Verizon Expands Coverage With Purchase of Rural Cellular
Perspective from an RCC employee
I work in senior management for Unicel, but for obvious reasons I won't say exactly what I do or where. Today's announcement was a pretty big surprise for all of us here. I don't think that anyone expected us to be bought out by a CDMA carrier.
Just to clarify a couple of things... first, our GSM markets greatly outnumber our CDMA markets. We only use CDMA in the midwest area, which is most of Minnesota and small portions of Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota. That means that Verizon Wireless will have to overlay most of our network with CDMA. Interestingly enough, the word is that they plan to keep the GSM network running as a source of roaming revenue, since AT&T is our single biggest customer in terms of airtime billing. The ...
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Just to clarify a couple of things... first, our GSM markets greatly outnumber our CDMA markets. We only use CDMA in the midwest area, which is most of Minnesota and small portions of Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota. That means that Verizon Wireless will have to overlay most of our network with CDMA. Interestingly enough, the word is that they plan to keep the GSM network running as a source of roaming revenue, since AT&T is our single biggest customer in terms of airtime billing. The ...
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I have a question, is Ierizon planning on other carriers i.e. AT&T roaming on their GSM service to help negate the cost for purchasing Unicel... basically are they planning on their GSM service to be a second source of income beyond the new customers they have just picked up?? 🤨
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im not sure i just want to know if there going to be useing gsm toweres insted of just CDMA
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I hope that if the spectrum overlays, T-Mobile decides to jump on the remaining spectrum.
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That's a very good question that I don't know the answer to, Unknown123... or how about if I call you C aptain F abulous?
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I'm a RCC agent, in the midwest area, A lot is still up in the air but in my area there are already quite a few Verizon agents so I suspect that I will no longer be selling cell phones. The other thing is that most RCC agents in my area have a main business besides selling cell phones so most of these will probably leave also. And as for the real Agents that concentrate on cell phones we will have to see, RCC consigns the phones to us so we don't have to pay for inventory, and I know Verizon doesn't do that. It will be interesting in the upcoming months to say the least.
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I would really encourage you to just wait and see what happens, and remain optimistic. If you have a nice-looking store and a good sales history to point to, I don't know why Verizon would be in a hurry to close your door. Part of the value of what they are buying is all the points of distribution in our markets, both retail and agent. The consignment issue is definitely something to be prepared for.
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local identity my arse. wireless the way it should be? how bout a $50.00restocking fee for switching a phone out in the 30 day satisfaction period if they let you switch it out at all!!! how bout selling last gen phones as if they were the now? p4300 while the p4350 is sitting in tmobile and at@t stores? an as for the corporate culture you can have those bunch of numb skulls. in 2004 they were "upgrading" to gsm from tdma and they built all their towers at 1900 an thought nothing of the fact that in a place like maine you either need five times the amount of towers or 850 all over the place cause 1900 doesnt cut it ongsm in heavily woode or mountianas areas. an i told them and they didnt listen. and what happened they lost customers hand ove...
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First, the only reason you would have to pay a $50 resotcking fee for returning a phone withing 30 days would be if you lost or destroyed packaging, or if the phone was not in "like new" condition. Those details are all plainly disclosed at the point of sale. Second, phone selection is a challenge for any smaller carrier, as many devices are locked in to exclusive deals with the bigger competition. We also face challenges getting good pricing on handsets, as we aren't buying as much quantity, and are buying through suppliers instead of manufacturer direct. We also test our handsets a lot more thoroughly than many carriers. In fact, other carriers began coming to us asking us to test phones for them as well. In spite of all that, we hav...
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all thats not entirely true there jdig, thereis also a 50.00dollar restocking fee if acertain amount of minutes are used on the handset in the first thitry days. as well as if a certain soon to be out of a job district manager doesnt like you cough cough sherri keef cough cough!! unicel is local while the rest of the inustry is worldwide. i hope a few people make it through this ok like charles kimball and some others but most of unicels upper managment doesnt have a chance.
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As I said, the restocking fee applies when the phone is not in "like new" condition. Over thirty minutes of talk time is considered "not like new". I personally don't agree with that policy, but you have to realize that if we let customers return obvously used phones that aren't resellable, we basically eat it.
Anyway, there are quite a few regional carriers left out there, and very few "worldwide" carriers in US. Basically you have T-Mobile, and Verizon being 45% owned by Vodafone, although they are looking to sell off their shares. How are you so familiar with our management in the NE? By the way, I'm part of upper management, and I think I've got a decent shot. I'm sure I won't keep the same job I have now, but Verizon has four tim...
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Anyway, there are quite a few regional carriers left out there, and very few "worldwide" carriers in US. Basically you have T-Mobile, and Verizon being 45% owned by Vodafone, although they are looking to sell off their shares. How are you so familiar with our management in the NE? By the way, I'm part of upper management, and I think I've got a decent shot. I'm sure I won't keep the same job I have now, but Verizon has four tim...
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well then ihope youdo fine, however i dont know that i agree that they have no structure in place because in maine theyhave portland, lewiston augusta and biddiferd. but i know they are gaining alot. i just have abone to pick with unicels polices and few of their management team in bangor.i think if they had leadership with a clue they would be rising just as fast as uscc insteadof selling. i mean think of two local carriers that have gone in more opposite paths than unicel and uscc? i mean when mr. clifford and those guys founded unicel in unity in 1986 or so i ont think they had the idea that 20 years later theyd be bought. i mean i know theyve been sold a few times over the years but this is the effective end of their ideals and the cultu...
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This forum is closed.
