Wealth Finance

Alltel subscribers bumped from Verizon to AT&T by a merger deal don’t necessarily need to stay there, according to reporting by our colleagues at The Consumerist. In fact, reports Chris Morran, those people might even consider moving to T-Mobile, despite the pending merger between that carrier and AT&T.

The affected Alltel customers have wound up on AT&T’s customer lists as a result of Verizon being forced to shed some Alltel subscribers as a condition of its takeover of the smaller provider; AT&T subsequently bought the accounts of those customers.

Those bumped customers who are unhappy with going to AT&T aren’t obliged to do so, The Consumerist quotes a Verizon rep as confirming. Further, even those who are fine (or at least resigned) to becoming an AT&T customer eventually may want to go to T-Mobile for now.

That may especially be the case should T-Mobile provide better service than AT&T in your city (check our Ratings of cell-phone service in many metro areas, available to subscribers). Even if that doesn’t apply, T-Mobile service may very well be cheaper than comparable service from AT&T, and you may be able to hang on to those lower rates even if the merger goes through. That’s because the grandfathering of plans is something of a tradition in AT&T mergers, and the carrier’s CEO has said he sees no reason why that shouldn’t apply the the pending T-Mobile takeover.

Similar grandfathering occurred after the Verizon takeover of Alltel, at least for many Alltel customers. There are other striking similarities between that merger and the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile marriage, too. An analysis by Consumer Reports’ Jeff Blyskal of Alltel and Verizon rates after their merger confirmed that the buy-out removed an often lower-priced competitor from the marketplace. Jeff’s recent analysis of the T-Mobile/AT&T deal reached the same conclusion.

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