joseph

{ 01/23/2012 }

i have a attel blackberry curve and i was wanting to activate it threw prepaid with yall

Drew

{ 01/18/2012 }

do you have an account online? if you do it should say what that fee was for. if its something you didnt use or was a fault on their part they should be able to credit your account that money back.

Drew

{ 01/18/2012 }

mr. jeffro go suck a lemon. no i dont work for verizon or alltel or any wireless company for your information. if you READ my reviews instead of pre judging, youll notice that im trying to help people like YOU get the best out of your phone and plan by letting you know the ins and outs the company wont tell you. do yourself a favor and either not have phone service at all or keep your wrong judgements to yourself and let them charge you a fortune since you dont wanna be informed on good advice. pucker up

oh and if you got something against 5 stars, i sure didnt see you put 1..

$4.99 FEE

{ 01/17/2012 }

Hey Drew. I still have my alltel prepaid plan. 29.99 + favorite number. I noticed a charge recently of $4.99. Do you know what this is?

Mr.Jeffro

{ 01/17/2012 }

What's up with "Drew?" He must be an employee of Alltel or Verizon. 5 Stars everytime is only a way to increase this cell phone plans' review rating. This is for review and NOT a forum. Alltel like Verizon have their "small print" and most people will get charged for additional fees even though they purchase the "unlimited plans."

Sounds like what they typically do for their normal contracted cell phone service. Over priced...with a smile. I would not have anything to do with any company associated with Verizon or Alltel. How do you think they became so big?

Drew

{ 01/10/2012 }

dont know if anyone refills using a credit or debit card but doing so that way gives you free bonus minutes. i always do it that way and the free minutes are good. just watch out tho.. sometimes the system doesnt add the free minutes on for you. i called twice for 2 separate payments- the reps ended up giving me more free minutes than what i deserved- just because they could. something wrong with the system i guess.

Drew

{ 12/21/2011 }

Bob, didn't have to use a sim to activate my phone.. Probly because its unlocked. It activated without a sim in it. But ya.. Don't know why you can't load opera. I have it on my phone and it works fine. Using it now to write this review. Maybe try an older version or one for a different model phone.

bob

{ 12/20/2011 }

hey drew i figured out how to activate the bb tour that i purchased. I just needed to insert an old sim card. However i still have a problem with downloading mini opera because my firmware is 5.0 and there isnt an opera mini download option that is compatable with it. Have any ideas? I tried downloading opera mini versions 6.5 and 4.4 but it does not work, again due to there being no option for firmware 5.0 . Thanks in advance

Drew

{ 12/14/2011 }

JJ, it wont let you because you dont truely have a blackberry plan, nor should you have one. its only because of a loophole that were able to use them. even if you go to the blackberry website and try to create an account on there, it still wont let you. theres places in the phone that even show that we dont have true blackberry access. lol..

JJ

{ 12/14/2011 }

Drew,
I just wanted to ask you before I tried it. Should you be able to set up an email in a blackberry device under the grandfathered alltel prepaid account? No different from any other verizon data plans?

Drew

{ 12/09/2011 }

Bob, at&t and alltel use two different kinds of network technology. At&t uses GSM- which uses and needs sim cards to work. Alltel/verizon uses CDMA which means our phones talk to the network at the same time using different codes. So there's no way we could use eachothers phones. The phones aren't compatible on the opposite networks. NOW.. In dual mode phones, you have both network technologies combined. Like my phone, its an alltel blackberry, but it has GSM capabilities which was origionally intended for global roaming because not many countries have CDMA for us to roam on had we went there. I do have the phone "unlocked" which means I can use the GSM side of it.. All I'd have to do is put in an at&t or tmobile or any sim card and it'll work. THAT'S probably what at&t peeps are doing with OUR phones (alltel, verizon, sprint phones that are "unlocked") but WE can't use at&t or tmobile phones because they ONLY work using a sim card and don't have a CDMA side to it and we don't use sim cards. So no, we can't use at&t phones..

bob

{ 12/09/2011 }

hey drew..i know some alltel bb phones are being used by at&t customers. Is there any way us grandfathered alltel prepaid pple are able to still activate such alltel phones that have been used by at&t customers and activate it to verizon?

