Verizon to be largest

On the news five minutes ago: Verizon is buying Alltel for $28.1 billion.
After that they will have 9 million more customers than at&t.

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› See More: Verizon to be largest

PCs Rule wrote:
> On the news five minutes ago: Verizon is buying Alltel for $28.1 billion.
> After that they will have 9 million more customers than at&t.

Not sure what this means in terms of marketing. Verizon was larger than
Cingular/AT&T prior to Cingular acquiring AT&T Wireless and changing
their name to AT&T. Verizon has had far more postpaid retail customers
than AT&T for a while, with AT&T's big gains coming from MVNO prepaid
and their own prepaid.

I guess it helps Verizon's marketing in terms of having more subscribers
for Mobile to Mobile.

"PCs Rule" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> On the news five minutes ago: Verizon is buying Alltel for $28.1
> billion. After that they will have 9 million more customers than at&t.
>
>
>

You assume the Alltel customers will simply roll over and take it up the
ass from Verizon. I'll tell you that in a large part of Alltel's primary
areas, these customers have ALREADY chosen the freedom of Alltel from the
****heads at Verizon, a good portion of them having FLED FROM
VERIZON...like me. These people will CHURN rather than go back under the
crap Verizon pulls.

In these dual markets, many news articles have said Verizon will be forced
by the regulators to sell off the secondary system, leaving a port hole
open in the Verizon Slave Ship for Alltel customers to escape
through....already having equipment on the former Alltel system.

I bet someone like T-mobile will be buying the Alltel System in SC, where
both Alltel and Verizon hold the 800 Mhz licenses, except in Myrtle Beach.

I'd go with that new carrier as he already has a better system installed
than Verizon's on the other 800 Mhz system. I'd at least try him out,
rather than bending over for Verizon to screw.

We ran from GTE Wireless to 360 Communications before it became Verizon and
Alltel. That will happen once again...bet on it.

"Larry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "PCs Rule" <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
>> On the news five minutes ago: Verizon is buying Alltel for $28.1
>> billion. After that they will have 9 million more customers than at&t.
>>
>>
>>
>
> You assume the Alltel customers will simply roll over and take it up the
> ass from Verizon.

Wrong, I'm not assuming anything, just "reporting" what was on the news.
I'm with at&t and probably will be forever, so I don't really care about
Verizon/Alltel, just relaying what I saw.

"Larry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "PCs Rule" <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
>> On the news five minutes ago: Verizon is buying Alltel for $28.1
>> billion. After that they will have 9 million more customers than at&t.
>>
>>
>>
>
> You assume the Alltel customers will simply roll over and take it up the
> ass from Verizon. I'll tell you that in a large part of Alltel's primary
> areas, these customers have ALREADY chosen the freedom of Alltel from the
> ****heads at Verizon, a good portion of them having FLED FROM
> VERIZON...like me. These people will CHURN rather than go back under the
> crap Verizon pulls.
>
> In these dual markets, many news articles have said Verizon will be forced
> by the regulators to sell off the secondary system, leaving a port hole
> open in the Verizon Slave Ship for Alltel customers to escape
> through....already having equipment on the former Alltel system.
>
> I bet someone like T-mobile will be buying the Alltel System in SC, where
> both Alltel and Verizon hold the 800 Mhz licenses, except in Myrtle Beach.
>
> I'd go with that new carrier as he already has a better system installed
> than Verizon's on the other 800 Mhz system. I'd at least try him out,
> rather than bending over for Verizon to screw.
>
> We ran from GTE Wireless to 360 Communications before it became Verizon
> and
> Alltel. That will happen once again...bet on it.


Nice post.
Dmax

Larry wrote:

> You assume the Alltel customers will simply roll over and take it up the
> ass from Verizon. I'll tell you that in a large part of Alltel's primary
> areas, these customers have ALREADY chosen the freedom of Alltel from the
> ****heads at Verizon, a good portion of them having FLED FROM
> VERIZON...like me. These people will CHURN rather than go back under the
> crap Verizon pulls.

