ATNI Alltel "evaluating 4G technologies"

[fraydog]

This was a response to a question yesterday on the Alltel Facebook page.

Are you kidding me? USCC, Pioneer, C-Spire and Bluegrass are readying LTE and this is what ATNI is doing? What a joke, this company should just sell the Alltel properties to AT&T while Stephenson and Co. are desperate to get spectrum and are most willing to pay high money for spectrum.

[i0wnj00]

Alltel has nothing to lose by "evaluating 4G technologies" considering that in most places they're the only game in town for any/decent coverage. Monopolies can stall all they want and win out in the end. Secondly, snapping up Alltel does nothing for the rest of us drowning in oversold networks. AT&T needs to fix their horribly oversold networks with more spectrum from large holders like Clearwire, which was the proposed intent of AT&T when they tried to go after T-Mobile USA.

[bigsnake49]

Alltel has nothing to lose by "evaluating 4G technologies" considering that in most places they're the only game in town for any/decent coverage. Monopolies can stall all they want and win out in the end. Secondly, snapping up Alltel does nothing for the rest of us drowning in oversold networks. AT&T needs to fix their horribly oversold networks with more spectrum from large holders like Clearwire, which was the proposed intent of AT&T when they tried to go after T-Mobile USA.

AT&T's network is probably not horribly oversold in Statesboro, GA. It might be horribly oversold in San Fran and Manhattan, but ATNI has no spectrum there. Snapping Alltel however will improve AT&T's coverage in rural GA and South Carolina.

[i0wnj00]

AT&T's network is probably not horribly oversold in Statesboro, GA. It might be horribly oversold in San Fran and Manhattan, but ATNI has no spectrum there. Snapping Alltel however will improve AT&T's coverage in rural GA and South Carolina.

My point is that AT&T shouldn't waste any more money on regional providers, and instead go after large-mid holders of spectrum in both rural and urban markets. Kill two birds with one stone. Secondly, Alltel is in fairly good position to determine where they want to go next considering their monopoly in certain areas so I don't see them selling out soon.

[fraydog]

My point is that AT&T shouldn't waste any more money on regional providers, and instead go after large-mid holders of spectrum in both rural and urban markets. Kill two birds with one stone. Secondly, Alltel is in fairly good position to determine where they want to go next considering their monopoly in certain areas so I don't see them selling out soon.

They sure don't have a monopoly where I live. If anything, the lack of service in Southern Illinois gives Verizon a natural monopoly. They're getting their butts kicked by Verizon here.

[roadrunner9368]

I wouldn't say there is a lack of service in S. IL. Other than the hilly areas of pope and hardin counties have I ever had any real trouble not getting a signal, which is the same for all carriers.

First Cellular had a great footprint in S. IL before Alltel bought them and if I recall correctly the Chester area was on the fringe of the First Cellular network. The main reason that Alltel lost people around here is because of the fear that people would be forced to AT&T. They recalled that AT&T had horrible service in the area unless you were around the interstate. Then came the news story on WSIL that scared people because of the roaming issues with the data cards that forced people out of their contract. Most of those people had been in rural parts of the areas and with old prls which put them on Verizon towers.

Alltel may not have the fastest data speeds but they seem just fine to me, no matter where I've been I've had no trouble using Netflix or Logmein.

And I'm very certain that none of us picked Alltel for their high adoption rate of new technologies or their blazing fast data speeds, it was for the best value and pretty darn reliable service. So with Alltel being one of the smallest companies now it's ok that they're evaluating the costs of moving to LTE, and we all know they will at some point, unless they figure out how to sell out to the big guys.

[fraydog]

I wouldn't say there is a lack of service in S. IL. Other than the hilly areas of pope and hardin counties have I ever had any real trouble not getting a signal, which is the same for all carriers.

First Cellular had a great footprint in S. IL before Alltel bought them and if I recall correctly the Chester area was on the fringe of the First Cellular network. The main reason that Alltel lost people around here is because of the fear that people would be forced to AT&T. They recalled that AT&T had horrible service in the area unless you were around the interstate. Then came the news story on WSIL that scared people because of the roaming issues with the data cards that forced people out of their contract. Most of those people had been in rural parts of the areas and with old prls which put them on Verizon towers.

Alltel may not have the fastest data speeds but they seem just fine to me, no matter where I've been I've had no trouble using Netflix or Logmein.

And I'm very certain that none of us picked Alltel for their high adoption rate of new technologies or their blazing fast data speeds, it was for the best value and pretty darn reliable service. So with Alltel being one of the smallest companies now it's ok that they're evaluating the costs of moving to LTE, and we all know they will at some point, unless they figure out how to sell out to the big guys.

First off, the First Cellular people are coming back, this time as MobileNation, a Sprint affiliate. They are going to hit ATNI way more squarely than AT&T would. I don't underestimate Terry Addington, I'd bet on him over whoever is left at ATNI.

http://mymobilenation.com

Secondly, I just see all the churn and don't know how ATNI can sustain that. That's in all their footprint.

Third, it's not just Chester that has been neglected it's all of Randolph County. We're actually one of the more populated counties in the CMA.

If ATN sold out, you would have other bargain basement choices. Take solace in that.

Otherwise, the network is rolling ATN up here on the top, and they are about to get hit in the bottom. I believe the real reason they are evaluating 4G choices is that they don't own much 700 spectrum. Only areas they own any 700 are here in Southern Illinois (thanks First Cellular) and a few rural places out west. You have a very good point about the WSIL story. Ultimately I would argue the AT&T people out west ended up better in the end of this transaction, ask Mark Uhde.