ALLTEL goes Speechless with new mobile-to-mobile messaging service

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ALLTEL goes Speechless with new mobile-to-mobile messaging service
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For additional information contact:

Andrew Moreau 501-905-7962
Director - Corporate Communications
andrew.moreau@alltel.com

David Avery 501-905-5876
Staff Manager - Corporate Communications
david.avery@alltel.com

Release date: May 6, 2002


Customers can send text messages to other wireless phones, any e-mail address

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - ALLTEL wireless customers can now connect without talking by using Speechless, a new service which allows customers to send and receive text messages on a digital handset.

With Speechless, customers can instantly send text messages from their wireless phones to other ALLTEL digital handsets or to any electronic mail address in the world. Customers can also receive text messages sent from other Speechless customers, any e-mail address or from ALLTEL's messaging site on the Internet.

In addition, Speechless allows customized news, weather, sports, stock quotes and other messages to be delivered to a customer's phone. Customers can sign up for as many alerts as they want at no additional charge, also deciding how often and when they want the information sent to them.

"Speechless gives ALLTEL customers another convenient way to communicate, even when they are unable to talk on the phone," said Philip Junker, ALLTEL's executive vice president for marketing. "Now it doesn't matter if you're sitting in a meeting but need to get a quick note to a co-worker - you can send a text message and get a response quietly and quickly."

ALLTEL is introducing Speechless to customers by offering the first month of service free.

Speechless is then available for a $6.95 monthly charge that includes unlimited incoming messages and allows 300 originated messages. Additional sent messages will be billed at 10 cents each.

In order to use Speechless, customers will need a digital wireless handset capable of sending text messages. Several messaging-capable models are already available and more will be added in the future.

Customers send messages with Speechless by typing the message using the handset's keypad. Messages can also be sent through ALLTEL's short messaging Web site, http://message.alltel.com.

For more information about Speechless or to sign up for the service, call 1-800-ALLTEL1 (1-800-255-8351) or visit www.alltel.com.

ALLTEL, with more than 10 million communications customers and $7.5 billion in annual revenues, is a leader in the communications and information services industries. ALLTEL has communications customers in 24 states and provides information services to telecommunications, financial and mortgage clients in more than 50 countries.

ALLTEL, NYSE: AT



ALLTEL goes Speechless with new mobile-to-mobile messaging service