Alltel

Alltel Corporation

Company type	Private (acquired by Verizon Wireless)
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	Little Rock, Arkansas, USA (1943)
Headquarters	Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Key people	Scott T. Ford, President & CEO
Products	Wireless
Revenue	$8.8 billion USD (2007)
Net income	$183 million USD (2007)
Number of employees	15,000+ (2006)
Parent	Verizon Wireless
Website	alltel.com

Alltel Corporation was, until its acquisition by Verizon Wireless, the fifth largest wireless telecommunications company in the United States with 12.9 million customers, as of the fourth quarter 2008, ahead of AT&T Mobility, Sprint-Nextel, and T-Mobile.

At its peak, Alltel operated a network in 34 states, with a wireless coverage area comprising the largest network in the United States by area. The company focused on small to medium size cities providing wireless services to residential and business customers in all 50 states through low-cost roaming agreements with the major national CDMA carriers including Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. These agreements gave Alltel customers access to nationwide service while providing those carriers coverage in rural areas.

On June 5, 2008, Verizon Wireless announced it would acquire Alltel Wireless in a deal valued at $28.1 billion. The merger was approved by the FCC on November 4, 2008, and completed on January 9, 2009. With this merger, Verizon Wireless now has approximately 83.7 million wireless subscribers and covers nearly the entire United States population making it the largest network in the country by area covered and number of subscribers. However, 2.1 million of these customers will soon be divested, per the conditions of FCC and DOJ approval of the merger.

The Alltel name will eventually be retired after 65 years of business. Customers should begin seeing Verizon Wireless on their statements and other material formerly carrying the name as early as April 2009.

History

In 1943, the Allied Telephone Company, a small business specializing in installing telephone poles and cabling for telephone companies across Arkansas, was founded by Charles Miller and Hugh Willbourn, Jr.

Alltel's modern history begins in 1983 when Allied Telephone and Mid-Continent Telephone merged. Mid-Continent Telephone was founded by Weldon W. Case and his younger brother, Nelson H. Case. The elder Case became Alltel's first chairman and headquartered the company in Hudson, Ohio. In 1985, Alltel launched its first wireless system in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1993, Alltel opened its first wireless retail store. In 1997, the company's wireless and wireline businesses were combined into a single organization.

On December 9, 2005, Alltel announced that it would become a wireless-only company, simultaneously merging and building a spin-off company for its wireline services. The wireline services business of Alltel merged with Valor Telecom and was named Windstream Communications on April 10, 2006. The merger-spinoff process ended July 17, 2006 when Windstream began operations.

Alltel's old logo (prior to 2006)

On May 20, 2007, Alltel announced an agreement to be sold to two private-equity firms: TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners. Under the deal, the two firms paid $71.50 a share in cash, or $27.5 billion, a 10% premium over Alltel's May 18, 2007 closing price.

On June 4, 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon Wireless was in talks to acquire the wireless carrier for around $27 billion.

Mergers and acquisitions

1990

• Systematics, Inc - founded in 1968 by Arkansas investor Jackson T. Stephens. Became Alltel Information Services (AIS), and later sold to Fidelity Information Services.

1998

• 360 Communications (Illinois) - wireless properties and assets, merger adds 2.6 million customers in 15 states

1999

• Standard Group, Inc. (Cornelia, Georgia) - merger adds more than 71,000 local telephone lines
• Aliant Communications (Lincoln, Nebraska) - $1.8 billion merger
• Liberty Cellular (Kansas) - $600 million merger

2000

• SBC Communications (Louisiana) - wireless properties
• GTE Wireless (assets in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas), following GTE's merger with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon

2002

• Verizon (Kentucky) - $1.9 billion for local access lines
• CenturyTel - $1.5 billion, 700,000 wireless customers

2003

• Cellular XL (Mississippi) - wireless properties
• U.S. Cellular and TDS Telecom - wireless assets [2]

2005

• Cingular Wireless-divested AT&T Wireless properties (Oklahoma) (Connecticut) (Kentucky) (Mississippi) - wireless properties
• Public Service Cellular, Inc. of Georgia - wireless properties
• Cellular One brand by Western Wireless (Washington) - wireless properties
• Alltel/Valor (merger) - Alltel spins off wireline business and merges it with Valor to form Windstream Communications

