The Eye

Could this be the end of Alltel is we know it? Alltel is near to working out a deal to sell the business to Verizon Wireless for $27 billion.

This would make the combined business the largest US carrier, with over 80 million subscribers. It would mean Verizon adding coverage in the Midwest and the South.

The two companies have been talking about such a merger before, but it  has been opposed in the past by the UK based Vodaphone who own a 45% share of Verizon, as it would dilute their holdings.

Possible issues arising with such a merger - would the FCC allow all the overlapping of the 805Mhz spectrum? This could have consequences in much of the South West, and also in South Carolina.

Sure the technologies are the same - Alltel and Verizon both use CDMA - but once Verizon has swallowed up Alltel, are they likely to keep the parts that are useful to Alltel’s customers, such as Celltop, and My Circle?  Quite possibly not.

News is that we won’t have long to wait for the outcome. A deal could be announced as soon as today.