovia center calling my friend who was in inner tunnel areas under the arena. He didn't answer. I waited for more than an hour before I was able to get a hold of him. Why? Because he has T-Mobile and it didn't work down there. I get inside and lo and behold full bars on Verizon.
Verizon isn't the best, but I am totally satisfied with my service. And I really find most of these "Verizon is teh suck" type statements taken totally out of context of people that matter aka the Verizon users.
In summation. Verizon is not perfect, but it suits my needs just fine. My gadget geek side is totally in love with T-Mobile though.
Hopefully that made sense b/c I do not feel like proofreading.
So verizon doesnt have the razr v3m, so what will happen with my phone?
so do you think verizon will cancel the current plans that we have,and let us start fresh with them?
i was planning on getting a blackberry with alltel,but now verizon looks more expensive? not sure.
i really hope they give a period of time to either switch carriers, or make a new plan with them.
i dont even know if they can service orig. alltel phones with their service(like the razr)
any ideas
Actually, Verizon does have the v3m
Actually, Verizon does have the v3m
I'm a Alltel customer having 4 phone lines and 2 data lines, traveled through 23 states with 1 Alltel phone and 1 Alltel data line. Alway's had good coverage with both. But my problem with this merger is that my $247.00 monthly bill, for 4 phone lines and 2 internet lines. According to Verizon, my bill with them would be over $500.00. Because verizon's sales person said" you need our unlimited plan" Yeah that plan for 4 phones basic is $399.96. 2 data lines would be $119.90.
Verizon had best come up with some thing better than that. They'll lose us Alltel customer's quick, when we start having to pay double.
The Verizon person I spoke with was rude. keep telling me that I could'nt get a better deal or service, (I forgot to tell them I was with Alltel). I'll be finding another carrier if they merge.
I have Alltel and have had for almost 10 years now. I live in Central Nebraska where our choices for good coverage all over the state is Alltel or....Alltel. I travel most of the state and yes there is Viaero wireless, a small GSM carrier, coming on strong and competitive but they can't match call quality and coverage not to mention EVDO speed. Sadly if this merger goes through I will give Verizon a month to show me they are not the crooks that everyone makes them out to be and if not switch. I love alltel for there coverage and EVDO service, which just got a speed bump this year. I pay $115 a month and have 1200 National, Truly Unlimited Data, unlimited text, video, picture messaging, nights and weekends 7pm, my circle, free mobile to mobile, insurance, and all the usuall stuff and I have a smart phone which I tether for internet to my apple laptop over bluetooth. 1 Month Verizon
This is a great and wonderful move; a win, win situation for all. I moved to a rural area in Virginia where Alltel is the only choice. Alltel sucks; it only works in your area code so it is not really a national network, you roam all the time and it is 40 cents a minute for roam calls. Altell is really the only cell phone choice in the majority of rural areas in the U.S. They also have the cheapest(in quality) phones on the planet; very poor quality especially those Kyocera phones. A merger with Verizon will bring Alltel customers out of the cell phone stone ages and into the current millenium. This merger should have be done years ago.
alltel is a GREAT wireless network. Not really sure what all he fuss is about. Verizon is the nex best thing so Obviously a merge would be a good thing for those who have service with verizon and alltell. I've had alltel for 6-8 years now and love them. There won't be that much change except for the better. Those who have alltel and a plan like i do with MyCircle (LOVE IT) will be grandfathered in. Verizon will not be able to change those plans. As far as the comments I've read about the crappy phones...does anyone realize that most all carriers offer the same phones and brands of phones?! Alltel does have the largest coverage area and with Verizon it'll be like the Wal-Mart of cell phone carriers!
This is both good and bad for those of us in the Dakotas (North Dakota specifically). Our only two national providers of cell service are Alltel (formerly Cellular One), and Verizon. My personal phone is Verizon, and coverage in North Dakota with Verizon has been much better than Alltel. My work phone is Alltel, and I have a lot of problems with dropped calls (and never had a problem with Cellular One before Alltel acquired them).
But now we don't have any competition. Higher prices, here we come...
I have Altell and love them I have 5 phones with unlimited mobile to mobile unlimited text on 3 of them an nation wide an I know my bill is always $360.00 a month I tried Verizon once I could not even use my phones at my house the plan was suppose to be $300.00 a month with mobile to mobile an Nation wide. But something did not seem right so i went back to ask again about coverage area and found it was limited soi cancled my phones in the Grace period of 14 days and they charged my $500.00 for 14 days that a rip off and every time I tries to talk to someone I got the run around and even though I called serveral times on the bill they turned it over to collections. I think this will be a sad day for Altell customers
this really needs to stop first i had midwestwireless and alltel bought that now Verizons buying alltel.
finally a reason to cancel my contract without paying the ETF
People have little sense so it seems, the merger will include the service area and lines. the southeast has a better service with verizon i should know i have had cingular, alltel, sprint and now verizon...Verizon is best here by far in NC and SC and with charlotte being the nations 2nd largest banking center in the US its important to maintain contact. Anyway, the merger is a plus plus for both companys, plans, and services.
Alright ya'll, here are the facts, if you have Alltel now, you will have the MY Circle even after the merger unless you sign a new contract with Verizon. So, my recommendation, sign a new contract with Alltel before the merger is complete! This will lock you in for 2 years anyway, until Verizon persuades you to move over and sign a new contract. Even with that being said, AT&T and Verizon will be extreme competitors and my bet is Verizon will keep the MY CIRCLE....just a hunch! As far as service goes...I would expect that Verizon may adapt a lot of the call center policies over as well! Let's keep this on a positive note...not everything has to be bad!
Verizon has better looking phones but the plans, extra charges, and coverage is what matters to me. I hope Verizon doesn't fuck up a good thing. If I'm not satisfied I might become a AT&T customer myself.
sprint enformed me they now will be enforcing a 5gb cap and 300mb cap. i have 30 days to cancel if i want out of contract. alltel and t-mobile is the only 2 national carriers left without 5gb cap. t-mobile is so slow they don't need to cap so i chose alltel for now. hopefully they at least let me finish my contract before they decide to force a cap on me. verizon caps so thats why i hope alltel don't start 2. or i guess i'll just have to do without. i'm not going to pay 59.99 for 5gb a month.