Recall, a Recent order from the FCC that carriers no longer have to provide “Home on Home” Roaming. Meaning, if MetroPCS or Leap or anyone else for that matter has spectrum, say AWS spectrum, in Topeka, KS (a state capital or some other city), but has not deployed towers or equipment in that city, Verizon can legally shut off Leap and Metro Roaming due to this FCC order. The guys at the FCC say this order was intended to encourage investment in towers and network deployment to increase competition, but unfortuneately, the smaller guys simply can’t afford to build network in these markets, but are expected to offer service through roaming.

Second, I’ve got it from a good source at another large wireless company that Verizon’s roaming rates are DOUBLE that of Alltel’s. So, if Alltel is eleminated, the cost of roaming will double and thus, will be passed onto the customer. Or, this monopoly will get so large, it will become uneconomical to compete and thus, prices still rise. Competition is driving the unlimited plans. Now, there is one less person in the game to keep prices low.

Kudos to Verizon! They picked up Alltel for a relative steal.

Interesting times, let’s see what happens.

Anyone who’d like to take advantage of a highly-skilled workforce about to be at loose ends (including those already cut from Acxiom) might consider opening an office here in Little Rock.