NEWS: Verizon seeking acquisition

Verizon wants to acquire Alltell so it can be bigger than AT&T.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...28770820080604

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› See More: NEWS: Verizon seeking acquisition

Ron <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Verizon wants to acquire Alltell so it can be bigger than AT&T.
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...28770820080604
>

This will be interesting to watch.....

The last time I waded through the FCC regulations, it said one company
couldn't own BOTH 800 Mhz cellular systems in South Carolina. Unless those
rules have changed, that's exactly what would happen, here, if VZW bought
Alltel.

It's a very sad day for Alltel customers all across the South. If it
happens, it means the end of Sellphone internet service to all of us.

On Jun 4, 5:07*pm, Ron <[email protected]> wrote:
> *Verizon wants to acquire Alltell so it can be bigger than AT&T.
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...28770820080604

Ha HA

Larry you and your Altell are about to get screwed!

Don't you just love this turn of events?

Price of GAS is going up, Whiskey is now out of sight since Jan 2008,
inflation at all sides and now you will get a huge greedy cell phone
company to deal with. You are going to have to double your fees to
tune church organs to make ends meet.

4phun <[email protected]> wrote in news:86a7b073-3f3e-4b06-b699-
[email protected]:

> now you will get a huge greedy cell phone
> company to deal with.
As someone has already poiinted out, this has been going on since
2004.

Ron wrote:
> Verizon wants to acquire Alltell so it can be bigger than AT&T.
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...28770820080604

I doubt if Verizon cares all that much about bragging rights. They
already have far more retail postpaid customers than AT&T. Perhaps for
free mobile to mobile it does make a bit of a difference in marketing.

It's good news for both Verizon and Alltel customers.

Larry wrote:
> 4phun <[email protected]> wrote in news:86a7b073-3f3e-4b06-b699-
> [email protected]:
>
>> now you will get a huge greedy cell phone
>> company to deal with.
> As someone has already poiinted out, this has been going on since
> 2004.

No it hasn't. There were talks twice before that went no where.

It's actually Alltel that's looking to sell itself. The owners want out
of this business. Good move, as Alltel lacks the economies of scale of a
Verizon or AT&T.

Unlikely that this deal would be stopped by the feds, seeing as they
approved the AT&T/Cingular acquisition which was much larger, and
reduced competition much more.

Look up the word "divest"...
It's what happens in these situations - many times in the past


"Larry" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Ron <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
>> Verizon wants to acquire Alltell so it can be bigger than AT&T.
>>
>> http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...28770820080604
>>
>
> This will be interesting to watch.....
>
> The last time I waded through the FCC regulations, it said one company
> couldn't own BOTH 800 Mhz cellular systems in South Carolina. Unless those
> rules have changed, that's exactly what would happen, here, if VZW bought
> Alltel.
>
> It's a very sad day for Alltel customers all across the South. If it
> happens, it means the end of Sellphone internet service to all of us.
>
>

SMS <[email protected]> wrote in news:02G1k.4737$jI5.1489
@flpi148.ffdc.sbc.com:

> It's good news for both Verizon and Alltel customers.
>
>

No it's not. Alltel has cheap regional plans that will be all cancelled by
the Verizon bean counters. Alltel has $10 unlimited data plans if you
tether to a smartphone or $25 unlimited data plans to tether to phones like
my Rokr Z6m with no restrictions I've ever bumped into. All that will go
to **** if Verizon, the feature denial KING, takes over the Alltel system.

They'll turn Alltel into another Verizon with hobbled up phones where
Alltel customers have no hobbling at all of any features Motorola delivers.
I won't be able to pop the microSD into my computer and download a ton of
MP3 files to play on the phone's player. I won't be able to just take the
pictures directly to the microSD card, pop it into the computer and move
them off to the hard drive. There won't be any "MAKE RINGTONE" selection
where you can make any funny MP3 file directly into a ringtone for free.

Everything goes to **** when Verizon touches it......EVERYTHING.

At 04 Jun 2008 21:54:15 +0000 Larry wrote:

> This will be interesting to watch.....
>
> The last time I waded through the FCC regulations, it said one company
> couldn't own BOTH 800 Mhz cellular systems in South Carolina. Unless
those
> rules have changed, that's exactly what would happen, here, if VZW bought
> Alltel.


As Dennis and others pointed out, those rules changed years ago. The new
"rule" isn't even a rule- there's now a maximum 95 MHz "guideline" which
was already broken by Verizon and AT&T in several markets
as a result of the 700MHz auctions. (Both carriers now exceed 100MHz of
spectrum in several markets!)


> It's a very sad day for Alltel customers all across the South. If it
> happens, it means the end of Sellphone internet service to all of us.


I feel for you- really. I was a very happy Southwestern Bell Mobile
Systems customer for many years when I lived in Kansas City. When they
were a "regional" cellco, they had local customer service and local phone
repair facilities (often with "while you wait" repair service!) It all
went to pot when they became "Cingular" and "nationalized" everything.
Service went south and coverage stayed the same, since roaming agreements
previously covered the areas that became "native."

Good luck, pal- if Verizon buys Alltel it'll be a dark day for Alltel
service areas.