Drew

{ 12/07/2011 }

Na, not saying it wouldnt work, just that it might NOT allow you to reactivate it after you left it.. if you get me. for example if you left the blackberry for a regular flip phone, you might not be able to reactivate the blackberry without the system saying its an advanced device and require you add on the $30 a month data fee. but thats just an assumption. maybe we still can use older blackberries. i dont know cause i havent tried left my blackberry for another phone yet. i dont think the 8530 will work. i tried the 9330 and thats what said the "advanced device" when trying to activate it. its basically whatever smartphone you have now, youre lucky to have it cause the system knows when you try to activate one thats not already on your account. kinda like because we had these phones activated for so long already now before they came up with that $30 standard data fee for anyone with a smartphone on prepaid, were safe.

i did try activating the new 9930 and same with it.. wanted me to convert and add the data fee.

Ivan

{ 12/07/2011 }

So I had my BB 8830 on my prepaid plan a while back and switch phones so you are saying I can't go back to using it again? What about a cleared esn BB 8530, could i switch to that phone?

Drew

{ 12/07/2011 }

Hey. No luck so far on anything "new" that we can use that would bypass that $30 a month data fee and/or changing or converting our plans. I tried and tested the curve 9330 but the network sees it as an advanced device and requires the $30 data fee. Makes me think if we change out of these blackberries we have now and try to reactivate them, wed be locked out. Don't know about that cause I haven't tried.. But just a warning to anyone that already has a blackberry or smartphone to stay here you're at or risk losing the use of it. The rule of thumb should be to try new phones just incase it works then good. Leave the phone you currently have (smartphone) for some other regular phone and risk being locked out from reactivating that smartphone. The system knows..

They even stopped us from using the alltel usb modems. We USED to be able to activate those on our prepaid but not anymore..

Ivan

{ 12/02/2011 }

Sup Drew, whats the newest phone that you have tested that can be used on alltel prepaid by us grandfathered users?

jon

{ 11/27/2011 }

Ive had a phone I have had activated as pay per day in late september. Ive recently changed to the $45.00 a month unlimited talk, text and web. Since switching to this plan, the mobile web as well as my picture messaging doesnt work. I've contacted customer service many times about the problem. Its been ten days sice I switched and lost these features. Ive manually programed the phone via tech support with no results. Ive been through tech supports 1-3 with no outcome to the solution. I was told tonight that when the problems resolved I will be notified by phone call. For anyone signing up for this plan I would strongly discourage against it. Due to their "glitch" in this new plan I am not recieving the service that I and others that I know are paying for.

Drew

{ 10/31/2011 }

tried activating an alltel blackberry curve 9330 with *22898 and wont work without tieing a $30 data fee onto your plan and converting it. they consider it an "advanced device". so- for anyone wondering, blackberry 9330 is a no go for us grandfathered alltel prepaid peeps.

Drew

{ 10/13/2011 }

Sarah not sure about the alltel LG glimmer. Tho it may work because that's a phone alltel released before the merge. Even tho verizon took us over, your plan is still an alltel prepaid plan. Only way to know is to try it. I don't test the older phones anymore cause I have a general idea about them already and trying for the new.

Sarah

{ 10/01/2011 }

All of these reviews have helped me alot. But i have a question about the Altel LG Glimmer. Altel changed over to verizon in my town, so I have the verizon 75 cent a day plan. I was wondering if the altel lg glimmer could go on my 75 cent a day verizon plan. Thanks!

Drew

{ 09/16/2011 }

sup LOS. ya im still tethering every day. using it right now to connect. its my only source of internet. i refuse to pay for any other access when this does the job for free. i have my tv connected through ethernet to my little router box that the blackberry is connected to which also puts out wifi so i can use the laptop at the same time. works fine for me and every day, all day i use it like that. reaping the benefits of my plan to the fullest. im still in the process of testing newer phones and will let everyone know what i find out that will benefit us grandfathered alltel prepaid peeps. newer phones may work but if the data isnt free like it is with the blackberry, i might not switch to it for that reason. only way id consider doing that is if its a 4G phone because LTE is 10 times faster so itd be worth paying our old rates of data as minutes- and that would mean we'd still have unlimited use during the unlimited nights and weekends. if newer released phones would work that are 3G, i wont swap to it if the data isnt unlimited because its not worth losing unlimited data just to have a newer phone at the same 3G speeds. one thing i did notice tho is that usb modems that used to work for us no longer does. i guess they caught on to that but it did work when i used to use it like that. unlimited data is more of a priority to me so if all i can flash is blackberries to have it then so be it

LOS

{ 09/16/2011 }

DREW WHAT'S THE LATEST ON TETHERING WITH YOUR BB. I STILL HAVE ACCESS.

