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Alltel Wireless Prepaid Cellular - U Prepaid
Editor Rating
Overview
In 2008 Alltel was the fifth-largest mobile operator in the United States, behind AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile. During the year Verizon purchased the company, and the sale closed in January 2009. Most Alltel markets have since migrated to Verizon.
While the majority of markets have switched to Verizon, there are still a number of markets in which Alltel still operates. This includes their prepaid service.
Pros: Alltel's prepaid plans cover three different tiers to fit various types of users. Subscribers can get a number of unlimited features for 75 cents per day, and can pay a quarter to add more.
Cons: Most of the available phone options with Alltel prepaid pay as you go service are on the expensive side. In addition, the activation fee is expensive and there is a minimum initial balance required to start up service.
Detailed Provider Information
Plans: Alltel U Prepaid offers three basic plan types. With the pay per minute plan, all calls are 15 cents per minute. There is a minimum 20 dollar initial balance. For each month of non-use, a fee of four dollars applies. The pay per day plan costs 75 cents per day, so between $22.50 and $23.25 per month. Subscribers can choose two of four feature options: unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited favorite number calling, or unlimited text messaging. Subscribers can add a third feature for an additional 25 cents per day, and can further add a fourth feature for another 25 cents. Calls not covered by the voice usage options are 10 cents per minute. There is also a 20 dollar minimum initial balance. The pay per month options features three plans that resemble regular phone plans, but without the contract. The $29.99 plan offers 200 peak minutes and 1,000 night and weekend minutes. Calls made above those minutes are charged at 35 cents per minute. The $39.99 plan offers 400 peak minutes and 2,000 night and weekend minutes. Calls made above those minutes are also charged at 15 cents per minute. The $69.99 plan offers 700 peak minutes, unlimited night and weekend minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile, and unlimited text messaging. Calls made above those minutes are charged at 15 cents per minute. Unlimited favorite number calling is available on any monthly plan for five dollars extra per month.
Customer Service: Customer service is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week via a toll free number, email or by dialing a special number from your Alltel prepaid cell phone with no airtime charges. Customer service is also available at retail locations during normal business hours.
Credit Check: None
Contract: None
Payment Options: You can pay for your Alltel minutes or plan online, via phone, by purchasing a replenishment card, visiting an Alltel store or contacting an Alltel customer service agent.
Text and Picture Messaging: On plans that do not include unlimited text messaging, the cost is 10 cents per message. Picture messaging is available for 25 cents per message, though it is not available on all handsets. Text messaging packages are available for the pay per minute and pay per month plans: 5 dollars for 300 messages, or 10 dollars for 750 messages.
Data Plans: Alltel U prepaid offers use of their Axcess data service. There are three price points: $19.95 a month for the All Axcess Pass, which includes unlimited messaging and web, plus a one-time $5 credit for downloadables; $5.99 for a month of just web; and $1.49 for a day pass of web-only.
Downloadables: Alltel prepaid offers several offerings including ringtones, wallpaper, games, podcasts, email, IM, and others depending on the capabilities of your phone. Prices vary.
International Calling: International calling is available, but only to Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico. You'll want to check with Alltel prepaid customer service prior to making calls to verify rates to the destination country you plan on calling.
Roaming Charges: Alltel does charge 59 cents per minute for calls made while roaming.
Calling Features: Alltel's U Prepaid offers voicemail, 3 way calling and caller ID with all plans.
Activation Fee: A 35 dollar activation fee is required. In addition, new users must carry a 20 dollar minimum initial balance to start service (except for the pay by month plan).
Nationwide Long Distance: Alltel wireless includes nationwide long distance in all of their calling plans. Calls made within the United States are treated as regular calls.
411 Calls: Directory assistance is available at a cost of $1.50 per call plus airtime.
Earliest Minute Expiration: Alltel's pay per minute plan has minutes that expire based on the amount you replenish. For a $20 to $44.99 refill, minutes expire in 60 days. For a $45 to $54.99 refill, minutes expire in 90 days. For a $55 to $99.99 refill, minutes expire in 180 days. For anything one hundred dollars or over, minutes are good for one year. Minutes from the pay per month plans expire at the end of the month and do not rollover.
