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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Alltel Corporation, (NYSE:AT), based in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P., headquartered in Los Angeles, announced today the settlement of patent litigation between the parties and that, as part of the settlement, Alltel has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum for a license particularly on behalf of Alltel Communications, Inc. and its other subsidiaries under a comprehensive portfolio of patents that Katz owns relating to interactive voice applications. The nonexclusive license covers services offered by Alltel in the wireless field, including customer service delivered through automated systems and live agents. Other terms of the license were not disclosed. The more than 50 United States patents held by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. cover a wide range of interactive technology including automated forms of: customer service, securities trading, merchandising, prepaid services, telephone conferences, registration, home shopping, as well as functions involved in securing information from databases by telephone, interactive cable transactions, and various other uses of toll free and local numbers. Additional patents are currently pending in this portfolio. Ronald A. Katz stated, "We welcome Alltel to the group of leading telecommunications companies who have purchased license rights under this portfolio." There are over 150 companies with license rights under this portfolio, including over 15 energy and utility companies. Companies in other industries with license rights under this portfolio include: Advanta Corp., American Century, American Express, Ameritrade Holding Corporation, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., AT&T Corp., Bank of America Corporation, BB&T Corporation, Capital One Services Inc., Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, Certegy Inc., Dell Inc., Delta Air Lines, Inc., Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P., Equifax Inc., Excel Communications Inc., First Data Corporation, First National Bank of Omaha, First Tennessee National Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Home Shopping Network Inc., Household International, Inc., HSBC Bank USA, International Business Machines (IBM), KeyCorp, MCI Inc., Mediacom Communications Corporation, Mellon Financial Corporation, Merck & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Metris Companies Inc., Microsoft, MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc., Nationwide, OppenheimerFunds, Inc., People's Bank, Principal Financial Group, Inc., Prudential Financial, Inc., QVC, Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co., Shop At Home, Inc., Sprint Corporation, SouthTrust Bank, Sunoco, Inc., Synovus, The Gallup Organization, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., The Vanguard Group, Inc., Verizon California Inc. and its affiliates, Wachovia Corporation, and Wells Fargo & Company. Mr. Katz is the named inventor on a large number of patents primarily in the fields of telecommunications and computing. He also formed Telecredit, Inc., the nation's first on-line real time credit and check cashing authorization system, and was awarded a patent as co-inventor of that technology. Alltel is owner and operator of the nation's largest wireless network and has more than 11 million wireless customers. For more information about Alltel, please visit http://www.alltel.com/. DATASOURCE: Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. CONTACT: Brian Rivette of A2D, L.P., +1-310-247-8191, , for Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P.; or Dale Ingram, Vice President - Public Relations, +1-501-905-6078, , or Scott Morris, Manager - Corporate Communications, +1-501-905-4094, , both of Alltel Corporation

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