Drew

{ 09/01/2011 }

if your daughter has an alltel prepaided (ha) plan that verizon took over, she can. if shes still with (the new) alltel, she cant

Dana

{ 09/01/2011 }

My daughter has an exsiting alltel pre-paid plan and wants to change to a blackberry pre-paid. Which ones are available to use with the pre-paided plan. Someone says none will but others say no contract for the blackberry. Thanks.

Drew

{ 08/25/2011 }

i can almost guarantee that its not gonna work then. i think its because its either somehow still tied to someones contract or that it got flashed over to like metro pcs. because its not supposed to be that difficult to activate it. *22898 shoulda did it right away even if online didnt. and i know its not verizon banning us because im still using one and i know others are still too. i think that phone is just bad. it can also mean if you dont have any service books and or host routing table entries. the phone uses those to work with the network to do certain things to make the phone even usable. you say you have signal tho. next to the signal do you see the letters in capitals or lowercase? if theyre lowercase then that means the phone cant send or recieve data, or that it isnt to its full potential. go to menu, options, advanced options and click on host routing table. is anything in there? if not, thats a problem. hit menu and then click register now. *22899 cant really help you because thats another way to activate and update your PRL. i know a few more things but i can almost garantee that phone wont activate. if you could, just return it and buy a new one. i dont know how much you bought it for but i bought mine brand new from ebay for cheap. they always have brand new ones cheap and atleast you know the phone is problem free. i think if you couldnt get it to activate just by dialing *22898- it wont work

bob

{ 08/25/2011 }

sad to say..same thing happen with all 3 numbers. I even tried wiping the phone and restoring it to factory condition before dialing the numbers. any other tricks?

Drew

{ 08/24/2011 }

hmmmm... i still doubt that alltel's (the new alltel/ATN) rule to block their prepaid customers from having smartphones would have an effect on us because we been bought out and detached from them a long time ago, and im still using a smartphone (blackberry) right now, along with others. tho, in some situations, we ARE still considered as alltel, even tho verizon bought us out. kinda like were just hiding behind the verizon name, but everything about our plans, even technical stuff about our phones/plans still point to saying we are alltel and not verizon (truely/fully). but thats another story.

instead of *22898, dial *228 (and option 1 to program phone) and see what that does for you. if that phone is still tied to a contract in any way that could be a reason why too. if *228 option 1 does nothing for you, try dialing *22801 and see what that does. im still thinking up some things but let me know if this does the trick for you

bob

{ 08/24/2011 }

Drew: turned on the phone the today and still same results. Any other ideas?

bob

{ 08/23/2011 }

Hey drew, its an alltel blackberry tour and it is used but in great condtion. Bought it off ebay and pretty sure the esn is clean. However, i tried to type in the ESN online, still no luck and keeps informing me to try again later. It is recieving great signal and the data setting is on. I recently turned it off and took out the battery and after about 2 hrs started it up and dialed *22898 right away, but still no luck; same situation with the same old lady telling me to retry at a different time. Right now i just have it turned off with the battery out and waiting a day to retry again. Hopefully your advise works.

