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It was barely a month ago that AT&T settled a suit over content billing. Now Alltel is falling under fire, though the specific details of the suit are not immediately available. All we know is that the case is over Alltel “systematically, repeatedly and without authorization, billing its customers for purchases and services not agreed to by those customers.” This makes it sound very much like the AT&T case.

Posted in Alltel on April 18th, 2008
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I neither live in Minnesota nor have Alltel, so I have no way to verify this. It appears, though, that Alltel’s network has been out in Minnesota for quite some time. You can still send and receive text messages, and even receive calls. The problem, apparently, is outgoing calls. A couple of people wrote into Consumerist to describe and verify the problem. The mainstream media has yet to pick up on this, which is strange, because they seem to love reporting outages. So I’m not quite sure how widespread this is.

Posted in Alltel on January 29th, 2008
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As we learned last week, Verizon sued Alltel for false advertising. It was over one of those My Circle advertisements, where the Big Four carriers are depicted as nerdlings, while the Alltel dude is buff and manly and stuff. Apparently, in one of the commercials, they not-so-subtly imply that in order to change your rate plan mid-contract with Verizon, you have to extend your contract. Not so, or at least not so since October of 2007. Verizon sued over this matter, but a U.S. District Judge in Richmond, Va. denied the matter.

Posted in Alltel on January 9th, 2008
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My first instinct was to place this at our postpaid sister site, but since I already covered a false-advertising-related issue earlier today, I figured why not talk about it here. You know those Alltel “MyCircle” commercials? The ones where the Alltel rep is a blonde playboy, and his competitors — the Big Four — are nerdy underlings. Apparently, there’s a commercial where the Verizon nerd says something about having to extend your contract when changing calling plans. As we learned earlier this year, that is no longer the case.

Posted in Alltel, Verizon Wireless on January 3rd, 2008
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We’re not parents, so pardon us if we don’t agree with many parental views that they should know where their children are at all times. Yes, we’re talking about location tracking, a service that Alltel has just launched. Once parents equip their children with the LG AX8600, the Samsung U520, or the Samsung R510 ‘Wafer’, they’ll be able to see every place their child visits, right from their own mobile phone or even from their home computer. No, we’re not big fans of this.

Posted in Alltel on November 15th, 2007
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So Alltel had a big announcement yesterday, though we’re not quite sure how it ties into mobile phones. They mention twice in the press release that they’re America’s largest cellular network. But we see no mention of integrating this new application into their phones. It’s called HazMasterG3, and as you can probably glean from the name, it helps identify various hazardous materials. This is intended for law enforcement and public safety officials.

Posted in Alltel on November 7th, 2007
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It seems that TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners, the companies that bought Alltel earlier this year, have some brains behind their piles of money. Instead of going in and messing with what was working, the newly-annoited bosses of the company (though the deal still won’t close for two weeks, give or take) are maintaining the status quo. Management will almost all stay in place, though with a bit of role reassigning. Oh yeah, and they’ll be bidders in the 700 MHz spectrum auction.

Posted in 700 MHz spectrum, Alltel on November 5th, 2007
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It was a good quarter to be Alltel. In their report released on Friday, the carrier said it had added a net 205,000 subscribers in the quarter, shattering most analysts’ forecasts. Alltel is also happy announce, though we’re a bit saddened by it, that they lost 8,000 prepaid customers. Why are they happy at this? Because that means they added 213,000 postpaid customers. You know, the ones who are under service agreements. That means guaranteed money for Alltel, and we all know that carriers value that far greater than their prepaid counterparts.

Posted in Alltel on October 22nd, 2007
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We used to love it when new phones were released. Believe it or not, there was a time when a new phone, you know, differentiated itself from its competitors. Like when the RAZR came out. Man, there was so much hype behind that, and it really wasn’t matched until the iPhone. Anyway, Alltel is releasing the MOTORKR Z26m, a phone that looks a lot like other phones on the market. Yes, it’s a slider, which is a nice break from flip phones. The only difference, as we see it, is enhanced music capabilities, including built-in XM Radio.

Posted in Alltel, Prepaid Phones on October 19th, 2007
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Okay, so we were a bit critical of Alltel’s deal with Boingo, which provided the cell carrier with WiFi services. If they don’t have WiFi phones, we asked, why would they do this? Well, they answered us today. They’re now bundling their WiFi and EV-DO internet services to provide more complete broadband coverage to their subscribers. Not through their phones, though, but through their laptops. And what is a laptop if not an enormous smart phone? (Just kidding.)

Posted in Alltel on October 15th, 2007
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