FCC approves $27.5 billion Alltel buyout
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The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved a $27.5 billion buyout of Alltel Corp., the nation's fifth-largest wireless carrier, to a private investment group.
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The Justice Department approved Cingular Wireless&#39; $41 billion acquisition of AT&amp;T Wireless yesterday, clearing one of the last hurdles in a deal to create the country&#39;s largest wireless-phone company.
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The Department of Justice (DoJ) today announced that it would approve Cingular&#39;s $41 billion dollar acquisition of AT&amp;T Wireless , provided the mobile carrier sells assets, such as spectrum and customer contracts, in 11 states.
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Cingular said it closed its &#36;41 billion purchase AT&amp;T Wireless on Tuesday. Cingular received approval for the deal earlier in the day from the Federal Communications Commission. The Department of Justice approved the acquisition on Monday.
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved the purchase by AT&amp;T of 12MHz of wireless spectrum that covers 60 percent of the U.S.
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Alltel Corp. , the leading rural telephone company, on Monday said it would buy rural mobile operator Western Wireless Corp.  for about &#36;4.15 billion in cash and stock to boost its competitive position in the rapidly consolidating U.S. wireless industry.
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Alltel Corp., the sixth biggest U.S. cellular carrier, has agreed to buy Western Wireless Corp., a Northwest regional carrier which owns the Cellular One brand, for about $4.4 billion in cash and stock.
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A consortium led by Australia&#39;s Macquarie group will pay Â£1.27 billion ($2.5 billion) for the broadcast infrastructure business of Britain&#39;s NTL Group.
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The Federal Communications Commission on Monday approved rural telephone operator Alltel Corp.'s  $1 billion acquisition of Midwest Wireless Holdings.
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The high bids totalled $3.2 billion in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission&#39;s&#160;auction of wireless spectrum licenses in the 700MHz band&#160;after three rounds and a day and a half of bidding.That figure is far short of the $10 billion Congress and the FCC expect to raise in&#160;the auction, which opened Thursday, but bidding could continue for weeks. In most cases, the high bids don&#39;t yet meet the FCC&#39;s reserve price set for minimum winning bids.A fourth round of bidding will happen Friday afternoon.The 700MHz auctions represent the last large chunk of spectrum available for the FCC to auction in the foreseeable future. The spectrum, now used to carry over-the-air television signals, can be used to carry long-range wireless broadband traffic. Consumer groups have said the spectrum represents the &quot;last, best hope&quot; for a nationwide wireless broadband network that competes with cable and telecom broadband services.For sale is 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band. In late 2005, after a decade of debate, Congress passed a law requiring U.S. TV stations to move to all-digital broadcasts and abandon analog spectrum between channels 52 and 69. The deadline for TV stations to end broadcasts in the 700MHz band is February 2009.After three rounds, 906 of the 1,099 available spectrum licenses had bids, with four more licenses receiving bids than at the end of round two late Thursday. High bids had totalled just under $2.8 billion after round 2, and just over $2.4 billion after round one Thursday morning.The top bid after the third round was $1.49 billion for eight of 12 regional licenses in the C block, a 22MHz block of spectrum covering all 50 states. The bidding for those C block licenses was up from $1.24 billion at the end of the second round. The FCC&#39;s reserve price for the C block is $4.6 billion, and the winning bidders of C block spectrum must allow any legal devices to connect to their network, including mobile phones purchased from other carriers.The second highest bid remained $472 million for the D block, a nationwide 10MHz chunk of spectrum to be paired with another 10MHz set aside for public safety agencies. The bidder of the D block would be required to build a national network to be jointly used by public safety agencies and commercial customers. The high bid for the D block has remained unchanged since round one.Bidding in the auction is anonymous.The A block, a 12MHz piece of spectrum covering parts of New York and the northeastern U.S., also generated interest. The high bid was $119.8 million after the third round, up from $100 million after the second round and $83.2 million after the first round. A similar chunk of spectrum in the E block, also covering the same area, has generated a high bid of $59.9 million after the third round.The high bid for a 12MHz block called the B block, for a local New York City license, stood at $85.6 million after rounds two and three.High bids for five blocks in the Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., areas were between $28 million and $55 million after round three.
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The Department of Justice has approved Cingular Wireless' &#36;41 billion acquisition of AT&amp;T Wireless Services.
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The U.S. Federal Communications  Commission said on Tuesday it has conditionally approved  Cingular Wireless' $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless  Services Inc. AWE.N, clearing the last big hurdle for the  deal.
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved the purchase by AT&amp;T of 12MHz of wireless spectrum that covers 60 percent of the U.S.AT&amp;T bought the spectrum from Aloha Spectrum Holdings. The spectrum, in the highly coveted 700MHz band, covers 196 million of the 303 million U.S. residents and includes 72 of the top 100 media markets in the country. Aloha acquired the spectrum in earlier FCC auctions and from other auction winners. This portion of the 700MHz spectrum is not part of the&#160;FCC auction&#160;now in progress.The FCC, in an order issued Monday, approved the sale despite concerns expressed by the commission&#39;s two Democratic members. AT&amp;T announced in October that it intended to buy the spectrum for $2.5 billion. The company said then it planned to use the spectrum for broadcast video or for two-way communications such as voice, data or multicast content.The 700MHz spectrum band carries wireless signals three to four times farther than some higher spectrum bands, making it optimal for long-range broadband networks.Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said he voted to approve the deal because of a lack of public opposition, but he had concerns about the FCC&#39;s review of the deal.The agency&#39;s review &quot;lacks both substance and analysis in its review of whether, on balance, the transaction serves the public&#39;s interest,&quot; Adelstein said in a statement. &quot;We are required to do more than simply conclude that a transaction benefits the public and will not have an adverse effect on competition. I would have preferred to see a more thorough assessment weighing the potential public interest harms and benefits of this transaction and its impact on the mobile telephony market.&quot;Commissioner Michael Copps voted against the deal. The deal could have a large impact on a mobile voice and data market &quot;that has seen round after round of consolidation in recent years,&quot; he said in a statement.Copps also raised concerns about the FCC&#39;s review of the deal. The review &quot;contains only an extremely abbreviated analysis of the competitive effects of this change in ownership,&quot; he said.AT&amp;T, in a statement, said it was pleased with the FCC&#39;s decision. The deal will help AT&amp;T meet growing customer demand for wireless services, the company said.
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U.S. antitrust authorities on   Thursday approved rural telephone operator Alltel Corp.'s   AT.N $1.075 billion deal to buy Midwest Wireless Holdings.
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WASHINGTON, Oct 26  - Cingular Wireless Corp. announced Tuesday it had completed a 41-billion-dollar takeover of AT and T Wireless after winning final clearance from US regulators.
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Alltel, which has agreed to be bought by private equity investors, posted quarterly profit of $282.6 million as it added more wireless subscribers than expected.
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The U.S. sale of airwaves for  advanced wireless services grossed a record $13.9 billion when  it ended on Monday, and spectrum-hungry U.S. wireless carrier  T-Mobile USA topped the bidding by offering almost $4.2 billion  for 120 licenses.