GTE News: <<CHICAGO (April 5) - Ameritech Corp. said Monday it agreed to sell 20 Midwestern cellular properties for $3.27 billion to GTE Corp. and a private partnership, meeting conditions set by the U.S. Justice Department on its planned sale to SBC Communications Inc.
The transaction, which is subject to closing the SBC merger, would eliminate all cellular properties that overlap with SBC, Ameritech said. The $61 billion merger of the two Baby Bell regional phone companies is still under review by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the Illinois and Ohio public service commissions.
Up to 1,700 Ameritech Cellular employees will transfer to GTE as a result of the sale, while others will continue to support the wireless operations of the combined SBC-Ameritech. Chicago-based Ameritech and San Antonio, Texas-based SBC expect to complete their merger, which has already won shareholder approval, by mid-1999.
A venture formed by GTE and Washington, D.C.-based Georgetown Partners will buy the cellular properties in Chicago, St. Louis, areas surrounding Illinois, and northwestern Indiana and Missouri, which represent 1.5 million cellular customers, Ameritech said.
Ameritech said it will work to make the sale ''transparent'' to customers, with no effect on service, pricing, contracts or roaming agreements.
''As promised, this sale demonstrates that the SBC-Ameritech merger will bring substantial new competition into the Midwest, broaden the ownership of these properties to include greater diversity from the community and provide customers the benefits of growth and robust competition,'' said Richard Notebaert, Ameritech's chairman and chief executive.>>
the cross over benefit to ORCTF could get very interesting. Although it's cellular properties, with those properties comes allocated bandwidth. the wireless dimension at ORCTF/Fuji is becoming more important too. I see a number of companies getting into wireless modems. I know ORCTF is exploring new areas, I would imagine this is one. Maybe Savo could enlighten us all relative to the relationship bw ORCTF and the wireless community now.
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