Larry brought next idea :
> SMS <[email protected]> wrote in news:02G1k.4737$jI5.1489
> @flpi148.ffdc.sbc.com:
>
>> It's good news for both Verizon and Alltel customers.
>>
>>
>
> No it's not. Alltel has cheap regional plans that will be all cancelled by
> the Verizon bean counters. Alltel has $10 unlimited data plans if you
> tether to a smartphone or $25 unlimited data plans to tether to phones like
> my Rokr Z6m with no restrictions I've ever bumped into. All that will go
> to **** if Verizon, the feature denial KING, takes over the Alltel system.
>
> They'll turn Alltel into another Verizon with hobbled up phones where
> Alltel customers have no hobbling at all of any features Motorola delivers.
> I won't be able to pop the microSD into my computer and download a ton of
> MP3 files to play on the phone's player. I won't be able to just take the
> pictures directly to the microSD card, pop it into the computer and move
> them off to the hard drive. There won't be any "MAKE RINGTONE" selection
> where you can make any funny MP3 file directly into a ringtone for free.
>
> Everything goes to **** when Verizon touches it......EVERYTHING.

Even you Larry. Even you

Larry wrote:

> No it's not. Alltel has cheap regional plans that will be all cancelled by
> the Verizon bean counters. Alltel has $10 unlimited data plans if you
> tether to a smartphone or $25 unlimited data plans to tether to phones like
> my Rokr Z6m with no restrictions I've ever bumped into. All that will go
> to **** if Verizon, the feature denial KING, takes over the Alltel system.

Verizon has always let users keep old plans. But yes, for new customers,
those cheap data plans will be history. Hmm, maybe I should sign up for
an Alltel plan, using a relative's address in an Alltel region to get
that cheap data, then let it be grandfathered in to Alltel. Can you port
a number to Alltel that's from an area where they don't have service?

> They'll turn Alltel into another Verizon with hobbled up phones where
> Alltel customers have no hobbling at all of any features Motorola delivers.

It's a simple matter to unhobble the Motorola phones.

> I won't be able to pop the microSD into my computer and download a ton of
> MP3 files to play on the phone's player. I won't be able to just take the
> pictures directly to the microSD card, pop it into the computer and move
> them off to the hard drive. There won't be any "MAKE RINGTONE" selection
> where you can make any funny MP3 file directly into a ringtone for free.

You'll be able to do all of that with a SEEM edit.

Anyway, for the normal users, the Verizon acquisition is a very good
thing. Now there will be 80 million MTM oppportunities, so the Alltel
customers can move to a lower peak minute plan.

At 05 Jun 2008 04:54:25 -0700 SMS wrote:

> Anyway, for the normal users, the Verizon acquisition is a very good
> thing.

How do you figure that? Verizon is already present in most Alltel markets.
Ergo, most of Alltel's customers have already chosen Alltel OVER Verizon
in the first place.

Less competition is generally a bad thing, even if the company doing the
buyout happens to be your favorite, Steven. Consumers had more options,
more choices and more competitive rates when they had a field of seven
carriers to choose from. The Sprint/Nextel and Cingular/AT&T mergers have
made things worse, not better. An Alltel acquision and potential T-
Mo/Sprint merger (or Sprint failure) will make this much worse- not better.

Your statement is akin to claiming that it'll be "better" if Starbuck's
buys out all of your local indie coffee shops since it'll give you more
locations to use a single gift card!


> Now there will be 80 million MTM oppportunities, so the
> Alltel customers can move to a lower peak minute plan.


Alltel uses their MyCircle plans as alternatives to the M2M "opportunities"
available on other larger carriers, so they already have that covered. (T-
Mobile, when they launched their "My Faves" plans, claimed that their data
showed customers average 80% of their calls to/from the same five numbers.
Arguably, a circle/faves plan is better for most people than M2M.)

I'd rather have unlimited calling to and from the 5-10 numbers I personally
pick, rather than have to base my carrier choice on who my friends or
family chose, or worse, convince them to use the carrier I've chosen.
Verizon will remove the "Circle" rate plan (from new customers) as well,
preferring the "Amway" M2M marketing method.

Todd Allcock <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Alltel uses their MyCircle plans as alternatives to the M2M
> "opportunities" available on other larger carriers, so they already
> have that covered. (T- Mobile, when they launched their "My Faves"
> plans, claimed that their data showed customers average 80% of their
> calls to/from the same five numbers. Arguably, a circle/faves plan is
> better for most people than M2M.)
>
> I'd rather have unlimited calling to and from the 5-10 numbers I
> personally pick, rather than have to base my carrier choice on who my
> friends or family chose, or worse, convince them to use the carrier
> I've chosen. Verizon will remove the "Circle" rate plan (from new
> customers) as well, preferring the "Amway" M2M marketing method.
>
>

Alltel has M2M in addition to the My Circle on all their plans. You
don't burn up a My Circle number if the other guy is an Alltel customer,
anywhere.

You're right about My Circle being dumped, too. Every advantage Alltel
customers have enjoyed:
truly unlimited internet service for $10 or $25/month
tethering over Bluetooth or USB to other devices like my N800 or laptop
Bluetooth file transfers of any file on the phone or its memory card
OBEX support on the phones
DUN support on the phones
FTP support on the phones
My Circle
Regional big minute plans for little money
Cameras that store direct to memory cards that plug into the computers
MP3 players that play MP3s put on the memory cards without hacking
Verizon's hobbleware.
PDA/smartphones with ALL the features turned on without the hobbling

....all will be history....Gone.

Alltel was getting ready to install LTE in a switch to GSM for really
fast unlimited internet with 20ms latency....far better than CDMA
provides....that won't happen, either. Verizon buys someone out, then
just leaves it milking it for money without building it out any more.

.....I think I'm gonna be sick....