Just a quick bit of math and you can see that today's news doesn't bode well for AT&T, which has been enjoying its position at the top of the heap in major US cellphone carriers for quite some time now. While AT&T has a solid 71m subscribers under their belt, number two Verizon has 67m and number five Alltel has 13m -- which means this merger could potentially put 80m customers under the same roof. Clearly being able to claim the "most reliable" AND most widely used network in the US makes it a tantalizing deal for VZW, but the ~$2,100 they'll be paying per subscriber isn't lightyears away from the notoriously overinflated amount Sprint paid in their heyday for Nextel. That merger cost $36 billion, which turned out to be ~$2,350 per sub at around 15 million Nextel customers -- and we all know
how well that deal turned out for Sprint. But we're sure they're thinking this will go more along the lines of
AT&T's merger with Cingular, which worked out pretty damned well so far. So what's this thing named, anyway? Verizon Alltel? Veritel? Allizon? We think just Verizon, thanks.
posted Jun 5th 2008 11:58AM
hey engadget mobile, tell your retarded sister over at engadget to fix their horrible commenting system, and maybe test it a bit more.
everytime i click the button to view an article and comments, the article disappears and only shows the banner ad at the top. it's been doing that for 3 days now.
You can't really compare this to the Sprint-Nextel merger. Sprint and Nextel were on different wireless networks (CDMA and iDEN), and Nextel's specialized network had a feature that Sprint has had a ton of trouble duplicating ... but can't ignore because it was Nextel's key feature (their version of the push-to-talk concept). Between that and the emergency services contract(s), Sprint has 2 huge albatrosses around its neck in the Nextel acquisition.
Verizon-Alltel, on the other hand, is all one protocol (the CDMA family). It may be as simple for them as adding the Alltel customer base's ESN numbers to Verizon's database, and then making similar integrations for the Alltel field equipment. No real heavy lifting required, just timing of changes.
And, frankly, I think Sprint needs to be more worried about this than AT&T does. Sprint gave up their data plan advantage by adopting a 5GB monthly cap. Verizon beats them on just about any other level (except maybe pricing) ... and Verizon is now, or will soon, be accepting other CDMA carrier's phones onto their network ... making it easy for Sprint customers to jump ship.
Just out of curiosity, can we get a clarification as to whether Verizon or Verizon Wireless is buying Alltel. If Verizon is buying Alltel, will Verizon be increasing their share of Verizon Wireless with this deal (currently they own 55%, while Vodafone owns 45%)? If Verizon Wireless is buying Alltel, is Vodafone helping pay for it?
I think Vodafone US would be a great name!!!
Except that it would be a betrayal of the uniformity of the Vodafone-branded companies the rest of them are GSM/UMTS/HSPA.
Yea, except no.
Hmm does this mean all Alltels Phones will be Reformatted with that goddamn awful Verizon operating system?
I'd laugh if they did.
EVERYONE has Verizon.
Meaning, you cant ever have an exclusive phone and be one of the few that have it.
I have an AT&T Tilt which absolutely no one of my age (17) has.
Its nice to be different.
When you graduate high school you'll realize there's more to being an individual than purchasing consumer items that other people didn't.
lol iscariote!
Qualcomm is working on a dual GSM & CDMA chipset - in the future
almost every VZW phone will be "global".
CDMA is not dead. GSM is not dead.
The future is IP based communications. At this point it looks like
the next technology battle will be LTE vs. WiMax.
ATT and VZW are both going LTE
LTE is not going to take long to roll out. 700 MHz = less towers.
Less towers= faster build out
Price plans between VZW and ATT are identical.
ATT typically follows VZW price plans.
Sprint and T Mobile are cheaper for various reasons.
2 premium carriers and 2 discount carriers =No monopoly
Consumers have dollars in thier pocket - use them how you want.
Those above statements are facts.
sounds good. now it's time for helio to join verizon and drop sprint.
Let me first start by saying that a followup commercial needs to be established in which Verizon's "Can you hear me now?" guy unzips his work jacket, Red-headed Verizon guy (from Alltel commercials) pops out and sucker punches Chad while exclaiming "Come and get your looooove Beeeeeotch!"
Perfect...Marketing needs to be all over that for sure!
"Allizon" is my vote; sounds like a cheap liquor lol
So to be clear...quit bitching about the iPhone not being CDMA, who cares...if you really want it, you would have bought it by now instead of complaining here...go get it already and leave it out of the posts.
Alltel subscribers worried about losing coverage? Come on! Really? Verizon just bought your towers they didn't just buy you (obligatory: you just got pwnd by Verizon) Just accept that you'll have truly superb service from here on out.
Bottom line all of you out there in comment/ blog land: No matter who you are with whether it's Verizon, AT&T or any other carrier you have to understand that they are ultimately there and in place for a reason: to make tons of $$$$ from consumers. So quit crying that you didn't get a handout Mr. and Mrs. Freeloader and just enjoy the products and services you rely on and do this while knowing that your carrier is willing to gobble up other's to expand their coverage for you - the consumer!
And one more thing - Sprint/Nextel merger failed miserably because of the 2 different technologies. Verizon and Alltel share technologies. So here it is: Allizon with it's 80+million subscribers will gain ground faster than you can waste your time blogging. LTE, new cutting edge devices and superior customer service (can't disprove statistics) will continue to dominate the US wireless world.
I think that's all I have.
thank u
so does this mean that if verizon has pretty poor service in my area, it should get better?
one can hope.
Allizon does sound like a cheap liquor therhino...or at least a cheap date!
Does this merger imply that Alltel phones will be usable on Verizon's network, i.e. LG Glimmmer?
Have the Federal regulators already approved this?
We get excellent Alltel support here in west central FL, only problems come from lousy national policies and unreliable voice mail delivery.
Verizon DSL was slow & forget about support! Their spam servers were constantly flagging Yahoo and other E-mail domains improperly. Sure hope their cellphone side is more competent!
It will be good if more devices are available - that has been a weakness with Alltel. Alltel doesn't have a wireless USB stick that is Linux compatible but others do - drivers come already loaded - sure would love that for the laptops.
I just called Verizon because someone gave me an Alltel phone and I was wondering if they could unlock it. That's how I found out about the merger. The guy said that it's worth a try to call with my Alltel phone by me and they might be able to transfer service now because their systems are so close, but if it doesn't work, they'll autmatically work by the time the merger is complete, which they figure will be around the turn of the year.