IRVING, Texas-GTE Corp. continued to prepare financially to buy Ameritech Corp.’s wireless properties by selling off 126,410 wireline access lines to Telephone USA of Wisconsin L.L.C. and Century Tel Inc. for $365 million.
Telephone USA of Wisconsin is a private entity that was recently formed to bid on and purchase a portion of GTE’s wireline properties. It will buy 61,612 access lines. CenturyTel, which is also an investor in Telephone USA, signed a letter of intent to purchase outright an additional 64,798 access lines.
GTE’s purchase of Ameritech’s wireless properties is necessary for a proposed merger of Ameritech and SBC Communications Inc. to be approved by the government.