911 Calls: Yes
Phones: Phones are available in a wide range of prices and with a wide range of features. Most modern features are available such as speakerphone, Bluetooth, camera phone and more.
Some Available Cell Models:
Samsung "Smooth" (pictured)
LG VX5500
Samsung Juke (red and navy)
Verizon Blitz
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Alltel Prepaid
u can use verizon but u have to let customer service do it or
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Alltel Prepaid
Everything is back to normal. It fixed itself like we both thought
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Alltel Prepaid
No prob man. How is it working today?
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Alltel Prepaid
yeah thats the same thing I was thinking. thanks though
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Alltel Prepaid
i think verizon is doing something to the network because yesterday
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Alltel Prepaid
My phone line is busy when someone calls me.
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Alltel Prepaid
It didn't work Drew. And also I can't check my balance by calling
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Alltel Prepaid
dial *22899 and let it re-update and see if that worked
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Alltel Prepaid
I have a problem. I have the samsung delve on my alltel prepaid
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Alltel Prepaid
hey Pam. i agree.. whoever didnt take a chunk out of alltel while
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Alltel Prepaid
I loved ALLTEL!!!! Verizon prepaid plans just don't compare
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Alltel Prepaid
oh.. you say it mentions "data sessions". well if it
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Alltel Prepaid
thats weird.. even with my old regular phone, data was free at
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Drew
2010/07/23 |
thats weird.. even with my old regular phone, data was free at night because data is billed as minutes. what im concluding from what youre saying and from what i know- if the phone was pre set up with a contract, its correctly set up, so thats why its charging you. because my blackberry is brand new and i figure its why im getting it free due to the fact that its not provisioned the right way (for a contract). like when we activate it on our prepaid accounts, the system doesnt configure it correctly or doesnt know to configure the data side of it which equals free data. but then im not sure because my blackberry curve i used to have was set up on a contract before and data was still free at night.. unless its a blackberry only thing. but my old regular phone was a samsung and it was free at night. hmm.. i dont see how it would charge you guys though when data = minutes and you have unlimited nights. i even tested an LG regular phone and data is free at night too. im gonna soon buy a brand new smartphone other than a blackberry for my sis and test to see if its free.
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Alltel Prepaid
Well, I thought that she wasn't going to get charged for nights
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Alltel Prepaid
great to hear man, i was wondering how that was going. sorry
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Alltel Prepaid
Andrew-Daughters Treo Pro arrived today and everything works
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rob
2010/07/21 |
Andrew- Daughters Treo Pro arrived today and everything works like a gem! She was using up minutes during the day so I just had her turn off the data. She was using our home WiFi during the day and will be able to use her unlimited nights and weekends through the Alltel networks. Really sweet! We travel a lot so it's going to be handy checking in for our flights using it instead of dragging out my laptop every where we go. THANKS A TON for all the help! Rob
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Alltel Prepaid
I was using Alltel prepaid before Vorizon bought them. The reception
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James
2010/07/18 |
I was using Alltel prepaid before Vorizon bought them. The reception now is horrible and ive tried multiple phones and nothing changed and i have never had more dropped calls than i do with Alltel. I asked them to put up a tower in my area and they refused because Vorizon ownes most of their operations.
