AT&T today announced that it has agreed to purchase Atlantic Tele-Network’s Alltel assets for a total of $780 million. The agreement includes wireless spectrum licenses in the 700, 850, and 1900MHz bands, network assets, retail stores, and 585,000 subscribers. Alltel Wireless was purchased by Verizon Wireless in 2008.
As part of the acquisition, Verizon was required by the Federal Communications Commission to divest some assets. AT&T picked up some of those assets and Atlantic Tele-Network picked up the rest. Atlantic Tele-Network continued to run those assets under the Alltel brand across portions of six states, covering some 4.6 million POPs. AT&T is now hoping the FCC will allow it to purchase those assets from Atlantic Tele-Network.
The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close during the second half of the year.
