AT&T has completed its acquisition of Leap Wireless, which operates Cricket. The initial acquisition was announced on July 2013, with the FCC finalizing and approving the deal only a few days ago. In the deal AT&T will acquire:
Leap’s stock and wireless properties, including licenses, network assets, retail stores and subscribers for $15 per share in cash. Leap shareholders will also receive a contingent right entitling them to the net proceeds received on the sale of Leap’s 700 MHz “A Block” spectrum in Chicago, which Leap purchased for $204 million in August 2012.
AT&T will also begin plans to transform the existing Cricket Wireless to the "new" Cricket. Cricket is a prepaid wireless network that covers roughly 35 states and provides service to nearly five millions subscribers. The new Cricket will operate in a similar fashion providing simple and low cost plans with an excellent line-up of handsets without having to sign up for a service contract. Cricket will now be backed by AT&T's 4G LTE network, which currently covers nearly 280 million subscribers. AT&T plans to transition current Cricket subscribers to the new service within the next 18 months. This is necessary because Cricket is currently running on CDMA and will instead utilize AT&T's GSM networks after the transition.
Source: AT&T Pressroom | Image: AT&T
