So now there will be only three nerds summoning the wizard?

@Steaming Pile: I have a feeling that they won't be summoning shit anymore when Verizon kills off the brand.

Verizon must be tired of paying roaming charges for the middle half of the US

freshyill
Exactly. Alltel is a monopoly territory rapist.
"Goodwill" name-value is a negative number.

My favorite quote is from the CNBC story on the topic:

"Put simply, they can run Alltel more efficiently than Alltel can," said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett.

What could possibly go wrong?

Great, my brother just got a job as an engineer with Alltel. He better start looking for a new job.

God, I thought (and was hoping) I left verizon behind when I left New England. Such a shitty company that I would rather give my money to ATT than to Verizon.

"This move will allow Verizon to screw over and rip off more customers than ever before!"

Funny how they mention all the Verizon features that will be gained, but no mention of any of Alltel's features. I guess this means MyCircle is going bye-bye.

@kretara: I want to leave New England! =(

I don't know what pisses me off more; the fact that Alltel went ahead with this or that I just lost a bet with a coworker :(

Goodbye My Circle and unlimited broadband.

Well there goes my wireless neighborhood--though it was probably inevitable.

I've only used pre-paid service, and the first service I had was Verizon's, around 2002ish. Paid over $100 for a phone with 99 cents-per-minute roaming. I picked up a $70 Simple Freedom phone at Wal-Mart (before it was collapsed into Alltel U Prepaid) and I've never looked back. I still have that working Nokia 3585i, which I deactivated for a newer LGAX5000.

I've had good service with Alltel with few complaints, but I do not like how that Verizon service turned out. Didn't Verizon participate in the same warrant-less wiretapping program that AT&T was? That's could be a deal-breaker, though I'll probably stick around long enough for the service changes that will really cause me to drop them.

Thanks for selling out, Chad. Isn't Google coming out with a wireless service soon?

I should clarify that I had the Verizon phone activated in Birmingham (for college) and bought the Alltel/Simple Freedom phone activated in the same city, where Alltel possessed a free roaming agreement. No local post-paid Alltel service was available in Birmingham at the time.

And Verizon's 99cent roaming would only kick in when I came back home to rural Southwest Alabama, which is Alltel country. (See how neat it all works out?) It really had to be important for me to pick up, much less call on a land-line phone.

13 million new people get to show us their Verizon face. Thank god the FCC decide to ignore the anti-trust laws. Only three companies to choose real cell service from- gee they won't screw us now. . .

So you have Sprint-Nextel,Cingular-ATT and now Verizon-Alltel.Now which one will be the first to sell out to the remaining two bring up one step closer to another monopoly.

In certain areas of the country you probably are already at the mercy of a local monopoly.

So much for competiton-when in doubt buy em out.

What will poor Chad do now? Will we be seeing him in the tabloids, wasted and yelling at paparazzi? Will he get picked up with hookers, or drugs, or on good night, hookers and drugs? Or maybe he'll take over the Verizon Nerd's spot and go all metro on the others and pretty them up...

So are they going to make a new commercial now where the Verizon dude grows a pair and just beats the living hell out of Alltel dude before absorbing him into his system for nourishment (courtesy of the WIZARD! of course)?

Woe is me, woe is me... AllTel is the first provider I've had that offers both excellent wireless service and excellent customer service. AT&T, my last provider, was just dreadful...and I signed on with *them* to get away from Verizon, whose service had deteriorated badly over the years.

I am feeling helpless and screwed.