ALLTEL is a telecommunications company located in Little Rock, Arkansas. As of August 2004 the company claimed over 12 million customers and $8 billion in annual revenue. ALLTEL provides wireless, local telephone, long-distance, Internet and high-speed data services to residential and business customers in 26 states.

ALLTEL is the largest regional mobile phone company in America with over 8 million customers. The wireless group provides service in parts of 24 states. The company mainly focuses on small to medium-sized cities.

Executive team

• President and CEO, Scott T. Ford
• EVP and CFO, Jeffery R. Gardner
• Chairman, Joe T. Ford

History

In 1943, Allied Telephone Co., a small business specializing in installing telephone poles and cabling for telephone companies across Arkansas, was founded by Charles Miller and Hugh Willbourn, Jr.

ALLTEL's modern history begins in 1983 when Allied Telephone and Mid-Continent Telephone merged. In 1985, ALLTEL launched its first wireless system in Charlotte, NC and by 1993 ALLTEL had opened its first wireless retail store. ALLTEL was named to the S&P 500 Index in 1994. By 1996 long-distance service was offered and in 1997 the company's wireless and wireline businesses converged into a single organization.

Mergers and acquisitions

1999

• Standard Group, Inc. (Cornelia, GA) - merger adds more than 71,000 local telephone lines
• Alliant Communications (Lincoln, NE) - $1.8 billion merger
• Liberty Cellular (KS) - $600 million merger

2000

• SBC Communications (Louisiana) - wireless properties

2002

• Verizon (KY) - $1.9 billion for local access lines
• CenturyTel - $1.5 billion, 700,000 wireless customers

2003

• Cellular XL (MS) - wireless properties
• U.S. Cellular and TDS Telecom - wireless assets [1]

Western Wireless

On January 10, 2005, ALLTEL announced it would buy Western Wireless (operator of Cellular One) for $6 billion in a stock-and-cash transaction. The deal would bring in an additional 1.4 million domestic wireless customers bringing the company's total wireless customer base to 10 million in 33 states making ALLTEL the fifth largest U.S. wireless operator. The merger would also bring an additional 1.6 million international customers from Western Wireless' overseas wireless ventures. Since both companies operate on CDMA technology, no major network integration issues are expected. According to ALLTEL CEO Scott Ford, "probably much less than 10 percent" of Western Wireless' 4,000 workers would face job cuts. The merger is expected to close in mid-2005 pending shareholder and regulatory approval.

ALLTEL-named Structures

• ALLTEL Pavillion , Raleigh, North Carolina
• ALLTEL Arena , Little Rock, Arkansas
• ALLTEL Stadium, Jacksonville, Florida
• ALLTEL Ice Den , Scottsdale, Arizona
• ALLTEL Racing

External links

• Official web site
• Yahoo! - ALLTEL Corporation Company Profile
• ALLTEL / Western Wireless transaction overview