Alltel service will survive in six states
updated 08:25 pm EDT, Mon July 12, 2010
Buyout will leave branding intact
Alltel Wireless has announced that it will retain its branding and service in select markets throughout six states. Atlantic Tele-Network has purchased the Alltel assets that Verizon was required to divest as part of its larger Alltel buyout initiated last year.
ATN plans on keeping the Alltel name, along with many of the existing service features such as My Circle and Anytime Plan Changes. Customers will be able to keep their existing handsets and rate plans, while the selection of smartphones and multimedia handsets will be expanded.
The Alltel brand will continue to exist as an independent carrier in Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2010
This never works out
These little vestiges of former companies always end up hurting consumers. I live in what used to be Dobson Cellular's home area in Oklahoma. As an AT&T customer I could roam on Dobson's network, all was well. When AT&T bought Dobson, the FCC required them to "divest" this area because the combined company would be the only GSM provider here. Fair enough. So another company bought the CellularOne name from Dobson and all the equipment in this area. The end result is now AT&T cannot roam on CellularOne, so we have less service than we did before, AT&T's official coverage area has now shrunk accordingly, and now CellularOne is the ONLY GSM provider in this area. We went from two GSM providers to one. Makes a lot of sense, huh?