<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>Alltel Negotiating To Extend Sale Pact For Austrian Unit</span>

Alltel Corp. said its Western Wireless International Austria Corp. unit is negotiationg to extend the agreement covering its planned EUR1.3 billion, or $1.54 billion, sale of tele.ring to T-Mobile International.

The deal was signed Aug. 10 and can be terminated Tuesday by either party if no extension is reached.

Alltel believes it will reach an extension agreement. If not, the Little Rock, Ark. wireless company said it will explore options with other interested parties. Either way Alltel expects to sell the business by mid year.

-Ian Salisbury; 201-938-5400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

That's nothing new, the deal is being delayed since there are some who will object to T-Mobile expanding even further in Austria. T-Mobile already has their own established network so Alltel might very well look for another interested provider. Perhaps this would include Vodafone or even O2.

Vodafone already has a deep relationship with A1 Mobilkom, so I think Telefonica/O2 could be more interested in Tele.Ring, while One was in Orange group, but I don't know if it still is...

Even so, it wouldn't be surprising to see Vodafone take a chance for another network of their own.