Overview:
Alltel is a wireless technology company based in Little Rock, AR. They give their customers residential service, business-based technology services, and individual wireless service.
Pros: When you buy a Smart Choice plan with Alltel, you get unlimited BlackBerry Internet services, a bucket of anytime minutes, and unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes. You also get unlimited text messaging, unlimited night and weekend minutes, and basic voice mail. The penalties for going over your minutes are high, but they do decrease as the plans get more expensive.
Cons: We would highly suggest you don’t go over your minutes, because the cost for doing that is $0.40 if you have a less expensive plan. The prices of the plans are high, but you do get quite a bit of freedom with voice calls and texting.
Detailed Provider Information:
Voice Plan Options: Alltel has five different BlackBerry plans. The first plan offers users 500 anytime minutes per month and unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes, and unlimited text messaging. It costs $69.99 a month. The second plan offers the same amount of minutes as the Smart Choice 500, but also includes My Circle, a program that allows users to call up to ten numbers on the network, anytime, anywhere in America. It costs $89.99 per month.
The Smart Choice 1200 plan includes 1200 anytime minutes and My Circle, plus all the features of the Smart Choice 500 plans. It costs $109.99 a month. The next-expensive plan, the Smart Choice 5500, gives you 5500 anytime minutes, My Circle, and all the features of the Smart Choice 1200 plan. It costs $189.99.
Data Options: All Smart Choice plans have unlimited data per month for BlackBerries.
Messaging Options: You get unlimited text messaging with all of Alltel’s BlackBerry plans.
Customer Service: On their website, Alltel has a page that’s dedicated solely to customer service. You can choose to call them, email them, or write to them. As well, you can sign into your account and pay bills and get support. Alltel also has an extensive frequently-asked questions page and a knowledgebase so that you can find out anything you need to about your phones and plans.
Contract: BlackBerry phones require at least a two-year contract, and if you want to terminate early, you’ll have to pay $200.
Messaging: You get unlimited texting with all Smart Choice plans from Alltel.
International Calling and Messaging: Alltel does offer international calling once you activate the service. You pay $3.99 a month for discounted per-minute rates to select countries. If you don’t have international calling, you may have to pay more than the domestic rate of $0.50 a minute for long distance calls.
You can find out more here.
Roaming Charges: There are roaming charges on Alltel’s plans. For every minute you are roaming, you will incur a charge of $0.59 per minute. In some areas, roaming can incur a $3.00 usage fee and up to $0.99 per minute. You can also be charged up to $0.50 per minute for domestic long distance calls.
Activation Fee: All plans include a one-time activation fee of $35.
Additional Features: Along with My Circle, which is included on some plans, you can also get Axcess, which gives you more messaging options (picture and video), ringtones, applications, downloads and more. You can also get games on your phone.
Insurance: Alltel will, in most cases, replace or repair your equipment if it gets lost, stolen, or damaged. However, you must call them immediately so that they can suspend your service.
Phones: Alltel offers three BlackBerry models, including the 8703e. Although they only offer three, they're all later models and very stylish.
Some Additional BlackBerry Models Available:
World Edition 8830e
BlackBerry Pearl
BlackBerry Curve 8330
Coverage Map: The Alltel coverage map can be found here.
Alltel is actually in Little Rock, -AR-, not AZ (Arizona). Helpful review, nice compilation of data that I was having trouble finding in one place.
I really like the smart phone but with alltel you cant send any pictures with the smart phones and all they really say is that thaey are teying to fix the problem and we should see results real soon. So if you are buying a smart phone keep that in mind.
actually you can send pictures they just have to be in a email, but i would like to be able to send them in text messages just like the basic phones, this is the only downfall of the smartphones>
I have a Blackberry 8330 Curve and I'm able to send pictures through MMS.
I also have the curve and can send pic and videos without problems but receiveing is a different story. It tells me who sent the pic/video and sends me to an alltel site that I do not seem to be available to navigate. Other than that I will probbly never switch from alltel. When in new orleans for the hurricanes I was one of the few who had service enough to get on the web. I watched the radar as Katrina rolled in on top of us. I've also sold sprint cingular among others and alltel works best for me. Great site guys. Very informative.
I have the BB World 8830 and I love the phone, problem is I can't find software compatible with Alltel that will load correctly on my computer. I have had to remove it twice, very frustrating. Any ideas on how I can make this work correctly??? Any help is appreciated:)
Good review just a few issues... the $69.99 plan doesn't include unlimited messaging, and the activation fee is only $25.
ALLTEL ROCKS NOTHING BETTER THAN THEM