Alltel

The Samsung Delve is available for pre-sale starting today, October 30th, for Alltel Wireless.  The full touchscreen Delve is powered by Samsung’s TouchWiz interface which incorporates ‘drag and drop’ widgets for instant access to your favorite features and functions.  The Delve will be sold for $199 after a $100 mail in rebate on a 2 year service agreement starting November 6th (Smart Choice Pack required).  The device will also feature Alltel’s newest music application, nuTsie, which allows users to stream their own iTunes playlists, their friends iTunes playslist and nearly limitless new music from the nuTsie catalog with no side-loading or uploading hassles.  Read on for the full press release from Alltel Wireless and Samsung.

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Alltel Wireless has announced that their new LG Rhythm (LG UX585) mobile phone is available for pre-order online. It possesses the functionality of a wireless phone with the entertainment of an MP3 player with 80 MB of internal memory, a 2-inch LCD display, a 1.3 megapixel camera, an FM transmitter and a 3.5 mm stereo headset.  The Rhythm will be available in two colors choices, black and white, for $119.99 on a new 2-year service agreement.

LG Rhythm Specifications

• Weight: 3.95 ounces
• Dimensions: 4.55 x 1.93 x 0.65 inches
• Talk Time: 2.1 hours, Stand-by Time: 130 hours
• CDMA / EV-DO connectivity
• 2 inch 240 x 320 pixel display
• MP3 Player, FM Transmitter
• 3D graphics for gaming
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• memory card support up to 8GB

Via thenewsmarket

Earlier today Alltel Wireless announced that they would be the first wireless carrier to offer its customers access to nuTsie, a service that allows users to listen to playlists from their iTunes libraries on over 10 Alltel wireless handsets.  Also, nuTsie allows users the ability to share those lists with friends across the Internet and on their mobile devices.

nuTsie, available for $4.99 a month or $19.99 for one year, can be accessed by visiting Alltel Shop located on the handset. In addition to being able to play music from their iTunes collections, customers can also listen to recommended music based on their playlists and explore hundreds of thousands of playlists from other users and nuTsie’s music experts, providing a new world of music right at their fingertips.

“Our customers are now relying on their wireless phones to provide entertainment as well as reliability,” said Kristi Crum, director of multimedia content for Alltel Wireless. “The launch of nuTsie will maximize the music capabilities on their phones so they can now easily listen to their favorite music from iTunes, no matter where they go.”

Compatible devices include: MOTORAZR V3m, MOTORAZR V3c, MOTOKRZR K1m, MOTORAZR 2 V9M, MOTOROKR Z6m, LG ZX565, Wave by LG, LG AX8600, Samsung Muse, Alltel Hue by Samsung and The Wafer by Samsung.

Alltel Wireless has just announced the MOTORAZR VE20, complete with its large interactive external screen and touch sensitive controls to give you easy access to recent calls, music and messaging without ever having to open the phone.  The device is being labeled as a mix of communications, entertainment and all the functions and features you need in a phone.  There doesn’t seem to be much (if any) difference between the RAZR 2 and the RAZR VE20, but if flip phones are your thing it might be worth a look.  The VE20 is currently available for preorder for $99.99 after mail in rebate and 2 year service agreement.

Alltel Wireless MOTORAZR VE20 Specifications
External touch sensitive controls
2 megapixel camera with video
Celltop ready
Stereo Bluetooth capable
GPS capable
Expandable memory slot

Sure the Sprint HTC Touch Pro is coming this October, but what about the other CDMA carriers: mainly Verizon Wireless and Alltel Wireless.  Earlier today, a series of pictures went live showcasing the Alltel Wireless HTC Touch Pro side by side with the PPC-6800 / VX6800 / Mogul.  The device looks to be legit from everything we have seen so far so a launch date is not too far off.  Stay tuned as we will keep you posted when we hear news of an official release date on the Alltel Touch Pro.

Source

Update 10/30: 

“The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday gave the green light on the merger. But it is requiring Verizon to divest assets in 22 states, including service in all of North Dakota and South Dakota; large portions of Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming; and parts of Alabama, Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia.”

The $28.1 billion deal, which was announced in June, still needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission. The agency is expected to vote on the acquisition at its November 4th meeting.

Via Cnet

The 2008 J.D. Power and Associates Wireless Call Quality Performance Study had a list of winners from their respective regions, but At&t and T-mobile failed to make the grade.  It was the power of CDMA networks that helped Verizon Wireless, U.S. Cellular, Sprint Nextel and Alltel all finish with the highest marks in wireless call quality in their respective regions.  While GSM networks account for more than 70% of all wireless subscribers worldwide, the US GSM carriers still remain behind CDMA voice networks.

