chase all of the wireless properties owned by CenturyTel Inc. for $1.7 billion. The move allowed ALLTEL to add another 800,000 customers and expand its wireless business into new markets across Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Texas and Wisconsin. While the acquisition started on a sour note in mid-2000, with CenturyTel rejecting what it considered to be a hostile takeover attempt by ALLTEL to buy its wireless and wireline operations (for a hefty $6 billion), the two companies eventually agreed ALLTEL would buy only the wireless unit. After the deal was completed, ALLTEL walked away with a total of 7.4 million wireless customers in 24 states. Also included in the transaction are minority partnership interests in cellular operations of two million points of presence (also known as POPs, or potential customers), and licenses covering 1.3 million POPs in Wisconsin and Iowa. A good year For 2003, total company revenue stood at $8 billion, a 12 percent increase from 2002. Net income for the year was $1.3 billion, which represented a 44 percent increase from the previous year. Breaking the numbers down across the company's various business segments looks like this: Wireless revenue was $4.7 billion, a 14 percent increase from 2002; wireline revenue was $2.4 billion, a 12 percent increase from the previous year and the company more than doubled its DSL customer base in 2003, ending the year with more than 153,000 high-speed customers. But not all the news for the year was good. Although first quarter 2004 sales looked good - revenue increased by 3 percent, thanks in part to an increase in wireless subscribers - The Wall Street Journal reported that the company's cost of doing business increased sharply, causing earnings to fall by 32 percent. At the time the company was announcing its positive yearly earnings report, it had some bad news for some of its employees. ALLTEL said that due to changes in its organizational structure, it was eliminating 600 positions on the regional and corporate levels. The company