LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel announced it formed five operating regional headquarters as part of a deal announced Feb. 1 calling for Alltel to exchange wireless properties in 13 states with Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. The transactions are expected to close by mid-year.
“Each of the five regions, if taken individually, would rank in the top 10 of wireless companies in the United States,” said Kevin Beebe, president of the communications group for Alltel. “This transaction gives us additional opportunities to expand our bundled communications offerings to substantially more customers across broad market clusters.”
Alltel, Bell Atlantic and GTE also signed a new 10-year national roaming agreement, allowing customers to roam on each other’s network at reciprocal rates. Each company uses Code Division Multiple Access technology and, with the new agreement, will form the nation’s largest standardized digital wireless network, according to Alltel.
Dan Lohr will head the mid-Atlantic region headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. The southeast region, headquartered in Tampa, Fla., will be led by Dan Thompson. The northern region will be headed by George Page and be based in Cleveland. Dave Atkins will lead the central region from Little Rock, Ark. Philip Junker will lead the southwest region from Phoenix.
According to Alltel, the formation of the mid-Atlantic and central region management teams will begin immediately, with the other three regions being formed when the company assumes management responsibility for those markets.
