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When Verizon announced its purchase of Alltel earlier this year, talks of antitrust began circulating. This acquisition would give the nation’s current No. 2 wireless carrier full market share in a number of regions, something that local residents tend to fear. We want choice. When the choices were merely Alltel and Verizon before, it was bad enough. Now, customers could be left with just one option, and that’s not going to sit well. Thankfully, it doesn’t sit well with the Department of Justice, either. They’ve met with Verizon, and it looks like Verizon could divest in 85 markets to get this deal done, according to Fawn Johnson of Down Jones Newswires.

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Ah, the settlement. The best play in the big corporation’s book. See, here’s the deal. They get sued by a class of current and former customers. The corporation claims no wrongdoing, and the battle protracts a bit. Some, as in this case, go to court. But at some point, it makes fiscal sense for the corporation to ante up a settlement, as it would amount to less than what they’d pay in legal fees over the course of trial. Plus, there’s always the chance that they lose and become liable for even more. This appears to be what happened in a Verizon early termination fees suit, which they settled for $21 million.

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This story comes up every so often, and obviously nothing has come of it yet. It’s easy to associate Verizon Wireless with Verizon Communications, the company that got big in the landline business a decade or two ago. That’s only 55 percent correct, though. The other 45 percent of Verizon Wireless is owned by Vodafone Group, the European cellular provider. Once again, Verizon has expressed interest in buying Vodafone out of their share, according to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg. He thinks that Verizon does all the work in the wireless division, and would like to start seeing all of the profits.

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Way back, a little less than 10 months ago, Verizon announced the purchase of Rural Cellular Corporation. The deal was met with some resistance, as Verizon became essentially the only provider in some areas of Vermont. Back in November, they were working on divesting some interests, though some considered their plans unfair. The Department of Justice has ruled, and Verizon must divest assets in six markets in Vermont, New York, and Washington state.
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The industry is currently abuzz with the Verizon/Alltel deal, and it seems that on the financial end, most people are praising the deal. However, as with most transactions of this nature, not everyone is happy. Considering the cheers from Wall Street, you can imagine who the upset parties are. Yep, we’re talking about customers of Alltel, who face the possibility of rate and plan changes in the future, and government oversight officials, who fear this deal brings antitrust implications.

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Update @ 10:38 a.m. EDT: It’s official. Well, not official official. It still has to pass through various bodies, including the FCC and, considering the size of the deal, through the Department of Justice. We’ll keep up with any further detail surrounding this.

Remember when people hoped we’d get another national carrier out of the 700 MHz auction? That didn’t go so well. Now, a few months after the auction, it looks like we might be losing a carrier, though it’s not really a national one. News has spread that Verizon is “deep in talks” to purchase Alltel for about $27 billion. This is around the amount that TPG and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners purchased Alltel for last year. So now the nation’s Nos. 2 and 5 carriers could become the nation’s No. 1 carrier.

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With the barbs tossed between Verizon and Google last week, one probably wouldn’t expect the nation’s No. 2 carrier to join Android. Actually, it probably wasn’t going to happen even before that, as the two companies had a little tiff over the open-access rules for the 700 MHz auction. Not to let the open revolution slip through its fingers, Verizon has joined Android’s rival, LiMo. They now hold the final seat on the foundation’s board of directors.

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We’ve got all of the first quarter reports in from the major carriers, so it’s time to see who has the highest churn. Well, duh, it’s Sprint, considering they lost over a million subscribers. But who had the most loyal customer base? That would be Verizon. They had a 0.93 percent postpaid churn, and 1.2 percent overall. Their competitors, according to the press release: Carrier X, Carrier Y, Carrier Z. Gee, I wonder if we can figure out who is who!

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Yet another small cell company is absorbed by the big boys. SureWest Communications, a company that services the greater Sacramento area, has been acquired by Verizon Wireless. It’s not a huge transaction, as SureWest had only 50,000 customers, which is a drop in the pan to Verizon’s 67.2 million. But they will be able to strengthen their imprint in Sacramento, which covers about 3.8 million people.

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Are you the type that finds yourself tapping out text messages — whether SMS, email, or IM — more often than you do talk on the phone? If so, Verizon has a plan for you. The nation’s No. 2 wireless carrier has rolled out a series of Nationwide Messaging plans which fit all style of mobile messenger. Whether you have a consumer phone, smartphone, or BlackBerry, Verizon has a messaging plan for you. Each one comes with a per-minute voice rate — you know, in case you care to actually speak to people. But otherwise, you’re on your way to unlimited messaging.

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