Alltel launches Wafer phone, Day Pass daily Web access

Alltel Corp. added “The Wafer”-a new, thin, bar-style handset from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.-to its portfolio. The handset is $50 with a mail-in rebate and two-year contract, and is available to existing Alltel customers whose rate plan allows them to upgrade their handset.
The Wafer is Samsung’s fourth handset in Alltel’s portfolio of 27 devices, and represents a modest win for the Korean vendor. Samsung rival LG Electronics Co. Ltd. has five handsets in Alltel’s lineup, the most of any single vendor.
Alltel’s name for the device effectively calls attention to its quarter-inch thickness, a hallmark of Samsung’s latest devices. The device features XM Radio Mobile, Axcess TV and Axcess Mobile Guide. It offers a 1.3-megapixel camera with video capabilities, an MP3 player, expandable memory, stereo Bluetooth and Alltel’s Celltop technology, which provides shortcuts for navigating through applications.
Alltel also announced it will offer a new “Day Pass” service for wireless Web browsing.
For $1.50, Alltel customers will be able to buy a 24-hour pass to Alltel’s Axcess wireless Web service. Alltel said the service works through technology from partner Motricity.
Further, Alltel said its subscribers now will be able to browse directly from their phone for ringback tones, ringtones and wallpapers without incurring data charges.
Typically, carriers charge a per-kilobyte or per-minute fee to those users who access their wireless Web services or browse for content without a data access plan.
Alltel’s efforts come as carriers across the country work to boost sagging voice revenues with sales of wireless data products. Already, wireless data accounts for up to 10 percent of some carriers’ average revenues per user.