Alltel Wireless

With a market cap of $24.79 billion and over 12 million customers as of early 2006, Alltel is the largest regional mobile phone company in America, and the fifth largest mobile phone company overall. The wireless group provides service in parts of 35 states. The company mainly focuses on small to medium-sized cities, but has low-cost roaming agreements with the major national CDMA carriers, especially Verizon Wireless and Sprint-Nextel, in order to provide national service. Reciprocal agreements in turn provide those carriers with coverage in rural areas. When Alltel acquired Western Wireless in 2005, it gained a large GSM footprint as well. While it does not offer GSM service to its own customers, Alltel has indicated that it will continue to maintain the GSM footprint (and perhaps even expand it) to provide roaming service to GSM users of other wireless carriers; however, one exception is that as of April 1, 2007, Alltel no longer maintains the GSM footprint in the coverage area it acquired from First Cellular of Southern Illinois. It offered previous GSM customers in the affected area to sign a new agreement with Alltel, requiring affected customers to purchase a new CDMA phone. Alltel advertises itself as "owner and operator of the nation's largest wireless network"; this claim refers to geographical coverage (total square miles covered) of its owned, "native", network rather than number of Alltel customers, population covered, or coverage with roaming agreements.
Alltel's old logo (prior to 2006).
Alltel's old logo (prior to 2006).

In 2006, Alltel added 640,000 net customers through internal growth, an 87 percent increase. Post-pay churn was 1.57 percent and total churn was 2 percent, both improved from the previous year. The company also acquired more than 500,000 customers through the purchases of Midwest Wireless, First Cellular of Southern Illinois, Virginia Cellular and Cellular One in Amarillo, Texas.

ALLTEL Corporation (NYSE: AT) is an American telecommunications company with headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. Alltel provides wireless services to residential and business customers in 35 states. States with no Alltel service whatsoever include: Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the district of Washington, D.C.

On May 20, 2007, Alltel agreed to be bought out by TPG Capital, L.P. and Goldman Sachs for $27.5B.