Merrill Lynch Global Communications Investor Conference

1

Scott Ford President and Chief Executive Officer

• Merrill Lynch Global Communications Investor
  Conference
• New York
• March 16, 2004

2
Safe Harbor Statement

• This presentation includes certain estimates and
  other forward-looking statements, including
  statements with respect to anticipated operating
  and financial performance, growth opportunities
  and growth rates, acquisition and divestiture
  opportunities, and other statements of
  expectation. Words such as expects,
  anticipates, intends, plans, believes,
  assumes, seeks, estimates, and should,
  and variations of these words and similar
  expressions, are intended to identify these
  forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
  statements are subject to uncertainties that
  could cause actual future performance, outcomes
  and results to differ materially. These
  statements by the Company and its management are
  based on estimates, projections, beliefs and
  assumptions of management and are not guarantees
  of future performance. The company disclaims any
  obligation to update or revise any
  forward-looking statement based on the occurrence
  of future events, the receipt of new information,
  or otherwise.

3
Regulation G Disclaimer
Todays presentation will include certain
non-GAAP financial measures. I refer you to the
Investor Relations section of ALLTELs Web site
where the company has posted this presentation
along with additional information regarding these
non-GAAP financial measures, including a
reconciliation of each such measure to the most
directly comparable GAAP measure. The companys
Web site is located at www.alltel.com.
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Agenda
Strategic Model
Strong Balance Sheet
Solid Financial Performance
New Initiatives
Wireline Business
Wireless Business
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Strategic ModelPositions ALLTEL for Telecom
Industry Evolution and Shareholder Value

• OPERATIONAL FOCUS
• Point of Sale Experience
• Customer Service Experience
• Network Quality Experience

• FINANCIAL DISCIPLINE
• Invest in Businesses Not Products
• Best Customer/Best Price
• Stay Relevant

• OPPORTUNISTIC GROWTH
• Focus on Free Cash Flow
• Operational Fit
• Think Long-Term (5 years)

6
Strong Balance SheetALLTEL Has One of the
Strongest Credit Profiles in the Telecom Industry

• Well capitalized balance sheet
• A1 / Prime-1 / F1 (SP / Moodys / Fitch)
  Commercial Paper ratings
• A / A2 / A (SP / Moodys / Fitch) long-term
  credit ratings
• Net Debt / OIBDA 1.3X(1)

Telecom Company Credit Rating Statistics
5.0
RCCC
4.5
Q
4.0
3.5
CZN
Net Debt/OIBDA as of 12/31/03
3.0
2.5
CTL
2.0
NXTL
FON/PCS
USM
1.5
VZ
AWE
AT
1.0
T
BLS
TDS
SBC
0.5
0.0
CCC
B
B
BBB-
BBB
A-
A
A
B-
BB-
BB
BB
BBB
AA-
SP Credit Rating
Source Wall Street equity research and company
filings. Note Assumes 80 equity credit for AT,
CZN and CTL Equity Units. (1) From current
businesses as of 4Q03 OIBDA defined as
operating income before depreciation and
amortization.
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Solid Financial Performance Strategic Model
Driving Consistent Growth
Operating Income Before Depreciation and
Amortization (bn)1
Revenue (bn)1
Dividends per Share
Earnings per Share1
1 From Current Businesses (after the restatement
of discontinued operations which reflects the 2Q
03 sale of the financial services division of
the information services business).
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Solid Financial Performance Strategic Model
Driving Strong and Growing Equity Free Cash Flow
Over 1B in Equity Free Cash Flow in 2003
Millions
of Revenues

5-Year CAGR 13.8
1
1 From Current Businesses (after the restatement
of discontinued operations which reflects the 2Q
03 sale of the financial services division of
the information services business).
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A Closer Look at Our Business
2003
OIBDA
Revenue
2003 Revenue 8.0B
2003 OIBDA 3.2B
Business is well positioned for growth and free
cash flow
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Wireless BusinessA Closer Look at the Business
and 4Q03 Highlights

• As of 12/31/03
• 60 million POPs
• Over 8.0 million customers
• Customer Mix
• Tier 1 - 37
• Tier 2 - 34
• Tier 3 - 29

• 4Q 2003 Highlights
• 4Q03 YOY
• Service revenue 1,128M 6
• ARPU 47.26 1
• Gross adds (000s) 696.9 3
• Post-pay churn 1.96 (13)
• Net adds (000s) 95.4 85

Wireless National Calling Areas Cover All 50
States
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Wireless BusinessNational Plans and MOU Growth
Driving ARPU
of Gross Adds on Total/National Freedom Rate
Plans
MOU (Minutes of Use) Per Customer
24 Increase
ARPU Year Over Year
1 Increase
Strong National plan sales and MOU growth is
driving ARPU
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Wireless BusinessQuantity and Quality of Gross
Adds are Improving
Gross Adds Quarter Over Quarter in thousands
Post Pay as Percentage of Total Gross
The quantity and quality of gross adds continues
to improve
13
Wireless BusinessData Usage Continues to Grow

