Alltel Wireless customers in 18 market areas and cities including Charlotte, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Tampa will be the first to get faster file transfers as the carrier launches EVDO Revision A wireless broadband technology, which promises to make file uploads five to 10 times faster than the original Evolution Data Optimized spec.

According to Alltel, upload speeds will increase from an average 50 to 70Kbps, with bursts up to 144Kbps, to the neighborhood of 500 to 800Mbps with bursts up to 1.8Mbps. Rev. A download speeds average 600Kbps to 1.4Mbps, with bursts up to 3.1Mbps, outrunning Alltel's existing network's 400 to 700Kbps with 2.4Mbps bursts.

The carrier says that Rev. A customers can expect to download a 1MB e-mail attachment, such as a small PowerPoint presentation or large PDF document, in less than 15 seconds and upload the same file in less than 25 seconds.

The faster technology requires Rev. A-capable hardware, such as the Huawei EC228 USB and UTStarcom UM 150 cards for notebook PCs. Alltel customers with an HTC Touch or HTC PPC6800 can upgrade their phones to Rev. A via a free download from www.htc.com/us.

In addition to rolling out Rev. A in select markets, Alltel says it will continue to expand its existing EVDO network to reach about 82 percent of its potential customers, up from today's 76 percent, by the end of 2008.