AT&T and Verizon Wireless are usually fierce competitors in the lucrative wireless communication industry. However, with Verizon Wireless forced to sell their assets in nearly 80 areas in the United States due to government regulations, AT&T decided to buy the assets for a reported price of $2.35 billion.

The areas, which are mostly rural, account for approximately one million former Verizon Wireless customers. Those subscribers will now have to switch over to AT&T to keep their wireless service. AT&T said that the transfer will be complete near the end of 2009.

Due to the addition of Alltel Corporation and Rural Cellular, Verizon Wireless was no longer allowed to keep their assets in these territories. Those nearly 80 territories are in a total of 18 states that include Kansas, Nevada, North Dakota, Colorado, Arizona, Tennessee, Wyoming, Utah and Alabama.

Cell Phones (Image: Flickr)

Conor Dougherty wrote an interesting story for the Wall Street Journal’s RealEstateJournal.com last week. In it, Dougherty covered a new trend: Second-home buyers are drastically changing the nature of large slices of rural America.

You can read the story here. The main thrust is that as affluent retirees and other wealthy buyers purchase second homes on remote areas, they bring with them demand for interior-design studios, spas and organic supermarkets. These shops are now popping up in these areas. It’s a dramatic change. According to the Journal’s story, some residents of these areas consider this trend the most significant change to their areas since the interstate highways first came through.

Of course, such change has its good and bad sides. On the positive side, the new shops are a nice amenity for the residents of these rural areas. On the negative, the influx of wealthy second-home buyers can drive up property values so high that longtime residents of an area can no longer afford to live there.

On the whole, then, I’d say that negative outweighs the positives — at least for those longtime residents.