The nation's leading consumer groups urged the Federal Communications Commission to act on a request to investigate exclusivity pacts between top mobile-phone carriers and handset suppliers that rural wireless operators claim are anticompetitive.Last month, the Rural Cellular Association petitioned the FCC to open a...
Carriers are changing their minds about outsourcing pieces of their operations. The decision for carriers to put units of their business in others' hands is beginning to increase in popularity - not at a rapid speed, but it's being considered. Historically, the thought...
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - A panel of five mobile entertainment CEOs took the stage this week at OnHollywood 2008 to make the case for their varying business models and address what Frank Barbieri, CEO of Transpera, called a shift from transaction-based content such as downloads...
Verizon Wireless appears to have been inspired by the company it is currently working to acquire.Just days after the carrier proposed purchasing Alltel Communications L.L.C for almost $30 billion, Verizon Wireless announced a new plan that bears a striking resemblance to Alltel's MyCircle plan....
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier--R.W. Baird raised its 2009 EPS estimate on Verizon to $2.97 from $2.89 on news of the company's pending acquisition of Alltel. Standard & Poor's...
Two big mobile players made headlines in the past few days, but they seem to be headed in very different directions.Apple once again displayed its marketing chops, grabbing headlines in both the mainstream media and the trade press as it showcased the latest version...
The Justice Department's agreement to let Verizon Wireless purchase Rural Cellular Corp. so long as the No. 2 mobile-phone carrier sells off a handful of licenses in Vermont, New York and Washington, was perhaps the easy part. Getting the $2.67 billion transaction through the...
Verizon said it will buy Alltel for $28 billion. If the deal goes through, it would create the nation's largest carrier with a combined subscriber base of more than 80 million customers.; verizon alltel acquisition merger; Sprint is...
Verizon Wireless's purchase of Alltel Communication L.L.C. is leaving many gasping for breath. The $28.1 billion purchase of the nation's fifth-largest U.S. mobile operator seems to make sense for Verizon Wireless, both strategically and financially. However, for the private-equity investors who purchased Alltel less...
The sparse, rural areas that AlltelCommunications L.L.C.'s network covers and the demographics it serves lead some to assume Alltel would have relatively little data uptake, but the numbers tell a different story. The No. 5 carrier is outperforming its four larger competitors in numerous...
Smaller entrepreneurial wireless developers could lose a friend with Verizon Wireless' acquisition of Alltel Communications L.L.C. Alltel supports a number of cool applications on its deck. Celltop, which allows you to customize your user interface with widgets; Ontela, which offers a service that automatically...
Verizon Wireless announced an agreement to acquire Alltel Communications L.L.C. for $5.9 billion in cash and assume $22.2 billion in debt, for a total package price of $28.1 billion. If approved, the deal would create the nation's largest carrier with more than 80 million...
WHILE THE CARRIER'S COMPETITORS WORRY over a potentially greatly expanded customer base and network footprint, Verizon Wireless' handset suppliers likely are cheering news that the carrier plans to acquire Alltel Communications L.L.C."The strongest (handset) players at Verizon Wireless areprobably the winners" in the merger,...
Verizon Wireless' proposed acquisition of Alltel Communications L.L.C. could wound infrastructure vendors in the short term due to the carriers' network overlaps and a potential pullback on immediate buildout plans, but overall the merger shouldn't cause too much concern for suppliers.An acquisition "typically ends...
Roaming issues probably tops the list of concerns of Verizon Wireless's planned purchase of Alltel Communications L.L.C. The nation's four largest operators as well as a number of small carriers relied on Alltel and had established partnerships for roaming across what the carrier proclaimed...
VERIZON WIRELESS' PLAY for Alltel Communications L.L.C. may not necessarily trigger a classic battle over whether the government should block the deal, but rather could ignite considerable controversy over whether roaming, divestiture and other conditions should be imposed on a merged entity already boasting...
Hours after media reports indicated a deal was close, Verizon Wireless announced an agreement to acquire Alltel Communications L.L.C.for $5.9 billion in cash and assume $22.2 billion in debt, for a total package price of $28.1 billion. If approved, the deal would create the...
The companies listed below represent the largest independent national and regional tower companies in the United States. Also included below are the nation's major wireless carriers and their tower portfolios.
American Tower scored the top spot as the nation's No. 1 tower company, counting more...
Verizon Wireless is going for biggest fish status. The little fish? Alltel Communications L.L.C. Verizon Wireless, according to media reports, is in talks to purchase the industry's No. 5 carrier for $27 billion, allowing Verizon Wireless to swim past AT&T Mobility as the nation's...
TEXTING. IF YOU HAD ASKED AMERICANS WHAT THAT WORD MEANT 15 years ago, most would have been short for words. Now the definition of texting, even though still not listed in some dictionaries, is embedded in our brains and the words are piling up....
The rash of class action lawsuits against cellphone carriers over unauthorized third-party content charges on consumers' bill may entering a new phase: settlements.Plaintiffs' lawyers pressing such a suit against AT&T Mobility said the first national settlement of its kind has been reached with the...
Alltel Communications L.L.C. is the latest major mobile-phone carrier to be tagged with a patent infringement suit by NTP Inc., the Virginia-based patent holding firm that scored a $612.5 million settlement with Research in Motion Ltd. in 2006 before setting its sights on top...
Rural mobile-phone operators have asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate exclusivity deals between the industry's major carriers and handset vendors, taking aim at an entrenched business practice that they assert is anticompetitive and denies rural residents in many states access to popular wireless...
Another day, another class-action wireless consumer lawsuit. This one is big, though, naming six mobile-phone carriers and a top mobile virtual network operator as defendants in a complaint filed in Mississippi federal court."This action seeks recovery for actual and compensatory damages sustained by plaintiffs...