Alltel and U.S Cellular would be great targets for Verizon but there is one thing. Why buy the cow when the Milk is free? Verizon has a roaming agreement with Alltel that allows most features to work on Alltel markets and the agreement goes through 2007 pr 2010 if I remember correctly. The agreement allows both carriers to operate cheaply. The FCC should allow the Merger if it were to happen because Alltel assets are in many areas Verizon doesn't. I don't think that Alltel would be worth the cash to Verizon due to their Debt load and lack of network quality. I have used the Alltel network in numerous areas and it doesn't have the quality of Verizon so it would be a serious fixer upper! Verizon is also buying a lot of Spectrum so it lo...
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Debt load? ALLTEL is financially one of the best companies in the industry, if not the best. There are multiple reasons why a marriage between AT and VZW might not be right, and I think roaming is probably one of the better ones. But debt certainly isn't: ALLTEL's debt to equity ratio is only 0.782 (compared to VZW 1.045).

The only reason Verizon wouldn't go after Alltel is the over valuation of the company. Alltel service is very spotty in numerous areas and would require serious spending to bring up to Verizon caliber service. Verizon has looked at Sprint and Alltel but why spend the money when they have access to it already? Verizon sold numerous markets in Ohio and Florida to them and currently the companies have seamless roaming and feature usage. Do the numbers above include the debt load with the purchase of Midwest Wireless pending FCC aproval? I have used Alltel in Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arkansas and through the cornbelt and found that they need to start spending some cash on their network. They should spend less money on Nascar and build ...
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You MUST be a Verizon customer, singing all their praises. And you obviously have not used Verizon between Sandusky and Mansfield, Ohio. Verizon's service is crap compared to Alltel's here in this part of Ohio. Everyone has their bad areas. If someone says their carrier doesn't then they are lying big time. I have used Verizon's network in many areas, including Houston and part of California where I had problems even getting a signal. That is beside the point. You use the network that works best for you where you need it to. If that happens to be Verizon for you, then great. If you aren't using native Alltel service, it's not really your place to judge the service. Nor is it my place to judge Verizon's service. So, please keep you...
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I am a Verizon customer, are you an Alltel employee???????? I have used Alltel in numerous areas and believe me when I say that they need to start spending some money on their network. I travel throughout the country and have used Verizon, Alltel, and Sprint PCS on the America's Choice Network. My point is that there is no reason for Alltel to fall to Verizon since they have a low cost roaming agreement. Alltel and Verizon need each other to stay competitive and I just wish Alltel had a little better service in the Midwest. I have the right to talk about Verizon and Alltel in this thread as much as anyone else does and I will be vocal in my opinions, that way Alltel might get a clue and start filling in the gaps in their midwest coverage ...
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I am a verizon employee and while alltel lacks the data coverage there cellular coverage is actually at an advantage, they still operate in the 800 mhz spectrum which has a longer range for quality cellular coverage, but severaly lacks bandwith for proper data speeds and reliability. The overall call quality is apple to apple and when comparing services in michigan look at our "in network map" and you'll see how much spectrum we really own up here. Im not pitching for alltel by any means but alltel is a quality "cellular" service

Now u know u r tellin a fib!! Verizon cant touch alltel sweetie! Alltel has way more coverage than Verizon will ever even think of having! Lets b real now!!!!

Not sure if you realize but Verizon can “touch” Alltel. If you are comparing more coverage, well it does not make a difference because compare their results. One has 60 million or so customers the other one have 12 million customers. Please do not compare Alltel and Verizon; frankly, it is not fair. Verizon is a dominate company, while Alltel is not.

its so sad to hear that u THINK that alltel isnt dominant over verizon. One day SOON u will see!!! 😉

Name a few things to me that Alltel is better than Verizon in?

Alltel is definitely not dominant over Verizon or frankly any other top three wireless companies out there.

One day? Perhaps if they are bought out.

Their plans are slightly more economic, but if Verizon buys them that will go by the wayside. Coverage is about the same since they are share partners. Customer Service for both is horrendous, I'd say that except for numbers of customers, they are about even.

Except for the customers? Well yea that is a huge reason of why there is no comparison between Verizon and Alltel. You forgot to mention that Verizon has a lot more money than Alltel, which is key to this industry.

I agree, actually.

Alltel isn't trying to say that they are as big as Verizon, have the same things as Verizon, or even trying to compete nationally with Verizon. It's just silly forum trolls that say that.
I was just saying, from a customer point of view, one is as bad(or as good) as the other.