Drew

{ 08/22/2011 }

bob: first off, is it an alltel blackberry or a verizon one? it has to be an alltel blackberry to work for you. is it brand new or used? if its used youd wanna wipe it clean back to factory settings to get rid of any settings the previous person had from their plan. try entering the ESN in from your online profile. dialing *22898 on the phone should work. is it recieving a signal? make sure its getting a signal and that the data setting is set to "on". theres a way to enter in your phone number, kinda like a forceful way, but the thing is.. if the system wont even accept the ESN to be activated through either *22898 or online activation, that wont work. i dont know why it wont activate unless they blocked us (ex alltel) from activating any smartphones also, but i kinda doubt that. maybe try it again tomorrow. also what i come to learn from activating blackberries... when you turn it on you have to activate it right away or itll have problems activating. so.. take the battery out and just leave it out for a while. when youre ready to activate, put it back in and turn on. when it recieves a signal, go ahead and dial *22898 and it should work first time around

for me, leaving a blackberry on for too long without it being activated right away made it register to a different network and when i tried to activate it with *228 it said it couldnt. i thought it was a bad phone but after taking out the battery and after a day putting it back in and activating it right away, it worked flawlessly. try that.

bob

{ 08/22/2011 }

hey drew, it seems like i have the same exact plan that u have; the former alltel prepaid plan that got taken over by verizon. So I am with verizon. I've been reading up on all your posts and i finally bought a bb tour, but im having problems activating it. thanks in advance

Drew

{ 08/22/2011 }

hey bob, whos your company? verizon (us old alltel peeps that got taken over) or alltel? if youre with alltel its said that they blocked their prepaid customers from activating smartphones. if its verizon, lucky for us were still able to have smartphones on our old alltel plans and besides, verizon offers it to their prepaid customers anyways. let me know

bob

{ 08/22/2011 }

just got an alltel bb tour 9630 and dialed *22898 but it tells me my transaction cannot be completed and to try again later. After numerous tries, still unsuccessful. Any advice Drew?

destiny

{ 08/12/2011 }

my review... yall are so slow it takes forever to speake with a someone im still on the phone i set my timer its been 20 mins please fix this problem or i will just swich to net 10 alltel speed it up!!!!!!(follow me on twitter people who agree @destinynic5star)

Drew

{ 08/10/2011 }

hey JJ, just use opera mini.. works fine and allows you to use with the "free" data. the origional blackberry browser knows you dont have a blackberry plan and thats why it wont work but opera mini works just as fine.

JJ

{ 08/10/2011 }

Drew,
I'm using a BB 8330 on the grandfathered alltel prepaid plan. I tried using 'browser' application for the first time and I get this message: "Your device does not currently have any Browser Configuration Service Book Entries. Please contact your service provider to enable the Browser on your device." How do I get a browser working on the phone. Thanks!

Drew

{ 07/26/2011 }

thats the only reason why im with verizon, because i get to use my same alltel plan with all the unlimited benefits while using the verizon network for $20 a month. id never pay verizons high prepaid rates. and youre right.. $30 for data?? $50+ prepaid plans for only talk and MORE for just talk and text?? not me. if it wernt to be grandfathered in, i would not be using verizon. verizon doesnt allow their prepaid customers to do a lot of things and the only reason im able to is because of what alltel deemed us to do (with a few other loopholes, ha). for the stuff i get to do with my phone/prepaid plan, id say its worth about $95+ a month.

Eric

{ 07/26/2011 }

Yea I really think alltel is losing out by not having prepaid smartphones. I wouldn't mind paying for it, like virgin or boost...sprint service sucks though. And verizon's prepaid is a joke $70 plus the $30 for data, not happening. If alltel would wise up and have a decent priced prepaid plan for smartphones I think alot of ppl would use it. Guess too much verizon got into them and they don't want to lose contracts. I hate verizon anyway ever since i got $600 bill for txts back in like 03...my plan was unlimited until they decided to change that with no notification...i'm seriously about to get 2 solo cups and a string at this point.

Drew

{ 07/26/2011 }

and were safe. no sign of them stopping us from using smartphones or stopping my free data cause were "grandfathered" in. online profile still gives the option to swap, im still using my phone fine now connected to my router supporting the tv and laptop at the same time, data still free and not using minutes even when balance runs out. and just to point out, when i do talk to a rep the few times i do, they do verify that i have unlimited data on my plan.

Drew

{ 07/26/2011 }

ey Eric its aight man. i dont know why alltel would do that, even as a "new" company. EVERYONE ELSE allows their prepaid to use smartphones. its almost like theyre purposely making the company loose out on gaining more people/competition. maybe that rep should tell corporate headquarters what he read on this site..

