Telecom Lead America: Taking cue from wireless major
Verizon, U.S. Cellular has teamed up with Alltel Wireless to begin
offering U Prepaid, a no contract wireless service, in nearly
500 Walmart Stores across 18 states.

The newly formed alliance offers customers flexible payment
options without signing a contract. The company said that U Prepaid customers
with U.S. Cellular will be backed by its high-speed network.

“Teaming with Alltel to gain distribution
in Walmart gives us another opportunity to be where our customers
want to shop and to offer more customers a prepaid service that helps them
control their monthly budgets,” said Carter S. Elenz, executive vice
president of sales and customer service for U.S. Cellular.

The alliance provides Walmart customers easy-to-understand
service plan choices. The U Prepaid service will run on either U.S. Cellular’s
high-speed national network or Alltel’s advanced coast-to-coast network.

“Alltel is proud to bring the strength and equity of
our U Prepaid brand to U.S. Cellular to create this unique alliance. Together,
we can leverage our position as the “local” wireless carrier offering
a hometown alternative in the communities we serve,” said Lesa Handly,
chief marketing officer for Alltel Wireless.

The carrier will offer Android-powered Samsung Repp, LG
Attune/LG Exchange, LG Saber and the Samsung Chrono to its under its U Prepaid
plans.

The carrier said that customers will be able to choose from
a variety of value-packed plans to match how they use their phones.

Verizon Wireless has also announced the availability of a
new prepaid plan for its customers in the U.S. Beginning from today, the new
prepaid plans offers unlimited talk and text messaging, as well as 1 GB of data
for $80 per month. The operator said that this monthly plan is available on the
prepaid Samsung Illusion.

U.S. Cellular announces 4G LTE expansion

Recently, U.S. Cellular, in association with King Street
Wireless, announced expansion of 4G LTE service by the end of 2012.

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