We’ve not heard a peep from the HTC Merge (formally Lexicon) in some time now, and it was notably absent from CES this year, causing a few people to think that it might have been axed.
However, a new image of the device infers that maybe the device isn’t destined to fade away, but, rather, make an appaerance on regional carrier Alltell. → Read More
J.D Power and Associates just issued Volume 2 of their Wireless Customer Care report, which runs from January to June of 2009. It’s a big three-way tie this time around, with T-Mobile, Alltel, and Verizon all taking a victory lap. AT&T follows behind with an “About Average” (3/5) rating, while Sprint stumbles with a paltry 2/5. At this point, T-Mobile can pretty much build a small fort out of these little glass trophies, having taken one home 9 out of the last 10 reports. Don’t be too surprised if these things start popping on the garage sale circuit. → Read More
I pity the poor rural cellphone owner. First Verizon snapped up Alltel and something called Rural Cellular and now AT&T grabbed those 1.5 million subscribers in a $2.35 billion deal. → Read More
In honor of our wonderful economy (jk!), Alltel Wireless has launched the very reasonably priced ($19.99 after $50 MIR w/2 yr agreement), full QWERTY-equipped LG Banter. The fraternal twin of Sprint’s Rumor2, Alltel’s 4.4oz LG Banter is a poor man’s smartphone, complete with Alltel email, Yahoo! and AOL instant messaging apps, and a “chat-style messaging interface.” The CDMA slider candy bar offers up to 300 minutes of talk time with some 288 hours of standby. Now, if only we could do something about their amazing irritating commercials… → Read More
It’s been nearly five months since Verizon announced their plans to buy out Alltel, but they’ve finally leaped the last hurdle. Just minutes ago, the FCC signed off on the $28.1 billion dollar deal (Verizon is paying $5.9 billion, and assuming $22.2 billion of Alltel’s debt.), clearing the way for its finalization. The FCC’s stamp of approval doesn’t come without strings attached, however. Amongst other conditions, Verizon will be required to maintain any roaming agreements Alltel has with other carriers for at least four years. Read more at MobileCrunch >> → Read More
It’s been nearly five months since Verizon announced their plans to buy out Alltel, but they’ve finally leaped the last hurdle. Just minutes ago, the FCC signed off on the $28.1 billion dollar deal (Verizon is paying $5.9 billion, and assuming $22.2 billion of Alltel’s debt.) The FCC’s stamp of approval doesn’t come without strings attached, however. Amongst other conditions, Verizon will be required to maintain any roaming agreements Alltel has with other carriers for at least four years. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin originally requested that roaming agreements would be honored for two years, and Verizon responded with the offer to honor them for four. This still wasn’t quite enough for some; though the vote passed 5-0, 2 of those who voted yes dissented, feeling that the roaming agreements should be required for at least seven years. → Read More
Alltel is now selling the LG Rhythm in two colors – white and black — for $119.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year service agreement. Features include a 1-inch circular (?) touchscreen, 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 player plus an FM transmitter (nice), GPS, support for web videos, and Bluetooth. Oh, and you also get a big intangible with any Alltel product — one of the dreamiest spokespeople in the wireless industry; that Chad guy. How in the hell does he do that with his hair? It’s beautiful. Full release after the jump… → Read More
The rumors floating around yesterday are true. Verizon Wireless has just announced that they will be acquiring Alltel for $28.1 billion. The acquisition should be completed by year’s end. Full release after the jump. → Read More
He’s installing the 4G network by himself. Flickr’d. No love for CDMA. Alltel, which this map shows as being popular in what us latte-drinking, east coast elite call “fly-over country,” has committed its 4G future to LTE, a GSM technology. While the transition is still a ways away—like, three to five years away—the corp’s COO cautioned that “you should not expect to see us talking about 4G anytime at least in 2008.” Basically, Alltel, one day, will move toward LTE. Just don’t ask about it for a few years. The best is that we’re already talking about 4G when 3G hasn’t even rolled out yet for most folks. → Read More
Is it just me or is Alltel getting a decent amount of cool devices lately? The latest device to hit Alltel store shelves is a titanium-colored BlackBerry Curve 8330. This one is akin to the Curve available on AT&T because it lacks Wi-Fi, but has GPS. A new 2-year contract will fetch the Curve at $230 starting May 1, but you can pre-order now. → Read More
The very-businesslike MOTO Q9c will be available this summer to Alltel subscribers in lime green or “licorice” colors. I certainly don’t mean for anyone to take this personally, but it’s my opinion that lime green is a ridiculous color for a business-oriented cell phone (or any type of gadget, for that matter). That’s just me, though. That’s just me. I’m guessing that the “licorice” version is a little more subdued, although Motorola’s press release didn’t indicate whether it was red or black licorice. If it’s blazingly bright red in color, you’re going to have to decide which is the lesser of two evils for you. Luckily, it’s black licorice. Trust me. The Q9c for the Alltel network will be available sometime this summer for $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and two-year service agreement. → Read More
[photopress:scaled.IMG_1699.JPG,full,pp_image] Just got the LG Glimmer in from Alltel so I took a few shots before the real review. It’s basically a slider phone with haptic touch screen and some music/video playback features. It’s quite solid and heavier than I expected and the screen is quite bright and readable. Overall I wouldn’t kick it out of bed for eating crackers, as my grandfather used to say. That was after he drank. Look for a full review next week. [photopress:scaled.IMG_1698.JPG,thumb,pp_image][photopress:scaled.IMG_1700.JPG,thumb,pp_image][photopress:scaled.IMG_1695.JPG,thumb,pp_image][photopress:scaled.IMG_1697.JPG,thumb,pp_image][photopress:scaled.IMG_1702.JPG,thumb,pp_image][photopress:scaled.IMG_1696.JPG,thumb,pp_image][photopress:scaled.IMG_1701.JPG,thumb,pp_image] → Read More
