Alltel/AT&T divested markets

[irock0527]

But if anyone can achieve that incredible feat of stepping backwards, it would be AT&T. lol.

Truth be told, even with this acquisition I'm rather concerned about how AT&T will treat the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana especially. And how coverage and call quality will be handled. It's gonna be interesting next year for sure.

[Gaurav S]

Ok this post now convince me. :-s

[eskhaton]

Has anyone heard anything more on this for the dakotas? I talked to a rep today and he said that he hadn't heard anything more about when it could happen but that we (Grand Forks ND) should be getting 3G as that is what Alltel has in the area. Take it for what its worth I guess-

[Kellen S]

I'm interested as well... I'd love to hear anything about the coverage... as taking a step back in coverage would be a sad deal. which is bound to happen knowing AT&T...

I'd hate to go back to Verizon after my years off of their crazy network. Sprint Has no stores up here anymore (They closed the one they had in Grand Forks) Alltel was the saving grace of cell phone companies up here, as they didn't have weird contract terms. True unlimited Data at a decent affordable price. The ability to teather and OBEX support on phones. Nothing locked out.... it was good for quite a while.

Hoping AT&T steps up to the plate, but I have a lot of doubts about it from looking at their coverage map...

[geisha]

We wont begin to know untill the FCC approves the merger. Anything heard until then is guessing, as AT&T cant say anything as they dont own the network. Though a few months back I saw some Alcatel trucks in my town (Alcatel is one of AT&T's 3g equipment suppliers) doing site surveys I'm guessing, so I am optimistic we will get 3g here if/when the switchover is completed.

[polishprince12]

AT&T has filed with the FCC that they will be using 3G GSM in all the divestiture markets, for what it's worth.

[shaazama]

If this means anything, AT&T has treated Vermont and the rest of the North Country quite nicely, even upgrading portions of the former RCC Unicel GSM network with UMTS/HSPA+. Population wise, Vermont is similar to Wyoming so I wouldn't worry too much.

It took 12 months from the switchover to bring UMTS/HSPA+ online, but the Alltel case may be different.

[Buripuk]

Is there anywhere that shows the progress of the FCC approval?

[I<3 Sarcasm!]

Yes, but it's not very interesting. Vicki Iseman (the one from the McCain scandal) keeps having meetings over and over with the FCC to discuss "the nation's continuing trend towards media consolidation and the lack of business opportunities for small, independent, and economically disadvantaged, businesses."

Well, I guess it has changed a little. A month ago here meetings were to discuss "the nation's continuing trend towards media consolidation and the lack of business opportunities for small, independent, economically disadvantaged, minority and women-owned businesses."

I guess she finally figured out that (at least for now) she can't explicitly ask the FCC to be racist against white males by giving minorities and women an outright advantage. So that part's gone from the more recent meetings at least. And that's a positive.

Anyways, all the filings of never-ending nonsense are recorded here:

http://www.fcc.gov/transaction/att-verizon.html

[PS3psp]

I would think it wouldn't be hard to put 3G in these areas. The backhaul is there already all they need is the right hardware, and there's not many towers to deal with compared to the big markets on the coasts.
Now I would thing MT, WY and the Dakotas will be last on the list on getting the 7.2 MB thats going on now as I would imagine that will take upgraded backhaul. This is all speculation on my part.