Alltel (News - Alert) Wireless, one of America’s largest networks, has joined hands with ChaCha, the groundbreaking mobile answers service.

 

“We are excited to join with Alltel to make ChaCha’s mobile answers service a key feature their customers can rely on to get answers while on the go,” said Jay Highley, ChaCha’s chief business development officer.

 

“Our award winning mobile answers service dramatically improves mobile users’ search experience when looking for quick answers. ChaCha makes it easy to ask any question and receive the answer in conversational English along with a handy web reference link should they need more information. Mobile text messaging continues to grow and when users new to text messaging find out how easy it is with ChaCha, carriers will benefit from higher adoption of text plans, and ultimately text usage,” added Highley.

 

ChaCha allows users to call 1-800-2ChaCha or text questions to ChaCha (242242) on mobile phones and receive answers within minutes.

 

ChaCha’s expert guides, who are trained and skilled individuals, use ChaCha's powerful internal patent-pending search tools to respond to any query.

 

“Alltel customers need quick and concise answers to questions they may have while on the go, and we believe that ChaCha’s mobile answers services provides the right amount of information mobile users need,” said Craig Kirkland, vice president of messaging and voice services for Alltel Wireless.

 

“We’re delighted to work with ChaCha, and our mobile users will be thrilled with the fun and user-friendly ChaCha mobile answers service,” stated Kirkland.

 

Alltel is the owner and operator of one the nation’s largest wireless networks and has more than 13 million customers.

 

Meanwhile, Alltel Wireless will continue expanding its wireless broadband network in 2008 with the launch of EVDO (evolution data optimized) Revision A technology, enabling customers to upload files five to 10 times faster than before.

 

Alltel plans an initial rollout of Rev. A to 18 market areas and dozens of cities, including Charlotte, New Orleans, Phoenix and Tampa.

 

Customers using Rev. A will experience average upload speeds of 500-800 Kbps with bursts up to 1.8 Mbps. Upload speeds on the company’s existing broadband network average 50-70 Kbps, with bursts up to 144 Kbps, so the enhanced network will be five to 10 times faster. 

Download speeds also will increase. Rev. A download speeds average 600 Kbps to 1.4 Mbps, with bursts up to 3.1 Mbps. By comparison, downloads on the existing broadband network average 400-700 Kbps with bursts up to 2.4 Mbps.