Alltel history

In 1945, they opened a storefront in the Hillcrest district of Little Rock.

In 1954, Wilbourn and Miller formed Allied Telephone Company as a holding company to manage all of these small companies.

Systematics, Inc – founded in 1968 by Arkansas investor Jackson T. Stephens.

There was talk of him running for governor but in 1982, he withdrew from politics to focus developing Allied.

Alltel's modern history begins in 1983 when Allied Telephone and Mid-Continent Telephone merged.

Scott had graduated from UA in 1984 with a degree in finance and was working for Stephens, Inc. putting together billion-dollar deals.

Weldon Case, president of Mid-Continent, became CEO and Chairman of the Board but in 1987, he stepped down as CEO and Ford took on that position as well.

Hugh Wilbourn, Jr. would serve on ALLTEL’s board of directors until his retirement in 1990.

In 1993, Alltel opened its first wireless retail store.

In January, 1996, Joe Ford’s son, Scott, came on board at ALLTEL as executive vice-president.

Connecticut RSA 1 (Litchfield, Connecticut) market acquired from AT&T Wireless in 2005, was sold to Verizon Wireless.

The merger-spinoff process ended July 17, 2006 when Windstream began operations.

Under the deal, the two firms paid $71.50 a share in cash, or $27.5 billion, a 10% premium over Alltel's May 18, 2007 closing price.

Verizon would acquire the company from these private investors in 2009, making Verizon the largest cell phone provider in the nation.

The company’s loans traded around 98 cents on the dollar, while bonds paying a 7 percent coupon that mature in 2012 shot up 12 cents, trading at about par, according to Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary and Data.

As the longest serving member in the current leadership team, Neri has been with Alltel since 2013.

Since joining the management team in 2016, Pia has brought her extensive experience in sales management and marketing leadership to support the company’s growth objectives.

Since 2017, Lance has been inspiring the Alltel team with his leadership, sharing a passion for the values and people of our team and creating a culture of diversity and inclusivity.