In Brief: American Cellular picks up Texas spectrum

American Cellular Corp. has agreed to buy wireless assets and spectrum in four Texas counties for $25 million, it was announced Tuesday.

The acquisition covers the Texas 15 Rural Service Area and increases American Cellular's presence in central Texas near the areas already served by American Cellular under the Cellular One brand.

The sparsely populated counties include Brown, Comanche, Mills and Tom Green counties, and the specific spectrum includes 25 Megahertz cellular and 10 MHz PCS (personal communications system) digital wireless.

While the deal involves a paltry 850 individual customers, Oklahoma-based American Cellular points out that the area has a number of rural tourist destinations and positions the company to better compete in all of central Texas.

"With the acquisition of Texas 15 RSA, we continue to enhance our strategic footprint in Texas," said company President Steve Dussek. "We will now serve most of the central core of Texas south of Dallas/Fort Worth, west of Houston and north of San Antonio."

Copyright 2006 by United Press International