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Private Equity Groups Purchase Alltel

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Finally!!!!!

LordObento

May 21, 2007, 1:10 AM
Finally they sold and this will squash some rumors. Although the statement leaves it open for rumors to come as they want to sell to a bigger carrier.
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 1:12 AM
I don't think they'll wait to sell to a bigger carrier.

I think they'll split the company up and sell the towers and customers to companies they are compatible with (cdma to verizon/gsm to att & Tmobile).

There is alot more money to be made by breaking up a company than to hold onto it especially in wireless where huge investment is required to expand coverage.
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dave73

May 21, 2007, 1:27 AM
colione112 said:
I don't think they'll wait to sell to a bigger carrier.

I think they'll split the company up and sell the towers and customers to companies they are compatible with (cdma to verizon/gsm to att & Tmobile).

There is alot more money to be made by breaking up a company than to hold onto it especially in wireless where huge investment is required to expand coverage.


In one way, splitting up the company will make it easier for various carriers to buy Alltel, than for Verizon, Cingular, or USCC to buyout Alltel, then be forced to divest certain markets. If anything, I see in areas where Alltel has GSM networks on separate spectrum licenses to be sold to T-Mobile & AT&T, but T-Mobile & AT...
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 2:32 AM
Possibly provided they needed the spectrum badly enough.

But I wouldn't put it past the new owners to require they buy less profitable areas in order to get the more sought after markets.
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Jayshmay

May 21, 2007, 1:16 PM
I never heard of USCC, is that some sort of small area carrier???
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craptacularwireless

May 21, 2007, 4:48 PM
US Cellular.
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jskrenes

May 21, 2007, 10:18 AM
Here's the midwest/plains opinion again. In SD, Alltel and Verizon are the two major carriers. So Verizon can't buy Alltel's towers here (monopoly laws). But in Nebraska, the two carriers are Alltel and US Cellular. So Verizon could buy the Alltel towers in areas like Nebraska where they would not have a monopoly. Other carriers could do the same without having the trouble of buying and selling off unwanted or unneeded towers.
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PooFlinger1

May 21, 2007, 10:34 AM
yes and no. I don't believe monopoly laws cover spectrum like that. So long as a company owns the spectrum, they are free to deploy as they wish to an extent. However, even if there were monopoly laws that prevented that from hapening, they could easily get around that by purchasing the whole company since the monopoly would no longer be considered on the local level and would be national which means no monopoly since there is sprint, cingular, etc. etc.

There are many areas in the US where only one carrier owns towers, however no anti-trust lawsuits or claims have been made that I am aware of. If you know of any, please post them, I'd be eager to read up on the topic.
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mr.white

May 21, 2007, 12:07 PM
If they buy the whole company they will still have to divest the parts where there is only one other competitor. Thats how it always happens. That is how US Cellular got into KS. They purchased the Celline towers from Alltel-WW merger.
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algorithmplus

May 21, 2007, 7:21 PM
mr.white said:
If they buy the whole company they will still have to divest the parts where there is only one other competitor. Thats how it always happens. That is how US Cellular got into KS. They purchased the Celline towers from Alltel-WW merger.

That is correct. Alltel gained markets from the Cingular/AT&T deal. US Cellular gained markets from the Alltel/Western Wireless/CellOne deal. Rural Cellular gained CellOne markets from the Alltel/Western Wireless/CellOne/Midwest Wireless deal.

Sometimes, companies swap territories. Such as som SunCom markets becoming Cingular, and some AT&T Wireless markets becoming SunCom.

Back in the day, AT&T Wireless even got a market from US Cellular (Florida), wh...
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Jayshmay

May 21, 2007, 1:15 PM
Heck, I don't know if that's going to happen, but I like the idea, I do, I didn't know Alltell has GSM towers though, I thought Alltell was mostly CDMA. But if Cingular can get more, and more, and more towers, all the better.

I just didn't know Alltel had GSM towers???
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 3:23 PM
From what I've read about them, they employ both types of technologies, they keep GSM mainly for the roaming agreements (which means they probably have them turned down as low as they can).
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Jayshmay

May 21, 2007, 4:05 PM
What do you mean by turned down as low as they can? Not so much electricity??? I don't understand that part???
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 4:42 PM
Wireless companies can open or close channels thru software for specific towers/areas. Similar to how they limit speed for data in most areas.

Several areas have their data speed (EDGE) "turned down" so as to lower the cost because the tower doesn't require full use of the frequencies.
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Jayshmay

May 21, 2007, 4:45 PM
I don't understand why the heck they'd want to close a channel??? Isn't every wrieless company "trying" to have the "most reliable" supposadly network? Would closing a channel cause it to be LESS reliable???
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 4:52 PM
Not always. If a tower has a history of less than 50% usage, they may turn it down to say 60%.

This isn't saying it's happening all over, but I was told by a tower tech supervisor that many areas that didn't use alot of data had the EDGE speeds turned down. I can only assume that this policy has been reversed with the big push for data company wide.
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Jayshmay

May 21, 2007, 4:55 PM
Wow, do you work in the wireless industry? You know quite a bit!

