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Alltel Wireless is Restoring Service, Donating Free Bonus Minutes, Text Messages to Customers from Areas Evacuated for Hurricane Gustav

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-(Business Wire)-September 3, 2008 - Alltel Wireless disaster recovery crews have fanned out across south Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast to restore communications services in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. The company also is adding 1,000 free nationwide minutes as well as unlimited text messaging to customers’ accounts from areas where mandatory evacuations were ordered in preparation for Gustav. The 1,000 free minutes and unlimited texting will be given to consumer and business customers for use from Aug. 29 to Sept. 12.

Alltel’s disaster recovery crews, equipped with electrical generators and fuel trucks, are restoring wireless communications service in the affected areas as quickly as possible. Full restoration of the wireless network is dependent on restoring power and telephone lines to areas that lost those services in the hurricane.

“Our hearts go out to our employees, customers and neighbors who have suffered losses as a result of Gustav,” said Joanna Miller, Alltel’s vice president of business solutions for Louisiana and Mississippi. “We are committed to restoring wireless communications service as quickly as is practical and safe for our employees. Meanwhile, we are giving customers from the affected areas free minutes and text messaging so that they can communicate during this difficult time without having to worry about increased usage charges on their wireless bills.”

Alltel will automatically add 1,000 free nationwide minutes to all consumer and business customers’ accounts with billing addresses in the evacuated parishes and counties. In Louisiana, the parishes are: Ascension, Assumption, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Vermillion and Washington. In Mississippi, the counties are: Hancock, Harrison and Jackson. Baldwin County in Alabama also is included.

About 30 of Alltel’s retail locations were forced to close by the hurricane. The following stores have reopened as of Wednesday:

1401 Armand Drive, Suite A, in Picayune, Miss.; 1113 S. Range Ave. in Denham Springs, La.; 27900 Main St. in Daphne, Ala.; 669 S. McKenzie in Foley, Ala.; 171 East I-65 Service Rd. South, in Mobile, Ala.; 705 Highway 43 South in Saraland, Ala.; 740 S. Schillinger Rd. in Mobile, Ala.; 1000 Turtle Creek Dr. in Hattiesburg, Miss.; the Circuit City location at 1000 Turtle Creek Dr. in Hattiesburg, Miss.; 6440 Highway 98 West in Hattiesburg, Miss.; 10859 Highway 98 in Destin, Fla.; 101 Bluefish Dr., Suite 140 in Panama City Beach, Fla.; 2503 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Panama City, Fla.; 1315 Highway 15 in Laurel, Miss.; 442 Winter St., Suite A, in Lucedale, Miss.; 1630 Airport Blvd. in Pensacola, Fla.; 5090 U.S. Highway 90 in Pace, Fla.; 4600 Mobile Highway in Pensacola, Fla., and 2146 W. Nine Mile Rd. in Pensacola, Fla.

Alltel is owner and operator of the nation’s largest wireless network and has more than 13 million wireless customers. For more information about Alltel Wireless, please visit www.alltel.com.

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