Contel Corp took little time to accept GTE Corp’s share exchange proposal in principle and the two companies expect to thrash out a definitive merger agreement in a few weeks. The combination would create a local local telephone service operator right up there with the Baby Bells – some versions say it would be the biggest, others say it would be fourth behind Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Ameritech and Nynex; it would also have a cellular telephone business with franchises covering a population of 50m, making it number two to McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. Adding in Contel’s $3,100m turnover would take GTE to just past the $20,000m mark.
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