Comments on: And Then There Were Three…

By: Verizon Completes Alltel Purchase… Now Nations #1 Wireless Carrier

Verizon Completes Alltel Purchase… Now Nations #1 Wireless Carrier — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:16:31 +0000

[...] first mentioned this back in June of last year and just a bit over six months later, the Verizon acquisition of Alltel, [...]

By: Thought

Thought — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:51:20 +0000

Smart move by VZW. They get to be #1 again in the US market and get Alltel for a bargain price.

Then when VZW transitions over to LTE, a GSM based 4G standard, the argument for going to ATT for the GSM phones will not pan out.

I think at some point ATT almost has to make a play for TMo in order to try to leapfrog over VZW again.

By: Johnnyheff

Johnnyheff — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:17:58 +0000

@ argonnj

I might agree except that vzw has the lowest churn rate in the industry. Must say something for their service, no?

By: JHP2

JHP2 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:37:51 +0000

Argonnj,

Not sure where Alltel customers will go. If they live in an Alltel coverage area, they are used to very strong voice coverage. I would hate to see Alltel’s top-nothc customer service go away though. My Circle may not be important if you use a lot of minutes. You can just get an unlimited plan from VZW However, it is very nice when you have a lower minute plan. I suspect, based upon my experience at Sprint during the Nextel “merger” that some mixture of the plans will result.

By: bluehorseshoe

bluehorseshoe — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:54:26 +0000

Gotta say, if it wasn’t for the iPhone, Verizon would probably be #1 without the purchase. And SBC Comm. and AT&T merged not too long ago to put them in first, barely holding on to that title. As much as I dislike VZW’s lockdown on some app’s, I prefer their network. Different areas work better for others. Oddly enough, I reside in AT&T headquarter country and their service is awful. You’d think they’d at least cover their corporate area well. Just one of those debates that can go on forever…

By: argonnj

argonnj — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:40:16 +0000

As Sprint found out, acquiring a competitors customers doesn’t assure that they will stay customers. Once Alltel’s customers learn that they will be losing mycircle and other Alltel perks, they will be leaving overpriced Verizon in droves. Enjoy #1 for the brief moment it lasts.

By: Robb Dunewood

Robb Dunewood — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:46:59 +0000

Yeah, I guess you still got to count Sprint since they are technically the third largest.

By: bluehorseshoe

bluehorseshoe — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:30:00 +0000

I believe there’s 4 major carriers left. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

By: Switching To AT&T

Switching To AT&T — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:28:50 +0000

So, will my Alltel BlackBerry 8830 that isn’t locked down soon be too unstable to run on Verizon?