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How does No. 2 wireless carrier Verizon increase its user base – buy them from Rural Cellular’s Unicel

By: , IntoMobile
Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 1:04 PM

Verizon logoIf you’re the second-largest wireless carrier in the US, locked in a heated battle with top-dog AT&T for subscribers, what can you do to increase your customer-base? Well, one way would be to buy them, literally. Verizon Wireless has announced their plans to buy the Unicel brand from Rural Cellular, netting the CDMA carrier about 716,000 users – with Verizon Wireless’s 62.1 million customers trailing AT&T’s 63.7 million, the addition of three-quarters of a million subscribers will be a healthy boost indeed.

Rural Cellular uses GSM and CDMA standards in their mixed-network, and Verizon Wireless plans to convert GSM users to CDMA service while holding onto the GSM network for roaming purposes (for subscribers on other GSM networks). Verizon Wireless will be paying $757 million, or $45 per share, for Rural Cellular.

Watch out AT&T, it looks like Verizon is planning on making a run at the top-dog title in the US. You aren’t planning on taking that iPhone exclusivity contract all the way to the bank are you?

[Via: Yahoo News]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Brandon

    I pesonally think this is lame.. i was gonna get a new phone for my birthday and now im so mixed up ive gotta wait 3 months for them to change coverage so i dont end up paying 300 dollars for a chunk of plastic that doesn’t do anything usefull in vermont…