Highly unlikely. First of all, the ones under contract will have to wait
to switch. Second, who will they switch to? Will they be switching just
for spite, or will they actually do a tiny amount of research on the
quality of service of the other carriers? Will they be willing to give
up their grandfathered plans, knowing that a) they can't get them back,
and b) that the other carriers aren't as good?

> I bet someone like T-mobile will be buying the Alltel System in SC, where
> both Alltel and Verizon hold the 800 Mhz licenses, except in Myrtle Beach.

I was hoping that Cingular would have to sell of its 800 MHz licenses in
South Florida, and other areas, where they had A & B due to the AT&T
Wireless acquisition. It didn't happen. T-Mobile probably won't buy it
because their entire network is 1900 MHz, and they seem committed to
this. AT&T would probably be interested in it, if Verizon was forced to
sell it.

> I'd go with that new carrier as he already has a better system installed
> than Verizon's on the other 800 Mhz system. I'd at least try him out,
> rather than bending over for Verizon to screw.

It's hard to imagine Verizon selling any 800 MHz unless forced to do so,
and based on history, the FCC or FTC doesn't force this. Even though
they don't need both A & B sides, it would be a competitive disadvantage
to allow AT&T to buy it. OTOH, they probably don't need both sides in
the small Alltel markets, and since most consumers don't understand the
advantage of 800 MHz anyway, they may dump one side.

> We ran from GTE Wireless to 360 Communications before it became Verizon and
> Alltel. That will happen once again...bet on it.

Well for you anyway. Look at the AT&T/Cingular merger. AT&T customers
with good plans were forced to change to less desirable Cingular plans
when they moved from TDMA to GSM, plus they had to buy new equipment.
There was an increase in churn, but it wasn't huge. With Alltel, the
existing customers will be grandfathered in on their existing plans for
as long as they want to keep them, and will be able to continue to use
their existing equipment, so not only is there no incentive to churn,
there's a big incentive to not churn because once you leave you can't
come back and get the same plan.

The big negative for Alltel customers is that when they get new phones
from Verizon they'll be the defeatured phones that Verizon is famous
for. Alltel didn't have the clout to get the manufacturers to defeature
phones just for them.

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> SMS <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Well for you anyway. Look at the AT&T/Cingular merger. AT&T customers
>> with good plans were forced to change to less desirable Cingular plans
>> when they moved from TDMA to GSM, plus they had to buy new equipment.
>
> The problems weren't limited to TDMA accounts.
>
> AT&T Wireless's GSM customers got ****ED by Cingular as well.
>
> Internally, Cingular had every incentive and every direction to get rid
> of those not-so-profitable accounts and move them over to the newer,
> more profitable plans. And they did everything they could to make that
> happen, including some questionable things.

That's true. And yet with all that, the AT&T churn still didn't have
much of a spike of fed up people leaving. I know some that went to
T-Mobile prepaid after being screwed by Cingular during the transition,
but from the quarterly reports on churn that the carriers put out in
their reports, there wasn't a big loss. Cingular succeeded in raising
the ARPU of most of those less profitable AT&T customers, more than
making up for the revenue from those that chose to leave.

Verizon, for all it's faults, has been very good about letting people
keep low cost plans that are no longer offered, even though they are
under no obligation to do so. They also have much lower garbage fees
than the other carriers.

Where is Larry going to go is the question? Is he going to a 1900 MHz
carrier for his local area? If so did he check the coverage at all the
local Waffle Houses? I was in Atlanta last weekend and it really is
incredible to see the number of Waffle Houses. There can be two at the
same freeway exit. I've eaten in one once in Gainesville, FL, and that
was enough to last me forever.