Purchasing Alltel would be the fastest, cheapest and least disruptive way for Verizon to get back to #1 nationally, and I can't believe they aren't trying to get them.

No matter what people say, that just makes too much sense.

I know Alltel isn’t saying that, but people on this forum are which isn’t acceptable because it isn’t true at all. Perhaps they have a bigger network square millage than Verizon, but so what? They don’t even have the same or similar customer base as Verizon has. People on here have no right to compare the two companies together.

Yea, that point from the customers’ view is true and I agree.

Yea, unfortunately, a Verizon/Alltel merger would make sense from a standpoint if there would be not any regulatory hurdles, however, in this case there would be. There would be synergies from this deal though, which would be good, however, would the divestitures that would be needed to make the regulatory boards happy be under the synergies? Perha...
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USCC would benefit greatly. We would be in a positon to add several states to our regional coverage at the very least.

I see your points. I think that most of this is blowing and posturing so that they can inflate their values.

But it is the most promising of the merger rumors since sprint/nextel!

Yea, now Alltel buying USCC makes a lot of sense and that would still provide significant synergies from headcount reduction to bringing in operations. I haven’t studied about that potential hookup, but that makes a lot of sense. Kudos to you for bringing it up.


Well, with the Sprint/Nextel situation was good on paper, but they didn’t executed on those plans. Kind of one of those teams who are the best but they don’t reach the promise land. (One can state the Yankees, Red Sox, and other teams.)

I also wanted to say that Alltel selling itself sort of hints that they do not have confidence in their own business models and that alludes to my point earlier when I said even if they do have the largest coverage area, their total subscrib...
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Alltel Has the best customer service and I have used Alltel, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Cingular/AT&T and Alltel Customer service is much better

Alltel has less people because they serve a BIGGER rural area!

You are replying to a post from over 2 yrears ago...

Ok I travel all through the country. I have Alltel and my partner has Verizon. I get a lot more coverage then him and better quality. From where I've been, he has never had coverage when I haven't.

Hey ajw625

you seem to have forgotten that you are in a public forum and being in a country where we are all able to speak freely. People are able to say what they want, you may not share their opinion but that is what discussions are about!! 😎

The current debt load includes all reported financial statements (i.e. up through Q404). But on the Q4 conf call, executives stated the purchase of Western Wireless will not affect their current "A" rating from analysts, so it's evidently not going to change their debt load too much.

I have heard in Wirelessweek that if Verizon were to go after Alltel it would likely be in 2006 or 2007. I know that Verizon was at Sprint PCS headquarters about a year ago as was a japanese or Chinese carrier but neither bit on that one. I would love to see Alltel and Verizon become one and maybe U.S.Cellular if they get rid of Joan Cusak, hahaha. Is anyone tires of hearing that Cingular is raising the bar yet? 🙂

i don't think the fcc would allow verizon to get both uscc and alltel. possibly uscc, but if they got alltel that would put them at almost 60million for a customer base. I just don't see it happening.

The ony reason the FCC would block it was if they held too much spectrum in a given area. The actual customer numbers wouldn't be the issue but leaving spectrum for other carriers to compete would. There is a need for only three to four major carriers in the U.S. and the consolidation is good for us customers

Competition for Alltel will likely only get tougher, as Verizon has already released EV-DO phones for it's new high speed network, and Cingular is already prepping for it's UMTS network, to be introduced sometime in the fourth quarter this year.

Alltel has home coverage in either a Verizon or Cingular home network area, and if you're into the new high tech stuff, then Alltel will probably be taking a back seat or asking Verizon to take them over.

That's ust it, ALLTEL started as a rural carrier, and more than likely will not have spectrum in a Verizon or Cingular coverage area. A recent stat that I heard (before the Western Wireless purchase) said that Verizon had coverage in almost 70% of the country. That's huge in and of itself. But with the ALLTEL roaming agreements, ALLTEL provided coverage in almost 25% of the remaining 30%. Now, as I said, that was before the Western Wireless acquisition. Before that, ALLTEL and Verizon competed for spectrum in just 3% of their markets. That's a very negligible number, and the western wireless acquisition may no affect that dramatically because Verizon doesn't have a whole lot of spectrum in the "plain states."

Speedywalk
"It ain't broke, ...
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thats so true!!! Alltel has coverage in 93% of the country

What does it make a difference if Alltel’s coverage area is bigger, because it seems they cannot optimize on that. Compare its subscriber base to the rest- no comparison.

