New Details: Centennial becomes AT&T

FORT WAYNE, IND. (WANE) - The final days of a major employer as we know it are here. Over the weekend, the Centennial Wireless name will fade away, in favor of the AT&T name. This comes after a merger of the two companies was announced on November 7, 2008.

The closing of the deal took a lot longer than the two companies had expected, due to government regulation changes. In the middle of October 2009, the merger cleared a major FCC hurdle. Then, just about a year after the merger was announced, the deal closed on November 6, 2009.

Since then, AT&T has been working to integrate Centennial into the AT&T conglomerate; as NewsChannel 15 reported on November 6, 2009, that was expected to be complete by late January.

Centennial, a major cell phone provider in the Midwest, has two major hubs in Fort Wayne. NewsChannel 15 was first to tell you on wane.com Friday afternoon that Centennial’s Illinois Road Call center will remain in tact, but the future for the West State Boulevard Headquarters operation remains unclear.

There were cheers at the Lima Road store Friday afternoon, as Centennial Wireless re-opened as AT&T. Perhaps another big reason for the cheers was the fact that the Illinois Road call center will stay open under AT&T.

"There are 350 jobs that are out there that we had some anxiety about but they're going to stay there and those jobs are going to stay in Fort Wayne," said Fort Wayne Deputy Mayor Greg Purcell.

Things have been taking shape since the merger was approved in November.

"Over the past month, we've had the opportunity to serve some of the Centennial customers and transition them over to our products and services," said Indiana AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets Vice President and General Manager Brian Ducharme.

On Sunday, January 24, Centennial Wireless customers will see the name forever fade away at retail stores in favor of AT&T. That's when the conversion should pretty much be finished. No stores will close, but what the future holds for employees at the Centennial Headquarters is unclear.

"In terms of the people who work in these stores and work in the call center on Illinois Road, they are in a secure position,” AT&T Indiana President George Fleetwood told NewsChannel 15’s Matt McCutcheon.

When Fleetwood was asked what that meant for West State Boulevard Headquarters, he said, “I don't know exactly. I don't know what all the plans are for that on a going forward basis.”

But, AT&T officials will say there could be some senior management cuts in that office.

“That's a very small number of people. Very small,” Fleetwood said. When asked if that could be a dozen or so, he said, “I don't have a number. But it's a small number; a very small fraction of the 600 people I understand that are employed in that area.”

There also isn't any word on how the finished merger may impact Centennial's community involvement in things like July 4th sponsorships or the “Holiday on the Boulevard” event.

If you have a Centennial phone, you'll receive about any plan changes, but you're pretty much an AT&T customer now. Officials say the best thing to do is to go to a store and speak to an agent to find out more about the plan. This also means Centennial customers will now be eligible for phone like Apple’s popular iPhone. You can also find plan details by clicking here for Centennial and by clicking here for AT&T..

Company officials say other benefits for customers will be increased coverage areas to improve service reliability and cut down on roaming. There will also be more stores in northeast Indiana, as well as nationwide access and mobility for Centennial customers.

Centennial History:

The company first began business in northeast Indiana as Century Cellular in 1988. Its cell phone service went by the name of Cellular One.

On November 7, 2008, AT&T announced plans to acquire Centennial, but the deal took longer than anticipated because the company had to sell off assets in Louisiana and Mississippi in order for the deal to be approved by the U.S. Justice Department.

In May of 2009, AT&T agreed to sell certain Centennial wireless assets in five markets to Verizon Wireless for $240 million.

As of November 2009, Centennial had 1.2 million wireless customers; AT&T had more than 80 million. AT&T is the nation’s second-largest wireless provider.

November 6, 2009: Merger is approved.