Eric

{ 07/26/2011 }

Yea, apparently why I have had no success activating the 8330. Oh well I'll just be ditching alltel I guess. At least I pretty much got almost a whole year of prepaid "free"(no daily fee deducted) so I can't complain. Just have to figure out who I will switch to, if only sprint service didn't suck where I live. Good luck to you guys that already have one activated, if it takes as long as did for them to catch my free daily fee mistake you might have awhile left hah.

Drew

{ 07/26/2011 }

hA! sorry to hear the bad news. guess it pays to be grandfathered in with an alltel plan while on the verizon network. we get to use smartphones and keep our old plans. plus unlimited data. the best of both worlds. alltel needs to step their game up and allow prepaid to use smartphones... thats what started this whole thing anyways. besides, every company allows smartphones on prepaid so how they figure they wont allow it? anyway.. a majority of us is converted to verizon and dont have that issue so enjoy everyone. not rubbing it in anyones faces but im glad im grandfathered in on my old plan, on a better network.

cutie33

{ 07/26/2011 }

The alltel employee is correct. I just logged into the new prepaid account website today and there is no option for you to change your phone. You can no longer put in the ESN yourself. This sucks because i was JUST about to purchase me a smart phone this week! guess i'll stick to my flip phone..

Drew

{ 07/25/2011 }

i doubt it. id have to see that happen for myself to believe it. that rumor been spoken about since day one and YEARS later were all STILL using smartphones. so please. and plus, if thats the case, id probly be the only one who still uses a smartphone because for whatever reason, on my profile, my smartphone isnt recognized by the system. not because its blacklisted or hacked, because it isnt. its a brand new phone and clean ESN, but the system just doesnt recognize that i have a smartphone on my plan. no picture shows up for the phone im using. and even when i call customer service, they have no idea what phone im using. i think its because i activated my phone on the system way back when verizon just took us over. so.. their bad. besides, i know of so many other back doors and loopholes- all legal (non "hacking").

if you mean the regular alltel that still exists, that still doesnt pretain to a majority of us on here because we all basically been converted over to verizon. AND, it still doesnt mean us grandfathered alltel peeps because verizon allows their prepaid customers to have smartphones so.. any way around we win.

sorry but i dont buy that, no one else probly does either..

Alltel Employee

{ 07/25/2011 }

Hey Everyone I am an Alltel Employee in a corporate store. Just want to give you all a heads up, we are under a system migration and are using a brand new system. By August 1, 2011 this new system will be fully operatable and is going to catch the Smartphone ESN's attatched the any prepaid plans and sytematically shut them all down. You will then have to come in and change your phone to a standard feature phone. All online options to change your phone yourself will be changed as well. It will also catch that the esn is a smartphone and will not process the change for you. Calling in to customer service and you will get the same result. The systems entirely will block any smartphone esn from existing on a prepaid plan.

Drew

{ 07/22/2011 }

Eric ya, *22898 would work even without an online account. and even would do better than the online account these days, under certain situations because i think they figured out what everyone is doing and kinda made the online ESN changer block you from activating certain, if not most smartphones, especially if you dont have the smartphone plan. for example, back then using the online way, it worked flawlessly with blackberries. these days, they rigged the online way to make you either convert your plan or add the $30 data fee. why they did that i dont know but *22898 works fine. youd select having a verizon wireless phone number and then youd put in your alltel number and youre set.

Eric

{ 07/22/2011 }

Ohhh wait, the system is down for the weekend...that may have something to do with it duur, I just got that txt earlier...I will try on monday

Eric

{ 07/22/2011 }

I will try the 8530 in a couple weeks, but I just got an 8330 and trying to use *22898 to activate it asks if i have a verizon number or other. choosing verizon doesn't work and other says my call is being transfered...do i wait and give them my number or will they not do it for me? Should I set up an online account with alltel and try? My first try so I'm lost. Thanks in advance for any help.

Drew

{ 07/19/2011 }

Cari: what phone you thinking of putting on your prepaid plan?

Eric: in the past i tested the curve 8530 and it didnt work. but i think that changed. i havent tested it since i tested it back when i did but give it a go and see what happens. other blackberries will work tho and with all blackberries, data is free and doesnt use up your minutes. even when your balance is zero, data is still free.

Cari

{ 07/19/2011 }

Drew!!! Can I put an alltel contract phone onto a prepaid plan?