They do cover more of the country. But the areas where they do cover is not has heavily populated as the areas VZW, Sprint, Cingular, and T-mobile cover. such as most of california, nyc, chicago....

As I said earlier, why does it matter if they have assets in those areas because if you look at their covered pops and compare it against how many customers they have actually signed up you can see they are doing a horrible job at targeting those customers and signing them up. Therefore, in this case, their “bigger” network doesn’t mean anything because they haven’t utilized it.

They are new to many markets and don't have the name recognition that the others have or the money to advertise.

You should re-check your figures because they do have the money to advertise. In fact in 2006, here are the following USA carriers, and advertising;

1. Cingular with a 27% market share and spent $1.4 B.

2. Verizon wireless with a 24% market share and spent $1.5B.

3. Sprint had a 11.8% market share and spent $857M.

4. T-MOBILE USA had a 9.5% market share and spent $440M.

5. Nextel had a 8.9% market share and spent $339M.

6. Alltel had a 4.7% market share and spent $108M.

7. US Cellular had a 2.7% market share and spent $54.7M.

As you can see Alltel did spend some money and frankly, they are advertising in a lot more places, including my area (MA), but more importantly they are sponsoring events and other things.

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Yeah right I have great coverage and sound quality on the Alltel RAZR V3m

With the recent splitting of home phone service to Windstream, Alltel loaded all the debt into them. Therefore, Alltel has no debt. Or very very little.

I have the Alltel RAZR V3m and I have better quality then anyone I know on verizon!

At a recent meeting Scott Ford said there is no way Alltel will ever sell to Verizon.

same way I feel, if Alltel would not Verizon continue their roaming agreement with them up North I highly doubt they would let them buy them out.

if verizon offers a bid for alltel then the ceo of alltel must look at it becuase they have a fiduciary (sorry if thats not spelled correct) right to serve its shareholders. so if verizon does offer a bid, alltel has to look at it.

Exactly. Say VZW offers $40 billion, which is way more than Alltel is worth. They would take the offer at the drop of a hat.

very true. the main question is.. does verizon want alltel or 100 percent ownership in verizon wireless? i think the answer is the 100 percent ownership.. alltel is nothing compared to vzw.

How can you figure that Verizon is not big enough to take over alltel!! That the craziest thing i have ever heard of!!

Are you RETARDED? too big for Verizon? Give me some of that Alltel chronic you are smokin. 🤣

Too big????? Verizon's 2004 revenues totalled $71.3 billion! That's more than enough to buy ALLTEL if they so desired (and it sounds like they do). ALLTEL's annual revenues total 8 billion dollars. I don't remember what the total asset values were on their annual report (and I'm just too lazy to look it up, but it's available at www.alltel.com), but I KNOW it was far less than $71 Billion!

Speedywalk
"It ain't broke, it just needs duct tape!"

his name is celular dude and he thinks he knows about cell companies, and yet with that comment he doesnt lol... pitty.

I don't see why Verizon would need to buy Alltel at this time when they pay peanuts to roam on the Alltel network. Alltel is still a small company that is buying up other smaller companies in low profit areas anyway. Alltel will fall on their face in the near future and Verizon will buy them when they are at a lower valuation.

yea, very true. but why not have a bigger footrint? especially if its cheaper to buy companies then to actually buy out spectrum then have capex increases due to tower buildouts? especially now, since interest rates are so low.

VZW has a roaming agreement with Alltel and they pay newt to nothing in the agreement from what I heard, this benefits both companies and relieves the need to buy them outright until the deal is over. I think there is some bad blood after the LNP mandate went into effect because Denny Strigl punked out when he realized LNP was unstoppable and turned his back on the CEO of ALLTEL in the process. I think Alltel would play hard to get but they have also had some controversy when they did a hostile takover of Century Tel. Everything is for sale for the right price so who knows what the future will hold.

do you know where this roaming agreement is? is it somewhere significant?

well will see what happens.

The agreement was formed right before VZW launched America Choice plans if I remember and it basically allows Alltel and VZW access to each others networks at a price that allows both to compete on a national level while still making money. Shortly after this they also had a deal with SprintPCS but I think the cost was more to VZW. The Alltel network is seamless and allows VZW customers most features that they get on VZW networks. I have used ALLTEL all over the Midwest and most features are transparent from network to network. I have even heard that PTT users from VZW can use Alltel PTT. If Alltel and VZW were to merge it would likely be a very easy integration.

yea thats true.

hahaha what are you out of your mind? verizon can buy anyone especially with just an all stock purchase.