This phone actually was an exchange weirdly enough. Our old phone was about to have it's service shut off because it was too old, so they offered this phone for free in exchange.
No, have not contacted Alcatel directly, but I will.
Our provider is MetroPCS. Got the phone brand new from them and never did anything to it. Just calls, texts and a couple apps, that's all. No custom firmware or modifications.
It's the update that keeps automatically downloading on it's own for my device. So yes, it has to be unless android keeps sending and automatically downloading an incorrect update.