Alltel Wireless on Friday expanded its location-based services offerings to support nationwide roaming, which will allow the carrier's subscribers to use their GPS-enabled mobile phones in more than 45 major metro areas in the United States.

Before the roaming network enhancement, Alltel's navigation and location-based applications were inoperable in some nationwide locations, according to the carrier.

Alltel offers a suite of GPS applications that include TeleNav GPS Navigator and Alltel Navigation for turn-by-turn driving directions, as well as Alltel Where -- an application that serves up points of interest such as gas stations, shops, restaurants, hotels, parks, ATMs, hospitals, and schools.

Additionally, the carrier provides parents with a service to locate their children from the Web or a mobile phone using an application called Axcess Family Finder. The app comes with interactive maps for monitoring children in specific locations.

Businesses also will benefit from the network enhancement since they will be able to track employees' location anywhere nationwide, said Alltel. Businesses can use Alltel's TimecardGPS application for tracking employees and capturing job information from mobile phones that support location-based services.

But subscribers that want to take advantage of Alltel's nationwide roaming should note that standard roaming charges apply when they are outside of their home network area.

In October, Alltel began offering another option to its nationwide subscribers: a Wi-Fi service powered by Boingo Wireless, a Wi-Fi hotspot aggregator that operates a network of 60,000 hotspots in airports, hotels, cafes, and other public places. The service encompasses Alltel subscribers in North and South America.