Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Staff Report
Plateau Telecommunications announced on May 20, it has finailized the sale of its wireless assets to AT&T.
The sale, first announced in June 2014, received Federal Communications approval on May 8.
The sale includes Plateau’s wireless operations and assets throughout New Mexico and Texas, and its 37,500 cellular customers. Plateau will continue to provide customer service during a transition period, including operation of stores in Clovis, Plainview and Levelland and through its 1-877-PLATEAU customer help line.
Plateau declined to release terms of the sale, and directed questions about when AT&T would take over those assets to AT&T. Pleateau representatives added that AT&T would reach out soon to its new customer base.
The sale does not affect Plateau’s other areas of local business, including landline telephone service, fiber optics or Internet for home and business use.
The company, which had about 250 employees at the time of the sale announcement, currently employs around 200. Launa Waller, a regulatory manager for Plateau, said any jobs lost were through attrition, and it is Plateau’s hope that the same process continues.
Plateau, created in 1949 as the Eastern New Mexico Rural Telephone Cooperative, now provides various services to 14 counties in New Mexico and three in Texas.
Prior to the sale, Plateau’s wireless service was comprised of partnerships between the ENMR Telephone Cooperative, Five Area Systems, Mid-Plains Rural Telphone Cooperative, South Plains Rural Telephone Cooperative, West Texas Rural Telephone, Yucca Telecommunications Systems, and SBMS RSA Inc..
The 28-page FCC order is available online at fcc.gov/document/att-plateau-memorandum-opinion-and-order.
