Verizon Buys Unicel

Vermont gets left in the cold again as wireless giant Verizon snapped up Unicel (Rural Cellular Co.) for about $2.5 Billion.
This will make Verizon the only (to speak of) wireless provider in the Green Mountains.

Making this deal also could spell the end of the Unicel GSM network as Verizon switches Unicel customers back (Unicel just recently made the expensive conversion to GSM) to CDMA phones.

Worse yet, it gives Verizon a virtual monopoly in Vermont. Competition breeds creativity and it is a well documented fact that it is the consumers that lose in monopolistic situations.

Further, this portends poorly for those that were hoping for iPhones in Vermont. Since Apple has an exclusive with A T & T we are going to have to wait for either the remote possibility that A T & T will build some towers in Vermont or that Apple’s exclusive expires.

The Vermont Attorney General, William Sorrel, is looking into the anti-trust aspects of this transaction but the state has little authority here because wireless providers are not regulated by the state.

So, Vermont will continue to be the only state in the union without iPhones but hey, we’ve got a lot of other things here in Vermont that even Steve Jobs would like!