ALLTEL trades LV operation to consortium

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Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 11:59 a.m.

Agreements that would eliminate overlapping wireless telephone operations will affect ALLTEL customers and employees in Nevada.

Antitrust concerns prompted Bell Atlantic, GTE and Little Rock, Ark.-based ALLTEL to exchange wireless operations in 13 states, clearing the way for Bell Atlantic's merger with Great Britain's Vodafone AirTouch.

ALLTEL today announced plans to transfer its interest in 42 markets, including Las Vegas, to the Bell Atlantic-GTE-Vodafone AirTouch cellular operation.

For the Las Vegas operation, it is the fourth ownership change in six years. The company originally operated as Centel Cellular, was acquired and then spun off by Sprint, became 360 Communications, then ALLTEL.

ALLTEL has 350 employees in the Las Vegas area with a 100-employee regional call center that operates in 40,000 square feet at the Hughes Airport Center.

The company has 16 retail outlets, including in-store kiosks and five "superstores" that offer wireless phones, pagers, long-distance and paging services, Internet access and website design and hosting.