Verizon Will Divest 15 More Markets to Acquire Alltel

That will depend on who it is divested to.
Sprint currently has agreements with Alltel (and will be carried through until completion of that roaming agreement).
If VZW sells off the overlap to ... say Cricket or MetroPCS, or T-Mobile, I don't think you're going to see any 'new' / 'good' roaming agreements.

"Coverage" doesn't necessarily mean a carrier owns the entire network. VZW probably has build up a large network footprint via various roaming agreements such that it is transparent to the user and it always appears one is in the home network.

I don't know the stats but tmobile might just actually own the largest network.

Is Alltel right now.

After the merger - will be VZW. They will be divesting areas where they overlap - keeping the best in terms of infrastructure. Example: VZW recently acquired RCC - DBA Unicell in S. MN, which overlaps areas Alltel acquired when it bought Midwest Wireless. Guess what they're divesting? The RCC property - keeping the former MWW licenses.

AT&T owns and operates the largest network in the U.S.. You can look at any carriers financial report and it will tell you what they own and operate as their own.
From my understanding, Alltel has the most licenses in the most markets but never had the financials to build it out, Probably why Verizon is so hungrey to aquire them. A lot of those are grandfathered and other carriers are unable to aquire new licenses. Another reason why AT&T signed a lot of agreements with Alltel to build GSM on top of their towers.

I always thought sprint owned the largest digital network....

OK ATT has the largest GSM key word GSM network in the US. Alltel covers the most square miles. Hence the largest network claim and sprint covers the most people.

Verizon does have a rather small native coverage. You can pull it up on there webpage if you click on verizon network the map will show were they are. I haven't' looked in a while but I know in TX they didn't' cover the whole western part of the state.

Yeah....But how much of AT&T's network allows one to make complete calls? This is a large area for only one carrier pigeon to make a round flight. I'm still waiting for return calls from 2006. I fear that the pigeon is no longer alive. 😳

A howk got him in june '07.... sorry you didn't get the message. Ted nugent got the pigeon carrying that message in november 07

They're coverage is they're "Network" advertisement, that brainwashes people. 🤣 🤣 🤣

verizon's coverage is largely accomplished via roaming agreements with other cdma carriers. if you want to look at what a given carrier actually owns and operates (or directly leases), pull up their prepaid phone coverage map.

network size and 'coverage' is always relative and each carrier makes a specific claim that makes them look best. at&t currently operates the most cell sites (almost 50,000 nationwide), and with roaming agreements offers the most coverage worldwide. alltel used to make claims for years that they had the largest network, but this included all their analog assets (that are now shutoff). at the same time at&t was running stuff that touted the largest (wireless) DIGITAL voice & data network. hilarious if you ask me... a...
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One thing to keep in mind. A CDMA cellular tower provide between 5 and 10 times the capacity of AMPS over GSM. It means one tower can handle more calls than a GSM tower. Sporting events, big concerts, etc., where they're a extra amount of people using cell phones have issues. You can get network busy messages/Fast busy signals when trying to make a call, where its to a friend or 911. Its hard to get through in a high traffic time. Verizon doesnt have that issue. Maybe it takes less towers to support a set area of population as a GSM carrier WOULD require more.

That would be less of the case with AT&T now than in the past, since most major events take place in/near major cities which are most likely covered by its 3G (UMTS/W-CDMA) network which has nearly identical spectrum efficiency as CDMA.

BigShowJB said:
square miles: Alltel
network w/ roaming agreements: Verizon

Sprint CDMA offers the largest native + roaming coverage in terms of both population & area.

AJ

BigShowJB said:
square miles: Alltel
network w/ roaming agreements: Verizon
GSM network:AT&T
Total Population: Sprint/Nextel (includes iDEN)
Largest Worldwide network: ATT
largest roaming network: T-Mobile
Largest 3G/broadband native network: Sprint CDMA

so it all is based on what your arguement of "largest" is....

Are you sure about Sprint having the largest Native 3g network because I compared both of their 3g networks and Sprint was no where near the 3g coverage VZ has. http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLo catorController?requesttype=NEWREQUEST&lid=// global//plans//coverage+maps

yea, Verizon has the Lergest 3G network in the US.

And the World Wide Network with AT&T is bull, Verizon CDMA/GSM phones pick up the same networks AT&Ts does overseas.and Verizon is comming out with phones that pick up on UMTS/HSDPA/HSDPA+

plus Verizon is owned by Vondaphone (sp?) which is the Largest Cellular network in the world.

Vodafone owns less than a 50% stake in the wireless unit only.

As for best coverage, it is very subjective to each customer. What works best where I want it to work?

Customers in Seattle could care less about coverage in Kansas unless they went there.

In our market you sell AT&T for coverage, Sprint for 3G features and price, but Verizon has the most market share even though their customers experience on the footprint is not as good as with AT&T and Sprint and they charge a lot more for everything.

Much of Verizon's allure is from when they did have the best coverage. Which is no longer true.

I dont see AT&T coverage out West really....
I see ROAMING.

HAHA!

And the Alltel map and Verizon map together will blow everyone off the map.

And if you didnt know already, Verizon covers areas of where Alltel doesnt, and Alltel covers areas of where Verizon doesnt.

Alltel is in debt and Verizon is buying them becasue Alltel put them selves up for sale... AGAIN.

ATT has the largest GSM network in the US.
Verizon surpassed Sprint in 3g areas.
And sprint has the largest both Native and with roaming agreements.