In an effort to compete with T-Mobile's and AT&T's Wi-Fi deals, Alltel Wireless this week announced that it's partnering with Boingo Wireless to offer Alltel Wi-Fi, giving the company's customers access at thousands of Boingo hotspots in North and South America.

Wi-Fi plans are available for $9.99 per month if the customer has an EVDO data plan with Alltel, or $21.99 per month if the customer just has voice service from Alltel - which, of course, actually makes it more expensive (by four cents) than just buying the service directly from Boingo...

The point is, what they're really pushing is the EVDO-and-Wi-Fi bundle for an additional $9.99 per month. "By having both Wi-Fi and EVDO access, mobile users get the advantage of two high-speed broadband technologies that are good enough for downloading files and using mobile applications wirelessly on a smartphone or laptop with integrated Wi-Fi," writes InformationWeek's Elena Malykhina.

More here from eWeek ... more here from MobileBurn ... more here from Broadband Reports ... and the press release is here.