• 1X Data deployed in 10 markets
• Axcess Data Offerings
• - Text Messaging - Ringtones
• - Mobile Web - High Speed
• - Application Downloads - Business email
• Revenue is small but usage is growing

Axcess Applications Downloaded
Axcess Text Messages - Outbound
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Wireless BusinessImproving PostPay Churn
Improving service levels, competitive pricing
plans and proactive retention efforts are all
contributing to post-pay churn improvements
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Wireless BusinessIndustry Leading Cost Structure
Cash Costs per Customer

• OIBDA Margins1
• Heritage
• Margins have been steady yoy, even with...
• Increased spending on advertising and retention
  which is
• Driving better churn and customer growth
• Acquired (CenturyTel)
• Margins have been lower than Heritage because
  of...
• Significantly improving quantity and quality of
  gross adds

Quality customer growth and retention putting
some pressure on margins, but we are still
industry leaders in cash costs per customer
Excludes acquisition costsSource Analyst and
company reports
1OIBDA defined as operating income before
depreciation and amortization.
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The Wireless World Today 2003 Results

• 
  
  
• 
  Customers Market
• (In
  Millions)(b) Share (b) ARPU
• Cingular/AWE 46.0 30 54 11 6
• Verizon 37.5 24 49 18 9
• Sprint (a) 17.5 11 61 7 4
• T-Mobile [phone]
• Nextel 12.9 8 69 23 16
• ALLTEL 8.0 5 48 21 10

Wireless Operating Margin(c)
Monthly Op. Margin Per Customer
(a) Excludes affiliates (b) Customers as of
12/31/03 - Market share based on CTIA 2/18/04
estimate of 155.3M customers (c) Operating Margin
excludes one-time charges
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Wireline BusinessA Closer Look at the Business
and 4Q03 Highlights

• As of 12/31/03
• 2nd largest independent ILEC
• Approximately 3.1 million customer lines
• Approximately 50 of wireline access lines
  overlap wireless service areas

• 4Q 2003 Highlights
• 4Q03 YOY
• Revenue 616M 1
• Segment income 237M 6
• DSL net adds 23,053 63

Wireless Wireline National Calling Areas Cover
All 50 States
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Wireline BusinessAccess Lines Decline Slightly,
But ARPU Increases
Access lines have declined 2 YoY
But ARPU has increased. . .
Reasons for decline Wireless substitution
Broadband Economic conditions
In Thousands
Driven by DSL and Feature Revenue
Feature Revenue Per Eligible Line - 10 growth
YoY
DSL Customers - 118 increase YoY
7 penetration of addressable lines Almost 90
have ALLTEL Internet Service
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Wireline BusinessAnd We Continue to Effectively
Manage Our Costs
4Q03 Cash Costs per Customer
Source Analyst and company reports
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New InitiativesStock Repurchase Plan

• 750M stock repurchase plan approval
• 5 of shares outstanding
• Authorizes repurchase over period ending 12/31/05
• As of March 5, 2004 (10-k filing)
• Repurchased 1.4M shares 71M
• Remaining 679M

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New Initiatives New Organizational Structure
Aimed to Execute Against Strategic Model

• Why
• Dedicate sales focus by segment keep support
  groups converged
• Improve service levels to our customers
• Remove duplication and improve feedback loops
• Financial Impact
• 15M pre-tax charge in 1Q
• Expect 20M of savings in 2004

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New Initiatives ALLTEL Launched Touch2Talk A
Very Competitive Push-to-Talk Offering

• Kodiak Networks
• ALLTEL IS-95 CDMA Network
• Kyocera T2T Capable Phone

Pricing 5/month 100 minutes private
T2T 10/month 500 minutes private
T2T 20/month unlimited minutes private T2T

• Benefits
• Footprint
• will be available on our entire digital network
  by end of 1Q
• Latency
• Call setup in under 3 seconds
• Intra-call in as low as 150 milliseconds
• Functionality
• Use handset to set up group and add users to
  group
• Easily toggle between T2T call and wireless call

Coverage Area Coverage will be available by
3/31/04
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Summary

• Solid balance sheet
• Strong equity free cash flow over 1B in 2003
• 3 dividend yield
• Wireless Business improving quality of customer
  growth and significantly improving retention
• Wireline Business higher DSL penetration and
  feature revenue
• Industry leading cost structure

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Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures for
the years ended December 31, 2003, 2002, 2001,
2000 and 1999
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Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures for
the years ended December 31, 2003, 2002, 2001,
2000 and 1999
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Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures for
the year ended December 31, 2003
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Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures for
the three months ended December 31, 2003 and 2002
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Other Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Financial
Measures
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