Atlantic Tele-Network to buy Alltel assets.(Inside Business)

Atlantic Tele-Network Inc. of Salem, Mass., has reached an agreement to buy Alltel Corp. divestiture assets in a deal worth about $200 million.

The assets include Wireless spectrum licenses and network assets serving about 800,000 subscribers in mostly rural areas in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio and Idaho, according to a news release.

ATN will pay about $90 million in cash to Verizon Wireless, which bought Alltel, for the assets. ATN will borrow the rest.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval by the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission.

ATN expects the deal to close during the third or fourth quarter of this year.

The FCC and the DOJ ordered Verizon Wireless to divest assets in 105 markets as part of the $28.1 billion Alltel merger, which closed in January.

AT&T recently snapped up some of the assets in limbo, including about 1.5 million subscribers, for about $2.35 billion.

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