Rural Cellular Corp. has completed its purchase of several Minnesota markets from Alltel Corp., a divestiture that was required of the latter company as part of its 2006 purchase Western Wireless Corp.
The four markets include 28 counties in rural southern Minnesota, and the $45 million purchase includes spectrum licenses, retail stores, employees, customers and network assets in those areas. The network assets include about 80 cell sites and 33 distribution points, RCC said, and the markets use CDMA network technology. The Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission both approved the sale of the markets to Rural Cellular.
As of March 31, the postpaid customer base for the markets totaled about 34,000, according to RCC; the carrier noted that the markets are adjacent to its current northern Minnesota service area and that the purchase increased its Midwest territory POPs from about 621,000 to 2.1 million.
RCC picks up former Alltel markets in Minnesota
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