If you’ve been reading Ars in recent months, you know there’s been a bit of a shakeup in the American mobile landscape: users are moving toward prepaid plans, T-Mobile and MetroPCS have merged, and Japanese mobile giant Softbank has infused Sprint with billions of dollars.

AT&T has decided it doesn’t want to be left out in the cold: on Tuesday it came to an agreement with southeastern rural provider Alltel to acquire its wireless business for $780 million. AT&T will also likely take on Alltel’s 585,000 customers spread across rural Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, and Idaho.

Alltel's parent company, Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc (ATNI), is also a cell provider in Guyana, Bermuda, and other Caribbean nations under different brand names. AT&T is only buying the domestic wireless portion, which operates under the Alltel brand, but is technically known as the Allied Wireless Communications Corporation. Alltel is worth 27 percent of the entire company according to its most recent 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"We are pleased that AT&T recognizes the value of our US wireless retail operations and is acquiring these assets," said Michael T. Prior, Alltel's chief executive officer, in a statement. "Alltel's customers will benefit from access to a nationwide 4G network, a larger device selection, additional retail locations and a broader range of product offerings.

One hurdle the company will need to overcome is the fact that Alltel is a CDMA carrier, while AT&T runs on GSM—AT&T will likely convert the Alltel customers over to GSM and use Alltel’s spectrum for GSM and LTE.

"The acquisition includes spectrum in the 700MHz, 850MHz, and 1900MHz bands and is largely complementary to AT&T’s existing network," AT&T added in a statement of its own.