County

Familiar buyer: NC Telecom’s assets purchased by UBET Wireless at auction

MEEKER — The new owner of NC Telecom is a familiar company.
UBET Wireless will take over ownership of NC Telecom’s assets after making a winning bid of $4.15 million in last Friday’s bankruptcy auction in Denver.
UBET Wireless of Roosevelt, Utah, is a subsidiary of UBTA-UBET, which owns 100 percent of the stock in NC Telecom.
“They are two separate companies,” said Rick Heming, general manager for NC Telecom. “UBET Wireless is the wireless division of UBTA. UBET Wireless will become owner of the assets, the physical assets, they’re not taking over the stock.
“NC Telecom will be left as a corporation with no assets,” Heming said. “UBET is buying all of the assets, not buying the name necessarily. They now own all of the assets, and they can put those assets into UBET Wireless or put them back into NC Telecom. From a customer standpoint, it doesn’t matter which company owns the assets.”
Besides UBET Wireless, two other companies — CenturyTel Communica-tions and Tri-State Generation and Transmission — took turns bidding on NC Telecom.
“Bidding was vigorous,” Heming said of the auction, which started at 10 a.m. last Friday, finished around 1:30 p.m. and included 36 bids.
“Now there’s the transition process,” Heming said. “It’s like buying a house. You have a closing date down the road.”
Heming said the ownership transition will be finalized after the first of the year.
“UBET won’t actually take over until January,” Heming said. “Until then, everything is status quo. After the sale is finalized and closed, how the new owner will handle things is obviously up to them, but we don’t anticipate any changes.”
Heming said he was pleased with the outcome of the auction.
“Our hope was to generate the most money for the creditors,” Heming said.
Those creditors include Rio Blanco County, which in 1999 gave more than $1 million in start-up money to NC Telecom, in return for services.
“Distribution to creditors will be done through a plan of reorganization, which specifies how the money will get distributed,” Heming said. “That’s part of the closing process, and probably also will be done in January. That’s one of the items the attorneys will start working on. They both are in progress at this point.”
NC Telecom’s total debt was between $14 million and $15 million.
In the meantime, NC Telecom, which has an office in Meeker, announced a network upgrade on its Web site.
“During the coming weeks we will be re-routing our Internet traffic in order to increase the bandwith we receive,” according to the announcement. “While we are working on the network upgrade … customers may notice minor fluctuations in service levels, but there will not be any interruption of service.”

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  • The 2024 Meeker High School boys basketball team held their awards banquet last week. Jace Mobley was named Player of the Western Slope League and all-conference, Ryan Sullivan all-conference, Jonathon Fitzgibbons all-conference, Ethan Quinn honorable mention all-conference, Jacob Simonsen honorable mention all conference. Mobley will play in All State games. Coach Klark Kindler was named Western Slope Coach of the Year. Left to right: Bryan Rosas, Simonsen, Quinn, Fitzgibbons, Mobley and Sullivan.
  • It's that time again! Another edition of great local news stories is 
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Need a copy? Signing up is fast and easy! Visit our website at ht1885.com/subscribe to get a copy sent to your door every week! 
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  • It’s getting late, do you know where your kids are? Read all the Rio Happenings for this week in print or online at ht1885.com.
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Rio Blanco County and the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts are still asking for your help to identify additional hatch-outs of crickets so that control efforts can be put in place. The success of the program will highly depend upon local landowners and the public helping to locate crickets as soon as they hatch.  See last week’s paper for a list of ways to help or contact the County Weed & Pest District at 970-878-9670 or the Conservation District office at 970-878-9838 with any questions. Website: www.WhiteRiverCD.com
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The 2024 Meeker High School boys basketball team held their awards banquet last week. Jace Mobley was named Player of the Western Slope League and all-conference, Ryan Sullivan all-conference, Jonathon Fitzgibbons all-conference, Ethan Quinn honorable mention all-conference, Jacob Simonsen honorable mention all conference. Mobley will play in All State games. Coach Klark Kindler was named Western Slope Coach of the Year. Left to right: Bryan Rosas, Simonsen, Quinn, Fitzgibbons, Mobley and Sullivan.
The 2024 Meeker High School boys basketball team held their awards banquet last week. Jace Mobley was named Player of the Western Slope League and all-conference, Ryan Sullivan all-conference, Jonathon Fitzgibbons all-conference, Ethan Quinn honorable mention all-conference, Jacob Simonsen honorable mention all conference. Mobley will play in All State games. Coach Klark Kindler was named Western Slope Coach of the Year. Left to right: Bryan Rosas, Simonsen, Quinn, Fitzgibbons, Mobley and Sullivan.
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It's that time again! Another edition of great local news stories is 
🐰 Hopping 🐰 your way this morning! Catch up on everything thats 🐣 hatching 🐣 in Rio Blanco County this week.
Need a copy? Signing up is fast and easy! Visit our website at ht1885.com/subscribe to get a copy sent to your door every week! 
We appreciate all your continued support!
It's that time again! Another edition of great local news stories is 🐰 Hopping 🐰 your way this morning! Catch up on everything thats 🐣 hatching 🐣 in Rio Blanco County this week. Need a copy? Signing up is fast and easy! Visit our website at ht1885.com/subscribe to get a copy sent to your door every week! We appreciate all your continued support!
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Rio Blanco County and the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts are still asking for your help to identify additional hatch-outs of crickets so that control efforts can be put in place. The success of the program will highly depend upon local landowners and the public helping to locate crickets as soon as they hatch.  See last week’s paper for a list of ways to help or contact the County Weed & Pest District at 970-878-9670 or the Conservation District office at 970-878-9838 with any questions. Website: www.WhiteRiverCD.com
Mormon crickets have hatched near Rangely. They were all sighted on BLM land north of Hwy. 64 near the junction of CR 96 and CR 1, down a dirt road near the Moffat County line. The picture shown was taken yesterday by Mary Meinen from Rangely. She says the crickets are about the size of a ladybug (less than 1/2”). Some of them are actually yellow in color but most of them are darker. They are milling around and getting ready to start moving soon. Note: Photo is not to scale. Rio Blanco County and the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts are still asking for your help to identify additional hatch-outs of crickets so that control efforts can be put in place. The success of the program will highly depend upon local landowners and the public helping to locate crickets as soon as they hatch. See last week’s paper for a list of ways to help or contact the County Weed & Pest District at 970-878-9670 or the Conservation District office at 970-878-9838 with any questions. Website: www.WhiteRiverCD.com
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