| Headquartered in Little Rock, AR Alltel provides wireless service to over 15 million customers with a wide variety of individual, family, and business plans to cover monthly minute ranges from 500 to 6,000 minutes per user. The Alltel plans - both individual and family - fall into four categories: the National Plan, the Greater Freedom Plan, the North American Freedom Plan. While plans do change, here is a brief synopsis of the standard plan features:
The National Freedom Plan offers a wide range of coverage across the United States starting at $39.99 a month for 500 minutes. However, there are small areas where users incur roaming charges at 59 cents a minute. All Alltel accounts include free long distance, except when roaming. When roaming, you risk being changed 40 cents a minute. But if you're calling another customer in the Alltel Wireless network, your calls are free. Alltel features the free mobile to mobile calling plan for its customers. Additional minutes cost 40 cents per minute, 35 cents per minute, and 25 cents per minute depending on the package chosen.
The My Circle option is also available for certain packages, which allows Alltel subscribers to make free calls for 10 “friends” of their choosing regardless of their friends’ wireless network. Other features in this Alltel account include voice mail, caller ID, 3-way calling, call forwarding, call waiting, no answer transfer, and a pay-per use text messaging at 15 cents a message. The family package allows additional lines to be added to the package.
The Greater Freedom package offers all of the same services as the National Plan with a few exceptions. The Greater Freedom plan is meant for local calling. Extended coverage is available as is free nationwide long distance, however a subscriber is more likely to incur roaming charges as the coverage area is not as wide as the National Plan. The benefit to this plan is that there is an increase in minutes at each plan level.
For those who frequently call other North American countries, the North American Freedom Plan is best suited to their needs. This plan allows for toll-free calling to Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and toll-free calling from these areas when not roaming. All anytime minute plans include 1,000 night and weekend minutes to North America and unlimited mobile to mobile calling in the U.S. Features include; caller ID, pay per use Alltel text messaging, basic voice mail, 3-way calling, no answer transfer, call forwarding, and call waiting. My Circle is not available for this plan.
The Smart Choice Packs offer a combination of voice and data. Like other plans, these are separated according to anytime minutes available and have the My Circle option. Features included in the Alltel Circle plan are: unlimited Alltel messaging, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited night and weekend minutes, and basic voice mail.
Business plans are also available for the National Freedom, Greater Freedom, and North American Freedom plans. The features included mirror those offered by the individual and family plans, however the pricing structure differs.
Alltel offers a prepaid service called U Prepaid which is similar to other prepaid services offered by competitors. U Prepaid customers can configure their plan with features such as text messaging and unlimited calls to certain numbers for an extra fee. Additionally, Alltel has announced that they are the first provider to offer City ID, letting subscribers see the incoming caller’s number and city.
Alltel cell phones are made by LG, Motorola, Kyocera, Samsung, and Alltel. Handheld devices include models from Palm, Alltel, Motorola, and Blackberry.
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