SMS <[email protected]> wrote in news:4lb2k.6585$mh5.5970
@nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com:

> Highly unlikely. First of all, the ones under contract will have to
wait
> to switch. Second, who will they switch to? Will they be switching just
> for spite, or will they actually do a tiny amount of research on the
> quality of service of the other carriers? Will they be willing to give
> up their grandfathered plans, knowing that a) they can't get them back,
> and b) that the other carriers aren't as good?
>

If Verizon comes in, takes over, and leaves the service as I bought it
for the rest of the contract, no problem.

But, alas, I'm prepared to fight, in court if necessary just to prove a
point, that if they come in and turn Alltel into the ****ty service that
is Verizon Wireless with its hobbled up features, reselling what Alltel
users get for nothing because that's the way the phones work, and take
away the unlimited internet and try to force 5GB for $60.....I'll see 'em
in small claims court, where I've had great service fixing problems in
the past.

Quality of service is nonsense in the table-flat city. Cricket is
unlimited and cheap and works great across the table flat city.

But, we'll see. We've all seen contracts change in the past and users
allowed to escape because of major changes. I doubt very much Alltel
customers will be allowed to grandfather what we have now, which is FAR
superior to anything Verizon offers at a fraction of the cost.

.....don't forget Verizon forced regional-plan customers into useless
National plans when they took over, too. That was one big minus when I
dumped 'em before....I don't need Sellphone service outside South
Carolina.

Today, I found I don't really need Sellphone service INSIDE South
Carolina, either. I forwarded all calls to my Alltel number to my Skype
In to see how really inconvenient it would be to deal with not having a
Sellphone at all. It's still an inconvenience, but there's just so MUCH
free internet all over this area, you simply pull into ANY hotel parking
lot or lots of wifi-connected restaurant parking lots and pick up your
voicemails to return those calls on Skype Out. I never missed a call,
and not a single one of my customers seemed to have noticed the
difference. The biggest inconvenience would be notifying, say, the last
15 years of customers of my new Skype In phone number. That would cost
me a little at today's inflated postal rates, but I send out advertising
to them, anyways, not often enough. I can buy mass mailing from a couple
of local companies who deliver it cheaper than I can.

I can mobile quite successfully, if a little more inconveniently, without
Sellular phone service. That wasn't true 5 years ago, here.

Oh, there's a new guy building out a huge system very close to home, too.
His name is Google! They're installing some kind of wifi system to say
hi to the local community with their new server farm installation near
here. Not sure what it will be, yet, but it may have been part of the
deal to forget local and state taxes given to other new companies, like
Boeing's new Dreamliner plant 2 miles from my house. Have you ever seen
the bloated 747 that hauls Dreamliner parts around to the various
factories? It's amazing the thing even flies!

Being "semi-retired", I'm not near as dependent on instant communications
as I once was, I'm finding out. This merger may save me a bundle, like
getting an extra retirement check each year. Sure was kinda nice not
having to look at the Sellphone every time it rang, today....not bad at
all.

SMS <[email protected]> wrote in news:4lb2k.6585$mh5.5970
@nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com:

> The big negative for Alltel customers is that when they get new phones
> from Verizon they'll be the defeatured phones that Verizon is famous
> for. Alltel didn't have the clout to get the manufacturers to defeature
> phones just for them.
>
>

This and the awful price increase will be the real killer for Alltel
customers.

800 minutes - $39.95 - 2 state coverage - $25/mo for UNLIMITED EVDO BT or
tethered to the phone - Free LD - 1 My Circle number - Free M2M - Free
Voicemail - Free 3way/conferencing/etc....................$39.95.

Total bill is $76/mo. Verizon isn't even close.

If Skype is just too inconvenient, I'll probably buy Cricket for just
sellphone service. It doesn't work in the countryside.

http://www.mycricket.com/
$45/mo for unlimited phone/texting/pix/video messaging....and 5GB/mo
internet access.....$45?!

Not the Verizon/Alltel Supersystem, but that's fine.....it works here and
they're selling it like crazy. Unlimited phone calls...who needs M2M or
My Circle??.....AND NO CONTRACTS TO FIGHT OVER!

