Verizon swap plan still on hold

Local News

Discussion

PLEASE NOTE: There is a 150 word maximum for comments. All comments greater than 150 words in length will be deleted in their entirety.

ALSO NOTE: Derisive name-calling of an individual or group will result in the entire comment being deleted. This includes the terms "stupid" and "idiot" and similar references.

Welcome to our new online comments feature. Before you can join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address.

Once you do, your comments will post after they have been reviewed by a moderator.

We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified, at the newspaper’s discretion, for a number of reasons. Here are some typical practices to avoid in trying to get your comment printed:

There is a 150 word maximum for comments. All comments greater than 150 words in length will be deleted in their entirety.

Don’t state as a fact something that is unsubstantiated or that our editors wouldn't know to be true.

Don’t presume someone’s guilt in a case when it hasn't been established by a court.

Don’t assail or impugn an identifiable individual or group. If you have that kind of criticism, sign your name and submit it as a Letter to the Editor. (There is some leeway on this in connection with public officials, but it is not unconditional.)

Don’t use profanity. This includes the term “tea bagger.”

Don’t be incendiary or tasteless. Those qualities are subjective, of course, and our editors will be the arbiters.

Do not identify yourself in the main content area of the article content form. Only by enforcing this rule can the moderators prevent unscrupulous commenters from falsely identifying themselves as someone they are not.

Don't type in all caps. It is considered the Internet equivalent of shouting.

In sports articles, do not criticize officiating.

Remember, moderators are not allowed to edit any article comments. If an article comment fails any of the above criteria, the entire comment will be deleted.

We monitor comments Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Approval of comments outside these times may be delayed.

comments powered by Disqus

January 5, 2008

By KIM SMITH DEDAM The Press Republican Sat Jan 05, 2008, 06:36 AM EST

LAKE PLACID — A plan for Verizon to buy Unicel property in New York and swap it with AT&T; is still awaiting approval.

Verizon put plans in the works last July to purchase Rural Cellular Corp., including Unicel brand, in a $2.67 billion deal.

The merger was approved by Rural Cellular shareholders in October.

But the rural New York Unicel properties, including sites in the Adirondacks, will be swapped with AT&T.;

Rural Cellular operates with a different type of technology, known as GSM, and Verizon’s planned merger drew fire in November from Vermont lawmakers who saw the deal as potentially creating a monopoly in the Northeast cell-phone market.

In December, Verizon and AT&T; agreed on an “asset swap,” an exchange of property between the two telecommunications companies.

In the swap, Verizon would trade former Rural Cellular properties, “including licenses, network assets and subscribers, in the Burlington, Vt., metropolitan service area and in rural service areas in New York, Vermont and Washington,” an AT&T; release states.

Verizon would acquire AT&T; properties that were once part of Dobson Communications in Kentucky.

The transactions were signed Dec. 3, 2007, but are contingent upon regulatory approval expected to close by mid 2008.

Verizon spokesman John O’Malley would not say Friday whether Unicel towers already located inside the Adirondack Park would transfer to AT&T; or anything further about the pending deal.

“We’re moving forward on it. Until it is closer to happening, there is not much to say about it.”

Unicel had previously leased space to build a tower at the transfer station in North Hudson and was working on a deal to place a tower in the hamlet of Elizabethtown.

It also has towers sited in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, supplying full cell-phone service to the central Tri-Lakes area.

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com