Mid-Atlantic regional wireless carrier Shentel announced that it will be acquiring another carrier, Ntelos, in a deal set at $640 million, including net debt. The transaction will double Shentel’s subscriber base, but not its 151 tower count since Ntelos’ 103 towers were sold to Grain Management earlier this year for $41 million.
The Ntelos sale did not include any towers since Grain Management purchased them earlier this year for $41 million.
Sprint is heavily involved in the transaction and following the closing Sprint will get Ntelos spectrum assets covering 5.4 million people in parts of Va., W. Va., Pa., Md., Ohio, Ky. and N.C.
Whereas acquisitions oftentimes cause contractors and suppliers to lose business in the long term, this deal may enhance opportunities.
Shentel has agreed to continue to upgrade the Ntelos footprint for 4G LTE, including adding approximately 150 additional 4G LTE sites, using the spectrum acquired by Sprint, but made available for Shentel’s use.
In addition to Ntelos tower sale to Grain, the carrier sold off their spectrum in Eastern Virginia to T-Mobile. In a statement, Shentel said that the shuttering of those commercial operations will continue as planned and is expected to be complete by Nov. 15, 2015.