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Apr. 11, 2010

The U.S. DoJ (Department of Justice) approved Atlanta Tele-Network's (ATN) proposed acquisition of wireless spectrum licenses and other mobile service assets in 6 U.S. states on April 8.

But the FCC still has to approve the acquisition before ATN can take over the properties. Once the deal is completed, ATN will own wireless spectrum licenses serving about 810,250 people in rural areas in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Idaho and Wisconsin.

ATN's acquisition of the former Alltel assets is a repercussion of Verizon Wireless' $28 billion acquisition of Alltel in January of last year, in a sense marking what was sure to be one of the last major acquisitions among U.S. mobile service carriers.

As part of that sale, the U.S. government forced Verizon to divest itself of almost $3.1 billion of those assets to ensure fair competition in mostly rural areas.

For its part, AT&T got close to 67.3 percent of those assets, and ATN announced last June that it was acquiring former Alltel assets in 6 U.S. states.

In September, the company hired former Alltel CMO Frank O'Mara to run the wireless carrier, which operates under the name Allied Wireless Communications Inc, and later said company headquarters would be in Little Rock, Ark.

O'Mara later created the Alltel “My Circle” calling feature, which was largely copied by other players and probably today is instrumental in helping to shape up Sprint Nextel's decision to include calls to anyone on any network in all its calling plans.

O'Mara is now viewed by some wireless industry observers as a leader in the field especially when it comes to innovative new features that mobile users appreciate and use everyday.

That kind of innovation is why ATN was interested in buying some of the former Alltel assets, and why the company has been hiring former Alltel employees to operate the new business.

So far, approximately 490 employees in the field will become Allied employees once the sale is completed, and the wireless carrier announced plans to hire about 200 additional people for its corporate headquarters in mid-June.

Atlanta Tele-Network is not a traditional wireless consolidator, however. A quick look at the Salem, Mass.-based company assets underscores that fact.

Along with the pending acquisition of some of the Alltel assets, the company will then own Commnet Wireless, which provides VoIP and data wireless roaming services for U.S. and international wireless carriers in rural areas throughout the U.S.

It will also own Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Ltd., which is the national telephone service provider for all local, long-distance and international services, as well as a wireless service provider in Guyana.

Among other assets that are also included in the deal is Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd., which is the leading provider of wireless VoIP and data services in Bermuda operating as Cellular One, and an early-stage wireless provider in Turks & Caicos through its Island-Com subsidiary.

Also included is Sovernet Inc., which provides wireline voice and data services to businesses and homes in New England and high capacity communications network transport services in New York State through its ION subsidiary.

And if all that wasn't enough, also included in the deal is Choice Communications, which provides wireless broadband services in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

While the deal is still in transition, the customers on the old CDMA network still get their service under the Alltel brand name and that should continue even after the acquisition is completed, however.

The name for the subsidiary that is still operating the assets, Allied Wireless Communications, was chosen because of its Alltel brand connection.

Allied is sort of reminiscent of the competitive local exchange carrier from which Alltel was born more than ten years ago.

In other news on wireless spectrum acquisitiona, it was reported yesterday that, after several weeks of postponements and of public inter-ministerial bickering that have been going on for months requiring the intervention of a special task force of senior ministers and a couple of nasty lawsuits, India has finally begun its long awaited public auction of wireless spectrum for 3rd generation mobile telephony.

The auction will also be one of spectrum for broadband wireless access. The problem is, the number of bidders far exceed the available wireless spectrum in all of India and that is a really big problem facing a country which relies mostly on mobile service rather than traditional land lines.

First, the implementation of the auction process itself is also likely to go against irrational exuberance on the part of the many wireless bidders. India's mobile spectrum auction process is designed to deter predatory bidding.

Only the auctioneer is allowed to raise the bids – and that, too, in a pre-determined manner, using a publicly stated formula – and never the bidding players.

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Source: Atlanta Tele-Network Corp.