Click on the image for an upright shot This morning Alltel announced the addition of the clamshell Samsung Muse to their lineup. The music-centric Muse has a dedicated music key and is a shade of midnight blue. Other features include an MP3 player with 64MB of internal memory, 2-megapixel camera (video), GPS, stereo Bluetooth and access to Alltel’s XM mobile radio service, the Muse doesn’t sound all that bad. It goes for a mere $90. [photopress:scaled.Front_View___Open.JPG,thumb,pp_image] Alltel → Read More
[photopress:glimmer.jpg,full,left]Alltel, those other guys who carry cellphone signals for people, will be launching the LG Glimmer soon. The brother of the Shine, on Verizon, the Glimmer is a media-centered phone with a sliding T9 keypad and shiny exterior. Oh, and a touchtastic touchscreen. MicroSD, 3G, and a 2-Megapixel camera round out this attractive phone, and it should be out in about a month. Alltel to hop touchscreen bandwagon with LG [Electronista] → Read More
[photopress:ryannewman.jpg,full,center] I have met only one person in my life who uses Alltel and she was from the deep dark South, so maybe this post is for her. Ryan Newman won the Daytona 500 at the weekend; he was alarmingly gracious when I saw him on SportsCenter. (Larry the Cable Guy insists that the race is pretty much sacred in the South. I trust his opinion.) How does this tie into Alltel? Alletl is Newman’s main sponsor. What else could it have been? In celebration of Newman’s win—it was the 50th anniversary of the race—Alltell will give 500 bonus minutes to new subscribers and current subscribers who add an additional line to their account. Alltel’s also giving away a Samsung Hue with the purchase of one—buy one, get one free. Easy enough. Alltel → Read More
Alltel Wireless is teaming with mobile entertainment software company mSpot to facilitate over-the-air music synching and streaming to the MOTOROKR Z6M. Here’s how it works. For $3.99 per month (or $9.99 for three months), you can stream and simultaneously synchronize music files on your computer to your phone. There’s a piece of software that you install on your computer that manages the connection to your phone and you use the mSpot Remix mobile client on the phone itself. → Read More
Emdigo announced that NFL Team Tailgate 3D is now available to Verizon Wireless and Alltel Communications customers. If you are a true football fanatic, Tailgate 3D is the application for you. Users can show the world that they aren’t just fair weather fans. All 32 professional teams and their players are featured on Team Tailgate. Users can get their favorite players to perform videogame quality animations such as taunts, big hits and end zone celebrations whenever the phone is opened. Players will throw, catch and kick in a variety of 3D animations. New content and animations are downloaded automatically twice a month so the animation doesn’t become too repetitive. Player cards with statistics and biography are accessible for every player. The entire NFL schedule is posted, with your team’s next game highlighted with 3D crashing helmets animation. Animated wallpapers and dialing skin can be setup that go beyond the initial screen and into the actual dialing interface. “Football fans are truly passionate about their teams and favorite players, so we’re delivering high-quality content that they can be proud to host on their handsets,” said Emdigo President Steve Gleitsmann. “We’re honored that both Verizon Wireless and Alltel Communications are recognizing the uniqueness of Emdigo’s 3D phone screensavers by awarding NFL Team Tailgate a coveted top deck position on their networks.” If you are someone who likes to talk smack while wearing you team’s logo, NFL Team Tailgate 3D is the service for you. I don’t know why it took three weeks into the season for Verizon and Alltel to offer Tailgate 3D, but there is still time for 13 games and the playoffs for you to show the team colors. Although, if you are a Lions fan like me, a playoff spot feels hopeless after last Sunday’s crushing defeat to the Eagles. I wonder if Tailgate 3D has animations that include foreseeable interceptions, flaccid tackling and a secondary that camps out in lawn chairs? I can see it now, NFL Team Tailgate 3D Lions Addition, for teams that don’t talk trash, just get trashed. Emdigo Verizon Wireless Alltel Communications → Read More
This week Digital Chocolate announced the launch of their D Choc Café Series of casual games, and are currently available for AT&T, T-Mobile and 3, and in the coming weeks will be released for Alltel, Nokia (including the N-Game platform), O2, Orange, Telefonica, SFR, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, Telecom New Zealand, Telstra, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone. The first five games available in the D Choc Café Series include Sudoku, Kakuro, Hold’em Poker, Mahjong and Solitaire. Digital Chocolate → Read More
Alltel Wireless, which is now known to follow its name with the phrase "America’s largest network," announced yesterday the ability to access mywaves mobile video service on several of its phones (take that, YouTube!) and damn it all if it didn’t slip right by the CrunchGear news desk. The service is $3.99 per month and, oh yeah, why should you care? Well, mywaves has more than 100,000 channels with more than 1 million users adding daily to the selection. And while you can access videos if you’re on Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and various Canadian carriers, the BREW experience was, let’s say, less than video-rific. So, mywaves developed a better BREW app for Alltel customers to use. There’s a mishmash of videos available for all mywaves users, regardless of platform. Some are uploaded by regular users and others come from Comedy Central, CNN, MTV, VH1 and so forth. Also, should you choose to do so, mywaves lets you embed a player on your MySpace page (or any other Website, for that matter) to display your own customized video channels. Alltel Wireless First Carrier to Launch ‘mywaves’ Mobile Video Service [Yahoo! Finance] → Read More
