Leap Wireless International, Inc., and Pocket Communications have announced that they have formed a Leap-controlled and managed joint venture. San Diego-based Leap is a leading provider of wireless communications services, and Pocket will give the joint venture customers and coverage in Texas that will add to those provided by Cricket, Leap’s Texas brand. The new company will potentially reach 4.4 million customers in South Texas.

San Diego joint venture attorneys following the announcement note that Pocket Communications, which offered unlimited pre-paid communications services, had approximately 340,000 customers in the South Texas region at the end of the second quarter of 2010. Leap, which offers unlimited, pre-paid mobile voice, text and Web, as well as mobile broadband service through Cricket, had approximately 5.3 million customers across the nation at the end of the second quarter of 2010, including approximately 430,000 in the South Texas region.

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Pocket Communications owns approximately twenty-four percent of the joint venture and Leap now owns approximately seventy-six percent. Leap first purchased some of Pocket’s South Texas assets for approximately $38 million in cash, which Leap then contributed to the joint venture together with its own South Texas assets. Pocket contributed the remainder of its South Texas assets to the joint venture directly.

Doug Hutcheson, Leap’s president and chief executive officer, said, “This joint venture demonstrates the possibilities in prepaid wireless now that the consumer-driven movement to value has reached a tipping point: combining Pocket with Cricket’s existing base gives us approximately 18 percent of the wireless market in that region. That is very significant, real penetration. This joint venture, which we expect will deliver significant value to our shareholders, is consistent with our strategy of improving our ability to compete by increasing our overall strength and scale.”

Source: Business Wire “Leap Wireless and Pocket Communications Complete Formation of Joint Venture to Provide Expanded South Texas Region Mobile Communications Services” Oct. 1, 2010