If you’re traveling by car this holiday season, you may be considering installing a GPS-based navigational device in your vehicle to reduce at least some of the hassles of the trip. A variety of such products are available, should you opt for an in-vehicle device.

But you may also be considering a navigational service delivered to your cell phone. One such service is TeleNav’s GPS Navigator, available now to Alltel Wireless customers using selected handsets.

Alltel announced rollout of the service earlier this month. Here’s how it works: if you own one of the supported phones (for now, BlackBerry 8703e or Samsung u520), you can subscribe to the service (unlimited use) for $9.99 per month. One-day use subscriptions also are available for $2.99 on the Samsung phone. You’ll also need an Alltel Wireless data plan (optionally, you can choose to use voice minutes). 

Once service is activated, the TeleNav GPS Navigator application can be downloaded directly to your phone.

TeleNav’s GPS Navigator includes the following features:

• Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn directions

• Biz Finder (find businesses, services, WiFi hotspots, and more)

• Fuel Finder (locate lowest gas price in five-mile or wider radius)

• Full-color moving maps (pan and zoom)

• Easy destination entry (preplan trips online, type destinations into phone using keypad, dictate destination using voice recognition system)

• Automatic map updates

• Spot marker (e.g. find your car wherever you park it)

• My Favorites (save multiple addresses for later access)

TeleNav’s director of business development, Hassan Wahla, exuded the expected enthusiasm in his statement about expanded coverage of the service to include Alltel customers: “With Alltel’s expansive wireless network and reputation of embracing advanced technologies, Alltel’s customers have come to expect the very best from their wireless service.”

Just another thing to consider this holiday season.