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Consumer Petition Urges Nebraska Public Service Commission to Conduct Formal Review of Proposed Alia

Nebraska consumers have petitioned the Nebraska Public Service Commission to require Aliant Communications to file a formal application with the Commission seeking approval of its proposed merger with Alltel Corp. Petitioners also seek Commission review of the impact of the merger on the cost and quality of communications services in Nebraska.

To date, Aliant has not submitted a formal application to the commission for approval of its $1.5 billion proposed merger with Alltel. Instead, Aliant asserts that its legal obligations are limited to filing an application with the commission to change its trade name from Aliant to Alltel.

"The proposed Alltel acquisition of Aliant is far too important to sneak through without a thorough review by the Nebraska Commission," said Rev. Lauren D. Ekdahl, one of the petitioners. "We're just asking the Commission to exercise its constitutional and statutory obligation to review the merger to ensure that it is in the public interest."

The Nebraska Constitution gives the Commission the authority to regulate all common carriers that provide communications services, the petition points out. Further, Nebraska statute requires Commission approval for any transfer of control, it notes. The petition cites the following Nebraska statute: "No common carrier other than a railroad shall consolidate its stock, property, franchise or earnings, in whole or in part, with any other competing common carrier without permission of the commission." (Neb. Rev. Stat., Section 74-146 Reissue 1996.)

In addition, the petition states that the Commission's own rules and regulations require Commission approval for transfer of control. According to the Commission's rules: "no valid sale, assignment or transfer of one or more exchanges can be affected by transfer of the physical properties, or the assignment of stock resulting in a change in controlling interest, until a joint application requesting such change is approved by the Commission and certificate of public convenience and necessity has been issued to the new owner. (Neb. Admin. R and Reg., Section 002.26A, Chapter 5.) The Commission's rules also require a public hearing on the merger.

A copy of the petition is available from Craig Wittstruck, Esq., 402-477-8800, who filed the petition on behalf of consumers.

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