Centennial Communications

Centennial Communications Corp
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: CYCL
Industry Telecommunications
Fate Acquired by AT&T
Founded 1988 (1988) in Wall, New Jersey, United States
Defunct 2009 (2009)
Key people
 Michael Small (CEO)
Revenue US$1,001 million (2008)[1]
Number of employees
 3,400 (2008)
Website www.centennialwireless.com Centennial Puerto Rico

Centennial Communications and its subsidiaries (Centennial Wireless and Centennial de Puerto Rico) provided wireless and broadband telecommunications services to wireless telephone subscribers in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. On March 13, 2007 Centennial Communications completed the sale of Centennial Dominicana to Trilogy International Partners for approximately $80 million in cash.[2]

Overview

Centennial Communications Corp. and its subsidiaries were a wireless and broadband telecommunications services company. The company provided wireless network access and other services to wireless telephone subscribers in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. It provided various custom calling features, such as voice mail, caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting, and conference calling, as well as messaging services, including text messaging, picture messaging, and multimedia messaging services. Centennial Communications also offers its customers with Internet access directly from their handsets as well as aircards for laptops and computers and the ability to download games, ring tones, and other applications. It provided various handsets employing TDMA and GSM/GPRS technology in the United States; and CDMA technology in the Caribbean. In addition, the company offers a range of communications services, including asynchronous transfer mode, frame relay, Wi-Fi, gigabit Ethernet dedicated access, dedicated Internet ports, international long distance, switched access, High Speed Internet Access, dial-up Internet access, and private line services over its own fiber-optic and microwave network in Puerto Rico. Further, it offers various types of data center services, such as server and storage collocation, Web hosting, and managed services. As of March 14, 2007, Centennial Communications provides wireless and integrated communications services in the United States and Puerto Rico with approximately 7.1 million wireless subscribers, and 387,500 access lines and equivalents. The company was founded in 1988. It was formerly known as Centennial Cellular Corp. and changed its name to Centennial Communications Corp. in 2000. Centennial Communications is headquartered in Wall, New Jersey.

Centennial Wireless

Centennial Wireless, a wholly owned subsidiary of Centennial Communications, is a regional wireless telecommunications provider that operates a GSM network in the Midwest states of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana as well as the Southeastern states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Centennial also operates CDMA networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Centennial Wireless has approximately 1.1 million subscribers as of October 2007. It is the ninth largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States.

Centennial Wireless launched its BlackBerry service on September 27, 2007. .

AT&T buyout

AT&T announced a $944 million buyout of Centennial Communications Corp. as of Nov, 11 2008. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, the approval of Centennial’s stockholders and other customary closing conditions. Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, Centennial’s largest stockholder, has agreed to vote in support of this transaction. AT&T had hoped to obtain approvals by the end of the second quarter of 2009. In an attempt to quell regulators, on May 9, 2009 AT&T entered an agreement with Verizon Wireless to sell off certain existing Centennial service areas in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi for $240 million pending the successful merger of AT&T and Centennial.[3]

On July 8, 2009, AT&T announced a delay in the acquisition of Centennial, being postponed to by the end of the third quarter of 2009. The delay was announced shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice began an investigation on AT&T and Verizon Communications for anti-competitive behavior due to both carriers' massive growth.[4]

On November 6, 2009, the FCC gave final approval to AT&T's buyout of Centennial Communications. AT&T will be divesting five markets in Louisiana and Mississippi to Verizon Wireless. Three additional markets are to be divested to an unknown buyer.[5] AT&T will continue to operate Centennial's CDMA networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, rather than immediately move all customers to GSM/UMTS. On July 18, 2010 AT&T absorbed Centennial in the Caribbean.

References

  1. ↑ "Company Profile for Centennial Communications Corp (CYCL)". Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  2. ↑ "Centennial Communications Corp". www.ir.centennialwireless.com. 2007-03-13. Archived from the original (Webpage) on 10 October 2007. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
  3. ↑ "AT&T Agrees to Sell Certain Centennial Communications Corp. Assets to Verizon Wireless". www.newsticker.welt.de. 2009-04-09. Archived from the original (Webpage) on 2009-06-22. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  4. ↑ "AT&T, Centennial Hope To Close Takeover This Quarter" (Webpage). www.money.cnn.com. 2009-07-06. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
  5. ↑ "AT&T's purchase of Centennial gets final approval from FCC" (Webpage). TeleGeography. 2009-11-06. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
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