Verizon Outlines Alltel Integration Plan

algorithmplus said:
Personally, I think that if the economy didn't tank, Alltel may have bought US Cellular and started to go head to head with the nationals. All the nationals started as regional companies in the wireless arena.

If the Carlsons didn't hold the bulk of USCC stock, It might have been possible for Alltel to acquire USCC. But they would have had to divest properties as well, including divesting southwestern Wisconsin, most of Nebraska & Kansas, parts of Oklahoma & Texas, and the Carolinas where there's overlap. If Alltel didn't have this fear of building out in 1900 spectrum, then they could have had a chance to expand their network more. At least USCC has made an attempt to build out in 1900, whereas Alltel has 1900 band networks that was primarily built out by their predecessors. But another scenario that Alltel had looked to buy Sprint would have created an even bigger problem than just overlap markets (what little they overlap), is that Alltel overlapped with some of the Sprint affiliates, including iPCS. If Alltel had been successful at buying out Sprint, then they would have had to deal with affiliates, and would have created a merger problem. I don't know if Alltel would have tried to buyout the affilates, or divest the affiliates. I know Alltel & iPCS overlap in Nebraska, Iowa, Southern Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and maybe Virginia. They would most likely had to divest iPCS if they had acquired Sprint.