Verizon purchases Alltel for $28 billion

The rumors started making their rounds yesterday, and this morning it was announced. Verizon Wireless has agreed to purchase Alltel for roughly $28 billion. This comes less than a year after two venture capital groups finalized their purchase of Alltel. Once this deal passes through the FCC, and likely the Department of Justice, the new company will become the No. 1 cellular carrier in the United States, with over 80 million subscribers total. AT&T, the current leader, has over 70 million customers. Of course, this has looming implications for the companies’ respective prepaid services.

Most people have to be hoping that Verizon maintains both brands. Alltel is quite popular in some regions of the country, consistently scoring high on customer service and satisfaction surveys. Verizon scores well, too.

However, if the companies combine, that means bye-bye to the popular My Circle plans from Alltel. More relevant to our subject matter, it also means bye-bye to Alltel’s favorable prepaid plans. I’m sure plenty of U Prepaid customers wouldn’t be too satisfied having to switch to INpulse.

Those details could be far off, though. Plenty has to happen to close this deal.

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5 Responses

1. katherine Says
   

   if the deal goes through when will verizon and alltel be able to talk for free

   
   Posted on July 17th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
2. Joe Says
   

   Probably when they smush them into one brand.

   
   Posted on July 17th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
3. Sara Says
   

   How will Alltel prepaid look after the merger? The Verizon prepaid is more expensive with a lot less unlimited features.

   
   Posted on August 13th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
4. Raven Says
   

   SO Alltel U is going to become INpulse?? Alltel has more unlimited features than verizon.

   
   Posted on November 26th, 2008 at 9:44 am
5. Spike Says
   

   I know one thing I used to get great reception with Alltel but ever since the switch over to Verizon I have to be outside all the time to get good reliable reception. As soon as I go into some stores or other buildings the call drops. Then there’s the text messaging. Sometimes the messages go thru to the other person right away, sometimes they don’t get it till hours later, never had that problem with alltel.

   
   Posted on March 15th, 2010 at 1:25 pm

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