The semi-annual study measures wireless call quality based on seven problem areas that impact overall carrier performance: dropped calls; static/interference; failed connection on the first try; voice distortion; echoes; no immediate voice mail notification; and no immediate text message notification. Call quality issues are measured as problems per 100 (PP100) calls, where a lower score reflects fewer problems and higher quality.  Here are the winners:

Northeast Region: Verizon Wireless
Mid-Atlantic Region: Verizon Wireless
North Cental Region: US Cellular and Alltel
Southwest Region: Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless
West Region: Verizon Wireless

For the most part we are not surprised by the study’s findings since Verizon Wireless has always been at the top of the reception charts nearly anywhere we’ve traveled.  What did surprise us is that the study found that nearly 14% of wireless subscribers said they’d ‘definitely change carriers in the next 12 months’.  Clearly GSM networks have a long road ahead in this game of reception catch up, but honestly we’ll settle for reception at home with the iPhone 3G.

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Verizon Wireless has once again ranked number 1 in wireless customer care performance, according to a J.D. Power Study.  Their number 1 ranking was based on the hold time the average customer spent which put Verizon Wireless at number 1, followed by Alltel, T-mobile and At&t.  Surprisingly, Sprint was not mentioned but it is no secret that they previously ranked last in customer service and have been working hard to reinvent their CS department.  Beyond having the shortest hold time, Verizon customers also reported that they were able to resolve their problems in a single phone call.

The fact that Verizon Wireless performs well in resolving issues with one contact is particularly noteworthy,” said Kirk Parsons, Senior Director of J.D. Power and Associates. “Overall customer care performance is three times higher among customers whose issues were resolved in one contact over the phone, compared with those who had to contact their provider more than once for the same issue.”

The study also found that the average time wireless customers spent on hold before speaking with a customer service representative in 2008 was 4.4 minutes - up 34 percent from the average hold time in 2003 (3.3 minutes).

Forty-nine percent of wireless customers have contacted the customer care service center for assistance within the past year - an increase from 47 percent reported six months ago. Additionally, among customers who contacted the service department, 34 percent did so due to service / equipment issues.

The Q2 2008 results are in and Alltel Wireless (recently acquired by Verizon Wireless) had done their job well by posting $2.39 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 10% from Q2 last year.  Despite the increasing revenue, the merger with its private equity investors has resulted in a net loss of $69.9 million, but the bright light is still shining at the end of the tunnel for the number 5 US wireless carrier.

With a rock bottom 1.92 percent churn rate and 316k new wireless subscribers in Q2, Alltel Wireless is a solid performer in both subscriber base and customer satisfaction.  Another area showing improvements is the ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) which has increased by 1 percent, up to $54.42, but the data APRU is really where Alltel shines.  Data ARPU was $8.18 which is up 45 percent when compared to this same quarter in 2007.

Two device leaks come out of the Nokia camp today through inadvertent product pages.  It is hard to feel bad for a manufacturer when they leave the details on their website and this is exactly the case for the dual sliding Nokia 8208 and Nokia 3608.  The Nokia 3608 is a simple flip phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera, dual color keys and GPS support.  Taking a page from Motorola’s book, the exterior of the 3608 has touch sensitive music keys along with a FM radio and the non-standard 2.5mm headphone jack.  MicroSD cards are also supported up to 4GB and from the looks of things it is very similar to the Nokia 3606, but it lacks the AWS band.  While the details are a little sketchy, early reports indicate the Nokia 3608 will use a Series 40-like UI and as usual there is no word on pricing or a release date.

The second device leaked today, the Nokia 8208 is the first non N-series phone to feature a two-way slider.  The 8208 will be part of Nokia’s music phone push and really looks to be a solid contender in the slider-phone market.  With music player controls, a 3.5mm standard headphone jack, and the standard 0-9 key layout, this Nokia 8208 will support EVDO Rev A.  With EVDO Rev A you can guess that one of the US CDMA carriers will be picking this device up (Verizon, Sprint, Alltel).  The two last big name features in the Nokia 8208 are full GPS support and a camera which weighs in at 3.0 megapixels which we hope will come with a LED flash (we will cross our fingers for Xenon).

As with the Nokia 3608, the 8208 has not been given a release date or price so stay tuned in the coming weeks.  For those of you using China Unicom, a special 8208C version is planned to follow, but this version will come with AGPS instead of stand-alone GPS.

[Via: Electronista]