I noticed though that you wrote "Not always. If a tower has a history of less than 50% usage, they may turn it down to say 60%."

Wouldn't going from 50% to 60% be going up? Not down?

I'm still having trouble understanding why they would want to make a tower less reiiable, less powerful.
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 5:07 PM
No..

Say the tower is at 100% (voice and data).

After a designated time period, only 50% of the channels are being used. So they turn it down from 100 to 60% so they can use the frequencies on other nearby towers if necessary.

Just because a company may choose to do this, doesn't mean any tower is less powerful, just more efficient.

Tower X uses 50% of it's designated frequencies.

Tower Y uses 100% and is often overloaded.

While one tower is always busy, the other is only being used half the time. The company may choose to turn down one tower and use those frequencies on the other tower to allow more usage.

Not sure if I explained it right, but do u understand?
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Jayshmay

May 21, 2007, 5:11 PM
Kinda, it's a matter of efficiency.

So what do you do that you know so much about this sort of stuff???

I frequent PhoneScoop, and other websites just because I enjoy the evolution of the wireless industry, and am monitoring the market for new handsets, and advancements of more consiladed mobile phones.
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 5:41 PM
I'm in sales. I have several friends that are Technician II's for Cingular.
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Jayshmay

May 21, 2007, 5:45 PM
Cool job.

Do you have any inside info as to when Cingular is going to up the HSDPA speeds from crappy 400-700kbps up to modern 3.6mbps speeds???

I heard sometime in the 2nd half of this year.

Also, is it accurate that Cingular is going to launch MobileTv on the MediaFlo network 4th qtr this yr???

It would be great if you knew anything about these things
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 6:11 PM
Faster HSDPA speeds: I'm not sure when the speed will be "turned up", but would assume it has something to do with turning TDMA off.

MediaFlo: Yes, it's already been confirmed it will come to ATT, but they haven't given a specific date yet. I would assume they have to develop handsets specifically for this purpose.
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algorithmplus

May 21, 2007, 7:25 PM
In some markets, T-Mobile and Cingular transferred spectrum for the precise reason of building a roaming network (back in the Western Wireless/CellularOne days.)

However, since most of Alltel's GSM coverage is rural coverage, I don't think that spectrum is any problem at all. I can't imagine North Dakota's statewide population of less than 640,000 using so much Alltel spectrum that GSM must be turned low in order to properly function.
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 7:33 PM
Not to properly function, but in this case, to save money.
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Ghosthendrikson

May 21, 2007, 11:54 AM
If the equity group did decide to deconstruct Alltel, I am betting you would see a large interest in their assets coming from Sprint, Cingular, or Tmobile, possibly looking to expand their presence into the midwest presumably at a much cheaper cost then if they were to start building their own towers.

As far as this Montana guy is concerned, I would welcome a strong GSM network with open arms.
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 1:09 PM
I can see ATT buying the rural spectrum just so they can take it away from Verizon and use it on their own maps.

That would be an impressive move to make, but I doubt they have the balls to pull such a move off.
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Ghosthendrikson

May 21, 2007, 1:25 PM
It would take a lot of sand, the more I think about it though the more I doubt ATT has the capability right now.

Their debt load is already pretty large, not to mention all the money they are spending right now rebranding Cingular as ATT.

If they did pull it off though, it would shake a lot of things up out here. Our cell service is pretty much ruled by VZW, with Alltel being the only half assed alternative.
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 3:28 PM
I think ATT is going to focus on paying down debt and expanding HSDPA for the rest of the year. The only thing holding 3G deployment back is the existance of TDMA. Slowly but surely this year TDMA markets are being turned off and they will be launched as 3G areas.

This is why I doubt any acquisitions are in the distant future (2008 at the earliest).
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uscellchick87

May 22, 2007, 10:19 AM
I'm pretty sure that AT&T/Cingular has already turned down the offer. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
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algorithmplus

May 21, 2007, 7:33 PM
Well, it would depend on how it would best benefit AT&T. In some areas, it would give them a network, a small customer base, and would be much cheaper than organically buidling towers market by market.
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colione112

May 21, 2007, 7:45 PM
I think eventually they'll have to get into the rural areas a little more. The major carriers are fighting for customers in the major cities.

Verizon is big in the rural areas, and I think it would be in ATT's best interest to get into the rural areas soon.
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algorithmplus

May 22, 2007, 7:29 PM
colione112 said:
I think eventually they'll have to get into the rural areas a little more. The major carriers are fighting for customers in the major cities.

Verizon is big in the rural areas, and I think it would be in ATT's best interest to get into the rural areas soon.


Agreed. If AT&T could get into the rural areas with *affordable* data, they could gain a lot of revenue. That would also be good for consumers. AT&T has quite a bit of rural coverage in the southeast, but the West would be great.

Any carrier could gain with affordable data in rural areas. Of course, a lot would have to do with expected deployment costs versus expected revenue.

Alltel as a standalone company wouldn't h...
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