Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN), a Salem, Massachusetts based telecom holding company, is purchasing the remaining divested Alltel assets from Verizon. The purchase for $200 million includes approximately 800k subscribers and the wireless network and spectrum assets covering 26 markets in Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina. The new ATN/Alltel footprint covers 4.5 million POPs. Verizon was required to divest the assets as a condition of their Alltel acquisition. AT&T is purchasing the majority of these divested assets.
ATN operates numerous wireless networks, primarily in the Caribbean. They do operate a wholesale rural wireless network, Commnet Wireless, for roaming purposes in the U.S. Among other holdings, they own Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Ltd., Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd., and Choice Communications, LLC which operates in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“This is a very attractive transaction for ATN and it accomplishes what we have been patiently seeking over the past few years,” said Michael Prior, ATN’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “It provides ATN with enhanced scale and revenue diversification and enables us to expand meaningfully our US wireless business. Coupled with our existing US wireless operations, we will now have significant wireless operations in rural areas of more than 10 states. Including our international operations, we expect to have more than 1,000,000 retail wireless subscribers by transaction close.”
