AT&T and Verizon complete asset swap

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December 22, 2008

Anonymous The Press Republican Sat May 15, 2010, 01:43 AM EDT

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) — AT&T; Inc. said Monday it has completed a swap of wireless assets with Verizon Wireless in order to meet the divestiture requirements of its acquisition of Dobson Communications Inc. last year.

AT&T; said that under the deal it has acquired licenses, network infrastructure and subscribers in rural areas of Vermont, New York, Washington State and Kentucky.

Verizon acquired the same type of assets in parts of Kentucky under the agreement, plus wireless spectrum in several areas and an undisclosed cash sum.

The Unicel store in Plattsburgh will become AT&T; early next year, according to Kate MacKinnon, AT&T; Wireless public relations.

AT&T; also now owns the former Rural/Unicel wireless network the North Country, MacKinnon said.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.

AT&T; completed its acquisition of Dobson, a wireless-service provider based in Oklahoma City, in November 2007, paying stockholders $13 per share, or $2.8 billion.

The Federal Communications Commission approved the deal but required AT&T; to shed its operations in some areas because of antitrust concerns.

The assets handed over to AT&T; from Verizon come from Verizon's acquisition of the Alexandria, Minn.-based carrier Rural Cellular Corp. in a deal valued at $2.67 billion including debt.

The FCC imposed similar requirements to sell assets when in approved the deal in August.

Share of AT&T; rose 10 cents to $28.22 in afternoon trading.