WEST POINT, Ga.-In its continuing effort to shift the main focus of its operations from cellular
to personal communications services, Powertel Inc. announced it signed an agreement to sell its InterCel cellular
division to Public Service Cellular Inc.
Powertel said Public Service Cellular will purchase substantially all of
InterCel’s assets. The transaction is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 1999, but in the meantime, both
InterCel and PSC will retain their own identities and services, said Powertel.
InterCel provides cellular service in
contiguous portions of four rural service areas in western Georgia and eastern Alabama, which cover approximately
100 miles of Interstate Highway 85 and 40 miles of Interstate Highway 185. This latest agreement will expand
InterCel’s customer base to those people living in PSC’s 6,000-square-mile service area in Georgia and
Alabama.
For Powertel, the capital it will receive from this transaction, “… will be used for the continued
buildout of the company’s significant PCS operations in the southeastern United States,” said Allen E. Smith,
Powertel president and chief executive officer.
