AT&T has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase the U.S. regional carrier, Leap Wireless, for $15 per share; acquiring all of the carrier’s assets, shareholders and customers. Leap operates as a consumer-orientated carrier which goes by the name of Cricket Wireless, it has both a CDMA and LTE network with coverage in 35 states along with 5-million subscribers, so it is the perfect expansion platform for AT&T’s “nationwide takeover.”

There’s no information suggesting that AT&T will continue to operate the standard CDMA network; however, the carrier did mention that it will not kill off the Cricket network and will allow users to access its own GSM and LTE networks instead. It will also keep possession of Cricket’s retail locations, and use the brand to further AT&T’s gradual entrance into the low-cost prepaid market.

AT&T’s offer of $15 per share is nearly double the closing stock price of $7.98 on Friday July 12, an offer that no shareholders are likely to have any issues with considering Leap’s current approximate $2.8 billion net worth of debt.

All-in-all this appears to be a smart move for AT&T in terms of customer migration, network expansion and spectrum holdings.

• SourceAT&T