Monday, December 3, 2007

AT&T and Verizon Wireless to Swap Certain Assets

AT&T and Verizon Wireless agreed to swap certain wireless assets. Under the deal, AT&T will acquire -- upon Verizon's acquisition of Rural Cellular Corporation -- some former Rural Cellular properties, including licenses, network assets and subscribers, in the Burlington, Vt. metropolitan service area and in rural service areas in New York, Vermont and Washington. AT&T will also acquire a cellular license from Verizon in Kentucky.



Verizon will acquire from AT&T some former Dobson Communications Corporation properties, including licenses, network assets and subscribers, in Kentucky . Verizon will also acquire 10 MHz of PCS spectrum in a number of markets and receive an additional cash consideration from AT&T.



As required, AT&T has also agreed to sell the Cellular One brand to Trilogy Partners. In addition, to fulfill the remaining divestiture requirements, AT&T has entered into a separate agreement with MTPCS, LLC to sell the former Dobson property, including licenses, network assets and subscribers, in Texas and AT&T's share of the former Dobson partnership holding licenses, network assets and subscribers in portions of Oklahoma. Together, these transactions satisfy AT&T's divestiture requirements related to its recent acquisition of Dobson.



All the transactions require regulatory approval.

http://www.att.com

http://www.verizon.com

  • In June 2007, AT&T agreed to acquire Dobson Communications, which markets itself under the Cellular One brand, for approximately $2.8 billion in cash. Dobson Communications operates in more than 60 wireless markets in 17 states, covering a population base of over 12.4 million and serving 1.6 million subscribers. It is the largest wireless provider in Alaska. It uses both TDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE technologies.