AT&T to acquire much of Unicel's service in Vt.

December 5, 2007

AT&T Inc. will acquire a significant portion of Unicel's cell phone service in Vermont under a swap of wireless assets with Verizon Wireless, AT&T announced Tuesday.

Verizon Wireless is in the process of acquiring Unicel for $2.67 billion but has agreed to spin off Unicel's overlapping territory in Vermont to satisfy regulators and critics of the deal.

Tuesday's announcement did little to alleviate those concerns.

"Certainly AT&T is another corporation with vast assets and that could be a good thing in terms of future competition in the state," said Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

But Burns said even with AT&T's announcement there remain unresolved issues, including a commitment on the part of Verizon Wireless and AT&T to expand cell phone service in the state.

"I think now we have a situation...

Read full article