Epic PCS to Merge and Relocate

Kansas’ Epic PCS has announced they will be migrating its wireless division into two separate companies: PTCI in Oklahoma and United Wireless in Kansas. According to the Leader and Times, in an agreement between the three companies, the Kansas side of Epic PCS will be purchased by United Wireless of Dodge City, and the Oklahoma side of Epic PCS will be bought by PTCI of Guymon, Oklahoma. PTCI will acquire some of the Epic PCS towers, spectrum and the store located in Guymon’s Northridge Shopping Center. Likewise United will acquire some of the towers, spectrum and the store located in Liberal’s Coronado Plaza. This deal is still subject to FCC approval. Until this has been approved, Epic PCS will still provide service to its wireless customers. The migration is an economic decision,” said Micheal Shannon, assistant manager of Epic Touch Co.“For small rural companies with a smaller customer base the cost of providing wireless service is financially impossible due to loss of federal funding under the current administration. We cannot compete with other carriers that have more than 15-20,000 customers allowing them to spread the cost of improvements across the board and provide the consumer with affordable wireless service. With their larger customer bases, PTCI and United Wireless serve the areas well and can provide faster data speeds that the wireless consumer demands. PTCI’s wireless goal is to connect the Oklahoma Panhandle with the rest of the world over the best network possible,” said Shawn Hanson, PTCI’s CEO, “and this is where the acquisition of the Epic PCS assets comes in. The additional towers, radio spectrum and business office space we are receiving will only enhance our efforts to reach this goal, and we are pleased to have been able to negotiate this agreement.” (Leader and Times)