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Alltel Prepaid
That's exactly what I was thinking as far as calling in and asking
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Alltel Prepaid
..no offense to him but cellgeek doesnt know what hes talking
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Drew
2010/07/09 |
..no offense to him but cellgeek doesnt know what hes talking about. or atleast i never heard anything like that. were prepaid. theres no way for you to call in and have data turned off. its a standard feature. itll only charge you by the minute for using it during the day because you have unlimited nights and weekends. besides, if you call in, theyre gonna give you problems for having a smartphone. if you can have data turned off, what would be the reason for even having a smartphone? dont worry about it and dont let it bother you, its NOT an extra fee to pay and you wont get penalized for using it. on the blackberry, theres an option to turn data off and on whenever you like. i guess they did it like that because smartphones consume a lot of data and i know that a blackberry is constantly communicating/synchronizing with the network. before verizon bought us out, i used to have data turned off during the day so it wouldnt kill my minutes and then turn it back on at night. but as i mentioned before, this new blackberry data is free. im not 100% sure if its because i bought it brand new and it was never provisioned for a contract/blackberry plan and by me activating it, it completely bypasses all that or if its because its unlocked (it came factory unlocked so if i wanted to, i can put an at&t or t-mobile sim card in or any sim card and can use it besides using it as verizon/alltel). or if its because when verizon bought us out, that blackberry never existed for alltel yet, so by me having it, its completely unrecognized by the system. my regular cell charges data by the minute. so ya, just go online and put in that ESN. dial *22899 and you should be good. no need for service books with any other device. im not sure if you use voicemail or not but THAT you can call in to turn off, if you want. i know the code to dial to have it turned off but since verizon took over, some alltel codes dont work. just tell customer service to turn voicemail off and itll save some $$$.
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Alltel Prepaid
Andrew-We went with the Treo Pro. It's on it's way and I'll
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rob
2010/07/09 |
Andrew- We went with the Treo Pro. It's on it's way and I'll be activating/registering it once it gets here. So, I'll go on to our Verizon online account and change devices & put in the new ESN for the Treo. Then I'll dail *22899. That should be it right? I know CellGeek suggested calling Verizon and demand that data be turned off. I should probably wait to see if my data works first then call IF it is charging me correct?
Thanks again for your help, I'll let you know how the Treo works.
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Alltel Prepaid
the HTC mogul would work but just know that its an older phone.
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Alltel Prepaid
I found a couple of others that my daughter is interested in....another
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Alltel Prepaid
ya... whoever wrote that saying the 8330 has wifi is wrong. for
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Alltel Prepaid
BTW, do you know much about the Samsung SCH-i910?I was thinking
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ks_chem_guy
2010/07/06 |
BTW, do you know much about the Samsung SCH-i910? I was thinking about exchanging my daughters Blackberry for this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/Samsung-SCH-i910-OMNIA-Alltel-Cell-CDMA-/390216176401?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Cell_Phones&hash=item5adab25311 Rob
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Alltel Prepaid
Ya I'm sure I did something along the way the messed it up.
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ks_chem_guy
2010/07/06 |
Ya I'm sure I did something along the way the messed it up. Thanks for all the help. As far as the Treo goes, we didn't get it. It was the Blackberry or the Treo and we went with the Blackberry. I purchased the Blackberry with a 30 day money back guarantee & in the description the store said that the 8330 WAS WiFi capable which I know now is not true. So I believe we are going to be returning it and trying a different phone and once again try to get the free data.....especially if I can get one with WiFi. I let you know if I run into any problems with it. Thanks Rob
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Alltel Prepaid
Rob sorry it didnt work for you man. too bad i cant do it myself
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Andrew
2010/07/04 |
Rob sorry it didnt work for you man. too bad i cant do it myself for you. it worked for me on my old alltel blackberry curve and this new alltel blackberry tour. not doubting you didnt try what i said but i bet a small mistake is to blame. ya, youre not gonna be able to register it on the alltel blackberry site and have the service books pushed to it because youre prepaid and dont have BIS or BES on the account. those are contract paid services. there are ways to have the service books put on manually and will have the features working the same way but again, youd have to do it through desktop manager. i got GPS, over the air provisioning update, etc working like that. everything demands a servicebook on a blackberry. with that said though, out of the box brand new, i didnt need to have any service books to have free data or to load up opera mini or anything. by the way, how is your daughters palm treo working out? im gonna buy a brand new LG chocolate touch soon for someone as a gift. ill still stick around for further help, just let me know.