Cricket works inside Walmart up the street from home where Verizon phones
say NO SERVICE!....(c;

Larry <[email protected]> wrote in news:Xns9AB5EE47B26B9noonehomecom@
208.49.80.253:

> If Skype is just too inconvenient, I'll probably buy Cricket for just
> sellphone service. It doesn't work in the countryside.
>
> http://www.mycricket.com/
> $45/mo for unlimited phone/texting/pix/video messaging....and 5GB/mo
> internet access.....$45?!
>
>

I just also noticed Cricket runs on a Z6m, my Alltel phone?? Hmm...I
thought they were on GSM....??? Z6m is CDMA.

The roaming coverage map looks like Verizon.

Larry <[email protected]> wrote in news:Xns9AB5EE47B26B9noonehomecom@
208.49.80.253:

> If Skype is just too inconvenient

I can't get this prepaid plan Cricket linked to on their website, but if
you GET a lot of calls, instead of MAKE a lot of calls....Jump Mobile in
these cities:
http://www.jumpmobile.com/rates_and_...s/rates_and_av
ailability_coverage_maps.aspx?
p_PageAlias=rates_and_availability_coverage_maps
(sorry for the wordwrapping use)
http://tinyurl.com/5jdgd2
might not be a bad, and REALLY cheap solution in those cities.

10c/min OUTGOING....FREE INCOMING...FREE out and in text messaging
NO MONTHLY FEES??

Jump looks like Skype, except for the faster expiration of funds. The deal
I'd be interested in is to charge it with $35, which runs out in 70
days...Hell, that's only 50c/day for a sellphone that makes 350 outgoing
and UNLIMITED incoming and UNLIMITED text messaging. Most of my calls are
incoming, except for parts ordering. Most interesting....

Well, Cricket is best for me....no limit on calls in or out for $45/mo with
internet service on CDMA. I text chatted with their sales rep but she
couldn't answer me about the technology. I'll call the tech support number
she gave me on Monday during business hours and check out if I can use the
5GB/mo to the tablet on BT....Cricket sells my same Z6m phone so I can
bring it with me....I hope.

SMS <[email protected]> wrote in news:CSe2k.7876$Ri.776
@flpi146.ffdc.sbc.com:

> Where is Larry going to go is the question?

http://www.mycricket.com/

CDMA on my Z6m....probably right off Verizon or Alltel's system or Sprint

$45/mo - Unlimited PHONE, TEXT-Video-Picture messaging and 5GB/mo for my
tablet.....$45/mo but only in the city and up to Moncks Corner, SC, about
35 miles up the road.

It's a great deal on one of the CDMA systems, here.

Nationwide roaming is also available to add to it....

$50/mo = all this unlimited + 30 nationwide roaming
$60/mo = all this unlimited + 200 nationwide roaming minutes

If you just want PHONE only, no texting, no internet.....$30/mo for
UNLIMITED PHONE and Caller ID ONLY....no VM, Texting, nationwide...

Cricket doesn't work in the country, but this is CDMA really CHEAP!
NO CONTRACTS! NO FUNNY BUSINESS! ........AND NO VERIZON LIARS!!

I'm checking with their tech support on Monday during business hours to
ask about my Alltel Z6m BT DUN to the Linux tablet for 5GB/mo INCLUDED in
the $45 unlimited plan. That's pretty hard to beat. I'll have to forego
radio streaming...(c;

so Alltel is with verizon but alltel will be called verizon rite.
and will most phones get OBEX bluetooth in them
n what phones from VZW have OBEX bluetooth in them

so Alltel is with verizon but alltel will be called verizon rite.
and will most phones get OBEX bluetooth in them
n what phones from VZW have OBEX bluetooth in them

"PCs Rule" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On the news five minutes ago: Verizon is buying Alltel for $28.1
> billion. After that they will have 9 million more customers than at&t.
>
<sob><sigh>...and still no iPhone...