2006

• First Cellular of Southern Illinois (Illinois) - Alltel purchased First Cellular for $14-15 million in cash.
• Palmetto MobileNet, L.P. (North Carolina) (South Carolina) - Alltel purchased from Palmetto MobileNet, L.P. wireless partnerships that cover approximately 2.3 million people in North and South Carolina. Alltel already managed and owned 50 percent of each of the 10 partnerships and has purchased the remaining interests from Palmetto. The partnerships include 34 counties across South Carolina and seven counties in Western North Carolina.
• Midwest Wireless (Minnesota) - Alltel purchased Midwest Wireless for $1.083 billion in cash, adding 433,000 wireless customers
• In Summer 2006 Alltel's Simple Freedom Wireless, customers were migrated in non-Alltel markets. (see article below)

2007

• Alltel agrees to be acquired by TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners, the private equity division of Goldman Sachs for $27.5 billion.
• Simple Freedom Wireless merges with Alltel "U Prepaid" to form Alltel U Personalized Prepaid.

2008

• Verizon Wireless agrees to buy Alltel for $28.1B.

2009

• Verizon Wireless closes merger on January 9
• Alltel Wireless is still selling phones.

Executive team (before Verizon merger)

• President and CEO, Scott T. Ford
• Chief Executive Vice President, Tyler Arnette
• Chief Operating Officer, Jeffrey Fox
• Executive Vice President and CFO, Sharilyn Gasaway
• Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel, Richard Massey
• Chief Executive Marketing Supervisor Seth Haynes

Network technology

Alltel's networks consist of analog and digital systems operating primarily on the 800 MHz cellular band, much like Verizon Wireless. Native Alltel markets consist of both analog (AMPS) and digital (CDMA) technologies. Approximately 76 percent of markets have been outfitted with 3G 1xEV-DO digital technology, which allows for additional battery life and faster download times when using Internet or BREW-based applications. Alltel has posted a three phase turn down schedule in response to the FCC decision stating that by March 1, 2008 A and B side carriers are no longer required to support analog. The analog systems are currently being phased out and will be retired by the end of 2008. While Alltel has not outlined its future path, merger partner Verizon Wireless has already announced plans to switch to GSM-based LTE.

Network coverage

There are currently Alltel-owned and operated networks in parts of 35 states. Alltel uses roaming agreements with competing providers to provide coast-to-coast service. Roaming agreements in the United States are primarily with Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. The company also has agreements with Canadian cellular providers, including Telus and Bell Mobility. Since many of these roaming partners operate in the 800 MHz or 1900 MHz CDMA band, Alltel customers on national calling plans are required to use tri-mode (800 AMPS, 800 CDMA, 1900 CDMA) or dual band (800 CDMA, 1900 CDMA) handsets.

Handset and technical specifics

• Handsets typically manufactured by Motorola, LG, Research In Motion (i.e., BlackBerry), Nokia, HTC, and more recently Samsung, Palm, and Pantech Curitel.
• Network equipment is manufactured by Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nortel, Juniper Networks and Cisco.
• Phones use the BREW interface.

Customers of Alltel will continue to be able to use their existing handset with Verizon Wireless when the merger is complete. Since they both use the same exact technology. (CDMA) Some customers may have still have brand new CDMA cellphone that never been activated with Alltel before, as this won't be a problem using them with Verizon Wireless. Since Verizon uses over OTA (over the air programming) the phone must be unlocked, OTA will not lock the phone. It is just another method that Verizon Wireless uses to make it easier to program a new or existing phone without having to program the phone manually.

Services

• Axcess Family Finder: Similar to Verizon Wireless's "Chaperone" service, Alltel introduced a service dubbed Axcess FAMILY FINDER where users on family plans can download software to their children's phones and use GPS technology to acquire real-time location information either directly on their phone or on the computer. Users can also set up scheduled, automatic notifications of their child's location at set times, or use on-demand location checks to display the child's location on an interactive map.

• My Circle, launched on April 20, 2006, is a feature offered by Alltel Wireless that enables customers to make and receive unlimited free calls to and from different phone numbers, including landlines. Initially, "My Circle" gave customers 10 different numbers per account. Customers since have a choice of how many circle numbers they get (1, 5, 10, or 20) based on the cost of their rate plan. On April 22, 2008, Alltel announced that all customers celebrating their two-year anniversary with “My Circle” will automatically receive one free “bonus” number added to their current “My Circle” plan. In addition, on each subsequent two year anniversary on an eligible “My Circle” plan, another bonus number will be added at no additional cost.

CellTop is a service to check weather, news, and stocks

• U Prepaid, introduced on January 30, 2006,' is similar to other prepaid services like Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile or AT&T GoPhone. Features that make U Prepaid unique are that it allows the customer to customize their plan with text messaging and unlimited calls to a certain number. U Prepaid allows roaming on Sprint, Verizon, US Cellular, and other CDMA networks.

