macnn/electronista
08/06/2008, 1:20pm, EDT
Wednesday, August 6thVermont to gain local iPhone 3G access
Residents of Vermont should finally be able to gain direct access to the iPhone in the near future, a local television station reports. WCAX notes that all important divisions of the federal government have approved Verizon's acquisition of Rural Cellular Corporation, the operator of regional carrier Unicel. Aside from Vermont, Unicel sells service in several other states, such as Alabama, New York and Washington.
Due to monopoly worries, however, as well as concern about excluding GSM phones from Verizon's CDMA-based network, the federal government has stipulated that the carrier must divest itself of some of Unicel's coverage. These holdings are being handed off to AT&T, meaning that the carrier will finally gain a wireless foothold in Vermont. As a consequence, people in the state will at last be able to subscribe for iPhone service. The transition to AT&T is expected to complete within a few months.
Filed under: iPhone, industry
Other story tags: AT&T, Verizon, Rural Cellular, Vermont, Unicel
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Finally
As a Vermonter I'm quite pleased with this recent news. As soon as ATT moves completes the transition from Unicel I will be canceling my Verizon plan and switch to ATT. Thanks Verizon for making this happen, I feel like I finally got something for all those years of crippled cell phones, and good bye!
curious
so what will this mean for other states with unicel coverage? I live in south Dakota where there is no AT&T but we have unicel
and pigs will fly
Don't get your hopes up for 3g service. that will happen about as quickly as we get an apple store. Camaroon will have one before we do.