Well, you have to give Alltel marks for trying…and it is starting where everyone sucks: it is working on the UI of its phone service. It has launched its Celltop UI, a rich media widget-type UI that makes it easier for consumers to navigate the data apps.
It arranges a phone screen into as many as 10 cells that offer short cuts to applications such as call logs, text message inboxes, weather and news. The UI is onlu on one phone model, the U520 from Samsung, for now but plans to extend it to five models by March and all its new phones by year-end.
PCmag: Celltop is written using Qualcomm’s BREW platform, and any BREW developer can write and sell new cells through Alltel’s shop.  The system will initially come with ten free cells: call log, ringtones, SMS, weather from AccuWeather, news from the AP, stocks, and football, basketball, baseball, and rodeo results. The company expects future cells to include ringtone purchases, a frame to display photos on your phone, and RSS feeds.
AP: While the Celltop application is free, each refresh will be treated as a minute of call time (that is crazy) unless the subscriber has a $10 unlimited data plan.
In some sense, this is similar to Helio’s Hot...again live screen.
Alltel is the fifth largest carrier in U.S. Some more details on this in the release here (PDF link)