GTE Acquires Cellular Network

GTE Corp. said its cellular-radio unit will pay $710 million in cash to acquire the Providence Journal’s mobile-phone properties in Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia--a price some analysts called “a bargain.”

The deal, exclusive of property and equipment, works out to $189 per potential customer among the 3.5 million population in the four-state region. The purchase will give GTE Mobile Communications Group a presence in such major Southeastern markets as Raleigh-Durham and Greensboro, N.C., Charleston, S.C., and Augusta, Ga.