Unlimited calling wars: Alltel unveils National Freedom Unlimited Plan
Even though Alltel insists their My Circle plans are the way to go, they've given in and joined the other major US carriers in announcing an unlimited calling plan. The National Freedom Unlimited plan gets you all the minutes you can use for $99.99/month, while $79.99/mo. gets you 1400 unlimited minutes plus unlimited nights, weekends, and mobile-to-mobile calling plus 10 My Circle numbers (unlimited calls to those ten wireless or landline numbers).
If you don't plan on doing any mobile Web surfing, Email, or text messaging, the $80 plan looks pretty competitive to me. Beware, though, Alltel charges $0.15 per text message on a pay-per-use basis and PDAs and BlackBerrys are not eligible for these plan rates. If you need the mobile data and can deal with their customer service issues, I'd say Sprint offers a better value by throwing in unlimited messaging, handset data, and SprintTV for that same hundred bucks per month. You young, socially connected types might opt for Helio instead, as they also offer an unlimited voice, messaging, and data plan for $99.99.
Currently available with Alltel Wireless, Noah got his hands on the LG Glimmer at CTIA last week. The first touchscreen to be a part of the Alltel line-up, the Glimmer is a solid slider device with haptic feedback, media player, micro USB port, and an easy to read menu system from LG that helps you navigate thru all that Alltel has to offer. The regional carrier that could, Alltel, announced a partnership with hotspot provider Boingo to add some WiFi to their customers' 3G data diet. $69.98 each month will now get you unlimited handset data via EV-DO along with unlimited access to Boingo Hotspots around the globe.
Alltel's calling the plan the Internet Anywhere Bundle, and it rings up at $10/mo. more than their 3G only Internet plan. I guess it's a decent buy if you use 3G on your handset a lot, but also rely... Quick update: Yesterday's reports were true and Verizon Wireless is buying Alltel for $28.1 billion. The deal was announced by VZW today and will make them the US' largest cellular carrier, passing current #1 AT&T.According to Reuters, "Verizon Wireless would acquire the
equity of Alltel for $5.9 billion and assume an estimated $22.2
billion in debt, incurred primarily when Alltel was taken
private in a leveraged buyout last November by TPG Capital
(TPG.UL) and Goldman... Verizon is "deep in talks" to buy Alltel for $27 Billion, according to CNBC. VZW has courted the nation's number five cellular carrier before, but didn't bid when Alltel was on the auction block back in Spring of 2007. Word is that VZW thought Alltel's valuation was too high at the time. Now it seems that with the change in credit markets over the past year, Verizon could snatch Alltel up for right around the $27.5B TPG and Goldman Sachs paid for the carrier in a deal that closed... Currently available with Alltel Wireless, Noah got his hands on the LG Glimmer at CTIA last week. The first touchscreen to be a part of the Alltel line-up, the Glimmer is a solid slider device with haptic feedback, media player, micro USB port, and an easy to read menu system from LG that helps you navigate thru all that Alltel has to offer.
Okay, that headline might be just a wee bit misleading. Alltel did add a record number of customers and did lose a boatload of money last quarter, but their revenues were actually up 12% as compared to the year before. But they went private last year and apparently that costs lots of money — some $653 million worth of merger-related costs, apparently.
I was never any good at economics, but the deal seems to be this: Alltel added a record 1 million plus customers during the... As reported a few weeks ago, Alltel will launch the LG Glimmer handset on March 13. Glimmer is a sliderphone very reminiscent of the LG Shine, but the addition of a touchscreen, making it a very sexy and very innovative device, at least on paper.
Glimmer features a 2MP camera, integrated GPS, and a media player that supports a wide variety of audio and video file formats and packs 128MB of memory for media and gaming support. The phone will be packaged with a 3.5mm stereo... |
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