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Hargray to sell its wireless business

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Cricket Communications has entered into an agreement to purchase the wireless telecommunications business of Hilton Head Island-based Hargray Communications Group.

Cricket, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Leap Wireless International, entered into the $30-million purchase agreement earlier this month.

Company officials say the sale is expected to close in the first half of 2008, but still faces approval from the Federal Communications Commission, according to a press release from Cricket.

The wireless phone service will still be offered through Hargray's bundled services, which also include phone, high-speed Internet, and cable television, according to the release.

Hargray's wireless license covers about 817,000 people with a current network that covers about 695,000 of that population.

The wireless service is available in Beaufort, Hampton and Jasper counties as well as a number of counties in Georgia.

In a statement, Michael Gottdenker, Hargray CEO, said the deal will give wireless customers access to a state-of-the-art wireless network from a coast-to-coast carrier.

Doug Hutcheson, president and CEO of Cricket, said in a statement the purchase expands the company's presence on the eastern seaboard without the costs of have having to build a wireless network from the ground up.

Hargray was sold from local family hands to private equity firm Quadrangle Capital Partners in late June.

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