Alltel! Poof! BE GONE!

I know you have all heard it already but if not, let me refresh your memory.




"Verizon Wireless has entered into an agreement with Alltel Corporation and Atlantis Holdings LLC, an affiliate of private investment firm TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners, to acquire Alltel Corporation in a cash merger. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD).

Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon Wireless will acquire the equity of Alltel for approximately $5.9 billion. Based on Alltel’s projected net debt at closing of $22.2 billion, the aggregate value of the transaction is $28.1 billion." refer to Verizon .

I think this is sort of a sad story for some, a blessing for some, and confusion for some. What's going on in people's minds? For the sad part, some will surely miss the My Circle plan they once had. I hear that Verizon will honor it but my a acquaintance with Verizon and from what I know, Verizon will take it away. For the longest time I heard of Alltel about to be bought out because many companies have been trying to. I have heard that Allltel has been so expensive to buy and now I know why. Alltel was in deep debt. I was almost sure that Alltel was bought out in 2007 and the new company wouldn't go into effect until 2009 but they just bought Alltel's shares....that's all. Read "Alltel shareholders approve private equity buyout" . Ever since the My Circle plan Alltel released, didn't you ever wonder, where is Alltel making their money from? That's waaay too good of a deal! My friend is an Alltel representative that said Verizon wil honor the My Circle plan but see, years ago when my friend worked for Verizon and he always used to tell me how arrogant Verizon was. If Verizon still was the way they were then, Verizon will not give anyone any type of My Circle. BUT, the clientel will be raising up to make Verizon the #1 largest wireless network so, I guess so many customers will have Verizon that you won't even need My Circle because of mobile to mobile usage.

Another sad thing is that many Alltel employees may lose their jobs. Will Verizon close down Alltel stores or will they just change the sign and change the look?

The good thing is that Alltel will be out of debt and Alltel customers will for then on out be handled by Verizon's great customer service team.

I'm the confused customer.I'm an Alltel customer planning on buying a new phone but now in a frozen state of should I? I really want a new phone but will Verizon program it for me so that I will be able to take advantage of Verizon's special features? Verizon does have a program where they will allow you to bring in almost any phone (or any CDMA enabled phone) and make it compatible for the network. Also, I have a Blackberry and I have known Verizon for having a expensive smartphone plan.

Verizon has many great services and the best coverage I have ever seen but it'll cost ya. All very worthy but always research. I had Verizon last year and what I remember most about them is that their text messages and picture messages got to the users right away. One bad thing I did not like was that Verizon had to lock many great features of a phone so that you will pay for their features instead of gaining a cheaper one or a free one. Verizon had the tendency to lock programs, I had the tendency of hacking them. Alltel on the other hand has great service (almost up to par with Verizon) but many Alltel customers receive text messages late or not at all. In many cases I have missed many calls. I know this for sure because my phone will show voice mails and no missed calls. Alltel is a great money saver but maybe it is their time......

According to Verizon.com, this Alltel-Verizon merge will become effective by the end of this
year.

-Shante' Stallings

TaeTay706gul