• Alltel Wi-Fi, introduced on September 28, 2007, provides laptop access to Wi-Fi hotspots in North and South America. Alltel Wi-Fi is available for purchase by anyone regardless of whether they reside in a traditional Alltel territory. Alltel also has bundled pricing of their 'Wireless Internet' service and 'Wi-Fi' , allowing users to roam from one network to another on their laptop.

• Alltel Voice2TXT, introduced on December 17, 2007, is a feature that is available on any Alltel Wireless SMS text message capable phone which quickly converts incoming voicemails to text messages in the customer’s inbox.

• PhotoCopter, introduced on April 16, 2008, is a feature that saves every camera phone picture customers snap to their home computers and favorite web photo albums. PhotoCopter automatically transfers the taken picture to the PC.

Commercials

After Alltel's November 2004 announcement that Campbell-Ewald of Detroit would be their primary advertising agency, Alltel used lookalikes of rival cell phone companies' primary advertising characters along with Alltel's spokesman, played by comedian Chad Brokaw. After competing networks complained, the promotional campaign featured this notice on television and the website: "Our lawyers would like to inform you some of the characters you see here are not associated with Alltel. They are look-alikes. The characters, not our lawyers." In the first commercial, at an Alltel store, Alltel representative Chad spoke to representatives of five competitors to his circle. A second commercial was set in a bowling alley. The third commercial took place in a court room, with the faces of the other carriers blurred. In "The Century's Trial of the Century," Edward Maxwell Von Houten, attorney for the People Against My Circle Foundation, sued Chad for attempting to force people into calling circles.

After that, Alltel started a series of commercials involving Chad, bragging about Alltel's service and using the theme music "Come and Get Your Love". The parodied competitors, called "Sales Guys" are perpetually frustrated by their failures and less popularity, even going so far as to harass and threaten him, albeit with less than effective results. The Sales Guys are played by professional actors Matthew Brent (Verizon), Scott Halberstadt (Cingular/AT&T), Ian Gould (T-Mobile), and Michael Busch (Sprint), who was later replaced by Adam Herschman. Each representative wears a shirt with the color of the company they represent, as well as name tags to represent their company. Most ads in 2007 had the Cingular/AT&T guy wearing two name tags--one each for Cingular & AT&T--while that brand was transitioning to AT&T. As of 2008, they added a snobbish wizard into the ads. The Christmas 2007/2008 ads uses stop-motion animation, parodying the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials.

The campaign included a MySpace page, and Campbell-Ewald Digital created The Man Cave with its own web site. The fourth and fifth commercials features employees of other carriers' mall stores trying to convince Chad to end My Circle with $8.00. The sixth has Chad giving RAZR's as Christmas gifts to them. Since this service and advertising campaign started, other carriers started adding similar services. For example, T-Mobile introduced "My Faves" in the fall of 2006. In the first 2009 ad, the Verizon guy was hard to see in the commercials, and his logo was not visible, reflecting the fact that Verizon was no longer Alltel's competitor, but rather its parent company. However, experts predict the Chad commercials will soon end.

Sponsorships

NASCAR

• Alltel is the primary sponsor of the #12 Dodge Charger driven by David Stremme in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series; formerly driven by Ryan Newman. [3]
  • This sponsorship was signed in 2000 under a contract between Alltel and Penske Racing. Greg Penske had joined the Board of Directors of Alltel and recommended the team switch from Herzog Racing to Penske Racing. On June 19, 2003, Alltel was banned from NASCAR sponsorship at the top level, but this current deal is grandfathered, due to the fact that Sprint Nextel agreed to sponsor NASCAR's top series. The firm may not change names, nor may they switch teams under agreement of this grandfather clause. In 2009, David Stremme would replace Ryan Newman in the No. 12 Alltel Dodge for Penske Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Pro Fishing

• Alltel has sponsored professional fisherman Scott Rook during the 2006 CITGO Bassmaster Tournament Trail.

Structure naming rights

• Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek, Raleigh, North Carolina
• Alltel Arena, North Little Rock, Arkansas
• Alltel Ice Den, Scottsdale, Arizona
• Alltel Pavilion, Stuart C. Siegel Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
• Maxwell Field at Alltel Stadium, Winona State University, Winona, Minnesota
• Alltel Center, Mankato, Minnesota

External links

• Alltel's Official Website
• Alltel Merger Information
• Windstream Communications (former Alltel landline business)