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Alltel Prepaid
Man, I have tried everything and still no go. I tried downloading
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Alltel Prepaid
one other thing i remembered was to dial ##000000 (6 zeros) and
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Andrew
2010/07/03 |
one other thing i remembered was to dial ##000000 (6 zeros) and press green button. make sure your SIP User ID is your number@bb.alltel.net and if thats right, for the SIP password, put in "alltel" and click menu button and click save. the phone will restart. did you make sure youre running the lastest update? you should be running 5.0 to get opera mini to load, you need to load from the website and save it on your computer somewhere. go in desktop manager and click on Application Loader. click add/remove applications, go all the way down to the bottom of that list and see if opera mini is down there and if it is, select it to load it. if its not down there, click browse and select the location of where you saved it and then load it up like that. im not sure if all up to date versions of desktop manager has the modem option in it, but mine has it. if it does, you can set up the phone as modem right there. or i also use verizon access manager and it also controls the phone. the origional browser is gonna be missing on the blackberry because it knows that you are prepaid and took that service book away. but as i mentioned, you really dont even need it because opera mini does that same thing
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Alltel Prepaid
Andrew-I've tried all those steps. I originally registered the
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Alltel Prepaid
also, go to options, advanced options, host routing table, click
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Alltel Prepaid
hmm... when you activated it, did you dial *22899? try that.
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Andrew
2010/07/02 |
hmm... when you activated it, did you dial *22899? try that. that one is known to turn data "ON" on your plan or activate the data settings/a smartphone. when i was still "alltel", everything worked perfect for me the first time around. and though verizon took us over, its still working exactly the same, infact better than when i activated it when we were alltel. im trying to think of other pointers... you may wanna download desktop manager and synchronize the blackberry so it updates to the latest version. ... also, a work around to the browser is to download opera mini. its better than the origional blackberry browser and is a work around to having to install service books thatll bring it up on the phone. do you see the signal saying 1XEV in capital letters or 1xev? if its in lowercase letters, reguardless of you having the data feature on from the options, that means the network has your data turned off. let me know if that works or not.
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Alltel Prepaid
Andrew-Need a little help. Activated my daughters Blackberry
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Alltel Prepaid
okay andrew I have been following your reply for ages and everything
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Alltel Prepaid
Sweet. Thanks again!
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Alltel Prepaid
yup, ANY alltel branded phone WILL work for us, including data
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Alltel Prepaid
Andrew, thanks for the reply and the info. I found a Palm Treo
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Alltel Prepaid
sup everyone. havent posted on here in a long time but im back
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Alltel Prepaid
CellGeek or anyone else who might know.My daughter is on the
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ks_chem_guy
2010/06/26 |
CellGeek or anyone else who might know. My daughter is on the old Alltel pay-by-day. She has unlimited text, & nights and weekends for 75 cents a day. Her phone is going out & wanted to know if a Blackberry Curve would work without the data plan. I've heard conflicting stories, but I'm guessing as long as we call to turn off data with Verizon it should work fine. Thanks in advance!!!
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Alltel Prepaid
i have alltel and itz o.k. i guess.i have the new unlimited plan
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Alltel Prepaid
To put a blackberry or any variable smart phone on a pre-paid
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Alltel Prepaid
it will not let you bluetooth songs from different peoples...so
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gabrielle
2010/05/12 |
it will not let you bluetooth songs from different peoples...so sad
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Alltel Prepaid
MY activation won't start and i called *228 and every other #
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Alltel Prepaid
They make it hard to get support for your phone. They leave you
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Ryan
2010/04/13 |
They make it hard to get support for your phone. They leave you with the automated system, and expect you to know how to fix it.
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Alltel Prepaid
Can I use a verizon phone with my alltel prepaid account.
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Alltel Prepaid
Anyone looking for a Great Plan Should check out Page Plus ,
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Alltel Prepaid
I JUST RECEIVED MY ALLTEL BLACKBERRY CURVE N ACTIVATED ON MY
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Alltel Prepaid
can anyone tell me how to get the browser service books
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Alltel Prepaid
@ Ivan you can activate a smart phone on an pre paid plan reason
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