I had an interesting experience with ATT. I was into the 6 month of a 2year contract back in 2007. I wasn't using my phone much (non-iphone). But then I went on a road trip to Yellowstone, which included driving through ND, SD, MT and WY. During this 7 day trip, I was using my phone a lot (work + personal). The total amount of minutes I spent in those 7 days were way more than my usual monthly usage (in fact it ate into my rollover minutes as well).
After a few days from returning, I received a letter from ATT telling me that they could not afford me on their network for using so many minutes, as they had to pay their partner n/w in those states (not just major cities in those states). They wanted me to leave their network, in return they would let me have the phone (under contract for free).
I was happy to oblige as I wanted an iphone. I switched to Tmobile for a week and then went back to ATT again (iphone plan).
We were in a similar situation in 2005, when we moved from Kansas to NE Missouri. After a couple of months, an AT&T representative called an relayed much the same as above.
However, they let us out of our contract, gave us the phones, and paid us for the phones (since we had just renewed with them) at around $200 each.
It was quite a pleasant surprise.
Edit: And then they bought a tower in town when the iPhone came out. Go figure.
So, I am guessing, the ATT will not be leveraging their partner networks much now.
I was in MN back then (when I took the trip). ATT was expanding then in north mid-west. Even in MN, their coverage improved between 2007-2010.
I was driving through I-90 which cuts across SD and even stayed overnight in Rapid City. I think I had good signal, which I must admit was surprising on ATT, though, I wasn't aware it was from their partner n/w backs then.
I found this incident funny, 'cos this business had the sense to know how telecoms worked, knew the law and exploited the loophole to make money :-). Sometimes, I think its just connecting the dots as Jobs said.
I was getting ready to correct you, when I researched the Alltel acquistion.
Verizon purchased Alltel, but was required by the FCC to sell off 105 of the markets, which is where ATT stepped in and bought a bunch of those markets.
FWIW, my Alltel account was switched over to Verizon in 2009.
I had an interesting experience with ATT. I was into the 6 month of a 2year contract back in 2007. I wasn't using my phone much (non-iphone). But then I went on a road trip to Yellowstone, which included driving through ND, SD, MT and WY. During this 7 day trip, I was using my phone a lot (work + personal). The total amount of minutes I spent in those 7 days were way more than my usual monthly usage (in fact it ate into my rollover minutes as well).
After a few days from returning, I received a letter from ATT telling me that they could not afford me on their network for using so many minutes, as they had to pay their partner n/w in those states (not just major cities in those states). They wanted me to leave their network, in return they would let me have the phone (under contract for free).
I was happy to oblige as I wanted an iphone. I switched to Tmobile for a week and then went back to ATT again (iphone plan).