Regional telecommunications provider CenturyTel Inc. said it has entered into a reseller relationship with Cingular Wireless L.L.C. that will allow CenturyTel to provide wireless voice and text-messaging services as part of a bundled service offering.
CenturyTel said it will be responsible for all marketing, provisioning, customer service and billing for its service and will include all telecommunications services on one bill. The service is expected to launch by the end of this year in select markets.
“We continue to strengthen our position in the marketplace as an integrated communications provider,” said Glen Post, III, chairman and chief executive officer of CenturyTel. “This agreement allows CenturyTel to provide total solutions to our customers and enables us to be more competitive in our markets.”
The agreement reinserts wireless into CenturyTel’s portfolio more than two years after it sold its wireless properties that served nearly 800,000 subscribers in six states to Alltel Corp. for $1.65 billion. The company said at the time that the divestiture along with an access-line purchase from Verizon Communications Inc. positioned the company as the “premier pure-play rural local exchange provider in the industry.”
Cingular announced a similar reseller agreement earlier this year with 7-Eleven to offer branded prepaid services using Cingular’s network.
A number of telecommunications providers have announced similar deals designed to increase the competitive nature of their bundled offerings. Qwest Communications International Inc. announced a mobile virtual network operator agreement to use Sprint PCS’ nationwide network before selling its regional wireless network to Verizon Wireless earlier this year for more than $400 million, and AT&T Corp. signed an MVNO agreement with Sprint PCS to offer wireless services to its customers after spinning off AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which is now being acquired by Cingular.
