Verizon Wireless to Increase Stake In Northern California, Nevada Markets
BEDMINSTER, NJ — Verizon Wireless today announced it has agreed to acquire an additional stake in the Sacramento Valley Limited Partnership, which provides wireless communications services in portions of Northern California and Nevada under the Verizon Wireless brand.
The company will pay Roseville Communications Company [RCC] approximately $236 million for RCC's 24.2 percent interest in the partnership, representing approximately 920,000 net POPs or population served. Upon the closing of the transaction, expected to take place by Nov. 1, 2000, Verizon Wireless will own 76.6 percent of the partnership. The remaining stake is owned by Centennial Cellular Corporation.
Major markets served by the partnership include Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Chico, Redding, and Yuba City, California, RSA's # 8 and 10 in California, and Reno, Nevada. Total POPS served are approximately 3.8 million. The headquarters for the Verizon Wireless Northern California operations is based in San Ramon, CA.
About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless communications provider in the U.S. with more than 25 million wireless voice and data customers and nearly 3.5 million paging customers. The new coast-to-coast wireless provider was formed by the combination of the U.S. wireless businesses of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp - now Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) -- and Vodafone (LSE:VOD; NYSE:VOD). The new company includes the assets of Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular, GTE Wireless, PrimeCo Personal Communications and AirTouch Paging. The new company has a footprint covering nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population, 49 of the top 50 and 96 of the top 100 U.S. markets. Verizon Wireless, headquartered in New York City and Bedminster, NJ, is 30,000 employees strong. Reporters and editors can find more information about the company in its Media Center on the Web at: http://www.verizonwireless.com/mediacenter.
###
####