Sprint MVNO nTelos has announced plans to back out of eastern parts of Virginia in favor of western Virginia and West Virginia. Eastern markets effected by this change include Hampton Roads/Norfolk and Richmond, Va. areas. NTelos has come to an agreement with T-Mobile to sell the 1900 MHz PCS spectrum to T-Mobile for around $56 million.
The actual sale of the spectrum is expected to be completed in April, 2015 and nTelos plans to lease the spectrum from T-Mobile through Nov. 15, 2015, after which time customers should be fully migrated to T-Mobile networks. As part of this shutdown, nTelos has said that it will explore selling more ‘eastern market assets’ prior to the shutdown to offset the estimated $55 million cost of leasing the spectrum and closing operations in that part of the state. I didn’t see any announcements about how much money will be saved by this change.
However, as part of this most recent shift, nTelos has announced that they will be strengthening their ‘western market’ presence and options, including offers Sprint LTE networks and other ‘future feature upgrades’ for advanced LTE services in the future.
“The initiatives we are announcing today enable us to focus our operations where the opportunity is greatest and where we are the most competitive against other carriers,” nTelos President Rod Dir said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing our customers in West Virginia and western Virginia a terrific 4G experience.”
According to Fierce Wireless, nTelos is only the most recent in a line of carriers that have been scaling back their business. Other carriers with plans to exit or withdraw and solidify their presence in select markets include Cincinnati Bell Wireless, Revol Wireless, Mobi PCS, Plateau Wireless, Cellular One in Wyoming and Montana, AirFire Mobile and others.]]>
