Verizon could soon service Lynchburg

By Bryan Gentry

Published: June 5, 2008

Verizon Wireless could soon offer its wireless phone service in Lynchburg, issue local phone numbers, and let its customers use more data services locally, thanks to a bid to buy Alltel.

Verizon announced Thursday an offer to buy Alltel Corporation and its assets — including customer accounts and cell towers — for $5.9 billion.

The purchase will introduce Verizon cell phone service to 57 new markets, including Lynchburg and Charlottesville.

Previously, people who wanted Verizon Wireless service in the region had to purchase the phone and plan somewhere else.

They couldn’t get a local number and some of the phone’s data features wouldn’t work.

“This acquisition is going to change all of that,” said John Johnson, spokesman for Verizon Wireless.

“We expect this will speed our ability to offer the full range of Verizon Wireless voice and high speed data services in Central Virginia.”

He said it’s too early to know what will happen when, but when the deal is closed people will be able to subscribe to Verizon service in Lynchburg.

Buying Alltel “will factor into our plans to expand our coverage in Charlottesville and the surrounding five counties,” Johnson said. “We have in the past been roaming onto Alltell in a good bit of that area.”

Allowing its customers to use Alltel’s towers in Central Virginia has probably cost Verizon millions of dollars per year, Johnson said.

Verizon Wireless was already planning to expand service into the region by 2010, and has applied for permits to build several cellular towers in Nelson County.

The county’s planning commission approved the requests on May 28. Johnson said those towers might not be needed since Verizon will acquire Alltel. But he said they could still go up.

The transaction will add about 13 million Alltel customers in 34 states to Verizon’s network, according to a news release.

The merger deal requires thumbs up from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, according to Johnson.