Yeah but in the Cingular case, they had agreed as part of the deal to take over AT&T Wireless to maintain service for the AT&T existing customers.
I havent been able to find anything on the agreement between Alltel and First Cellular yet, but if it isnt spelled out in the deal that they have to maintain existing customers' service, then no court is going to force them to.
Alot of smaller, regional cell companies are folding recently because they cant afford to keep up with the advances in technology and give competitive pricing plans.
