FCC Puts The Breaks On AT&T's Alltel Buy Out

The Federal Communications Commission today stopped the unofficial 180-day shot clock on its review of AT&T's proposed purchased of Atlantic Tele-Network's Alltel assets. The deal, first proposed earlier this year, would give AT&T wireless spectrum licenses in the 700, 850, and 1900MHz bands, network assets, retail stores, and 585,000 subscribers. 

According to the FCC, AT&T has not adequately explained how it will transition the Alltel customers from Alltel's service to its own. Without that information, the FCC cannot complete its review. The FCC says the review was on Day 175 out of 180. Verizon Wireless was forced to divest some of Alltel's assets when it purchased the company in 2008. Atlantic Tele-Network picked up some of the assets and continued to run them under the Alltel name. AT&T agreed to pay Atlantic Tele-Network $780 million for the spectrum licenses, assets, and customers. 

AT&T's Jim Ciccone, EVP of External and Legislative Affairs, said in a statement posted to ATYT's web site, "AT&T is ready, willing and able to make significant network investments in these rural territories to bring HSPA+ and LTE services to Allied’s customers, an investment that will not occur but for this transaction. AT&T has actively worked to address FCC concerns and will continue to work with the Commission until all issues are resolved."


Source: AT&T

Alltel To Offer Apple iPhone Starting March 15th

The iPhone 5 is already available for pre-order and the 16GB model starts at $149.99 with a two-year agreement.

AT&T is positioned to acquire Alltel’s assets and customers in their entirety in the second half of this year. It is still business as usual for the once large regional carrier, mostly bought out by Verizon Wireless.

As you may recall from that merger some years ago, Verizon had to divest several markets or work some spectrum swaps with other providers (like AT&T) in order to secure regulatory approval. The leftovers remained as the Alltel brand, operated by Atlantic Tele-Network Wireless and that is what AT&T will be taking on later in the year.

Meanwhile, Alltel continues to maintain its lineup of products and services and that includes the iPhone. In addition to the iPhone 5, Alltel will also begin selling the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. The16GB iPhone 4S will run just $49.99 and the iPhone 4 will move for $0.99. The iPhone 5 starts at just $149.99 for the 16GB flavor, add an additional $100 for each iteration up the storage ladder for the other models.

Alltel operates a CDMA/EV-DO network in 6 states and hold spectrum licenses that AT&T will certainly be able to make use of. Though with the addition of the more expensive hardware, it will be interesting to see what route AT&T takes as it converts Alltel’s network to GSM/UMTS and LTE.


Source: Alltel

Atlantic Tele-Network to Sell Alltel Business To AT&T For $780M

Alltel's retail shops, 585,000 customers and the chunks of the 700MHz, 900MHz and 1900MHz bands it operates will soon be part of the AT&T family. Pending an FCC review, of course. This morning the former Ma Bell announced that it would be purchasing the American assets of Atlantic Tele-Network, which uses the Alltel brand here in the US, for $780 million. While the additional customer revenue will surely be welcome, it's clear that AT&T is primarily after the spectrum here, which it calls "largely complimentary" to its current holdings. The smaller carrier is particularly popular in the rural areas of Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina places that the nation's second largest mobile network could use a boost in.

Besides regulatory approval, which shouldn't prove to be a major obstacle, the company also faces challenges integrating Alltel's existing infrastructure with its own. Currently the smaller carrier operates a CDMA network on its frequency bands, which must be retooled to work with AT&T's GSM, HSPA and LTE technologies. Customers will also need to be migrated from their current handsets to AT&T compatible ones. So, while rural customers could see a significant improvement in coverage, we wouldn't expect the deal to bear fruit immediately. 

Verizon To Stop Allowing Legacy Alltel Devices On Its Network

It's been three years and two days since Verizon officially closed its acquisition of Alltel, and it looks like Big Red's finally putting the sledgehammer down on activating legacy devices from the purchased network. Official word from a Verizon spokesperson that effective today, the carrier will no longer allow you to bring over an Alltel device to a retail outlet and get it activated on their network. If you're currently using an Alltel-branded phone on Verizon, don't panic: this new policy change only applies to handsets that haven't already been activated. We can't imagine this will affect too many users at this point, but we imagine Chad's still feeling a little bummed out today regardless.