The US wireline carrier Windstream Corp has agreed to pay USD585 million cash to acquire CT Communications of North Carolina. The deal will add 158,000 phone lines and 29,000 broadband accounts to Windstream’s customer base, giving it 3.4 million access lines and 744,000 broadband subscribers in total. Windstream was established last year when the fixed line business of Alltel was spun off and merged with Valor Communications. It currently operates in 16 states and targets predominantly rural areas.
Windstream’s president and CEO, Jeff Gardner, commented: ‘CT Communications fits strategically with Windstream and advances our strategy of continuing to grow through acquisitions while expanding our free cash flow.’
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
RockyMountTelegram writes…..TARBORO – Edgecombe County officials are supporting an N.C. House bill that would help fund counties’ efforts to clear dilapidated mobile homes by placing some of the burden on homeowners.
The bill – which is sponsored by N.C. Rep. Joe Tolson, D-Edgecombe – would place a $300 state tax on the sale of new manufactured homes. The money would be placed in an account that counties could use to pay for the removal of abandoned mobile homes.
Tolson said unused mobile homes are an increasing problem in Edgecombe County and elsewhere in the state, and the bill is needed to ease the burden on counties to clean them up.
“We’re just trying to see what we can do about getting these homes removed, rather than just pulled back up against the woods or a vacant lot and left to deteriorate,” Tolson said. “We just want to explore this and see what the possibilities are.”
The bill has the support of Edgecombe County planning officials, who have been putting a greater focus on the issue. More than 5,500 mobile homes are located in the county, making up nearly a quarter of its total housing units, according to 2000 census data.
Planning Director Ola Pittman said abandoned mobile homes have grown over the years as people begin to switch out homes built in the 1970s and earlier for newer models, but are sometimes unwilling or financially incapable of getting rid of them.
That leaves many homes abandoned with no way to locate the owner, making the county responsible for removal. Pittman said it can cost the county up to $1,500 to dispose of an abandoned home, a burden the bill would help alleviate.
“I think it’s been a concern of all counties for some time now as our housing stocks get older,” Pittman said. “It would help us tremendously with the financial piece, which is the biggest piece.”
The abandoned mobile home problem is found all over the state. Adam Rust, a research director for the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina, said about 16 percent of the state’s population lives in mobile homes, and that about half of all vacant mobile homes are considered abandoned.
Rust pointed out that many of those homes are on leased land in trailer parks, making it difficult to locate the owners and creating a health and safety risk for neighbors.
“You may be keeping up with your home, but the person next to you may not be,” Rust said. “When you’ve got a different owner for the land and the unit, it becomes a much bigger problem.”
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Telegeography writes…corporationfinaloval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the first WiMAX laptop card. The card will connect to the Clearwire network and is on target to be available during the second half of 2007. Clearwire Chairman and CEO Perry Satterlee said ‘The FCC’s approval of our laptop card is a significant milestone in bringing to market a ‘true broadband’ wireless service with a device that facilitates even greater portability than our existing modem permits.’
Clearwire offers service in 37 metro markets, covering approximately 8.9 million people in more than 350 municipalities in Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin in the United States, as well as 1.2 million people in Ireland, Belgium and Denmark (under the Clearwire name through Danske Telecom).
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Windstream expands in North Carolina
