Bluegrass Cellular

Mar 8, 2021

Bluegrass Cellular serves about 210,000 customers in central Kentucky. (Pixabay) Verizon has completed its acquisition of assets from Bluegrass Cellular, a rural operator serving customers in 34 counties in Kentucky. First announced in October, the deal includes 210,000 subscribers. Verizon said it expects most of those customers, alongside Bluegrass’ sales and operations to be fully integrated into Verizon by the end of 2021. Financial terms were not disclosed. Sponsored By VIAVI Solutions O-RAN: an Open Ecosystem to Power 5G Applications NEMs and operators worldwide are adopting O-RAN to lower the barrier to entry for new product innovation and to reduce infrastructure deployment costs. Read this paper to learn about O-RAN, related standards initiatives, and the developing ecosystem. “The expansion of our footprint in the Kentucky market brings our multi-purpose network to the residents and business owners in these areas,” said Ronan Dunne, executive vice president and Group CEO, Verizon Consumer Group, in a statement. “Customers can look forward to having access to the world’s most awarded network for performance, alongside a best-in-class customer experience.” Bluegrass Cellular served customers in central Kentucky counties in rural service areas (RSAs) 3, 4, and 5, in that area. Bluegrass subscribers don’t need to do anything at this time, according to Verizon, and will get information about wireless service offerings starting next month. Verizon and Bluegrass have been long-time partners. About 10 years ago, the rural operator joined Verizon’s LTE in Rural America program. Two years later, in 2012 Bluegrass launched the first phase of its LTE deployment through the Verizon initiative, which included shared access to the carrier’s 700 MHz Upper C Block spectrum. Bluegrass also became a roaming partner to Verizon. The Bluegrass 4G network was completed in 2015, and VoLTE services launched a few years later. In 2019, CCA President and CEO Steven Berry cited Bluegrass Cellular among smaller and rural carriers that were moving toward 5G-type services.