By Sprint will soon be rolling out their LTE network and just as when Verizon did it, many have wondered what this would mean for the future of their truly unlimited data plans. As you know, Sprint uses unlimited data as a major marketing campaign to sway customers away from the other three big carriers here in the United States.
Even with a focus on those lucrative plans, though, Sprint is not yet committed to any particular direction. When asked about the topic, vice president of product realization David Owens simply said “we haven’t announced pricing and service plans yet.” All of that was preceded with a lot of fluff in PCMag’s account of the conversation.
It is a bit troubling to see Sprint not committing to unlimited data for LTE yet but there could be a number of different reasons why they aren’t saying anything. I won’t speculate on that, however. I’ll just say that Sprint consumers shouldn’t worry too much about their data at this point – they’re all in with their unlimited fork and we imagine it will take quite a while to phase it out of their marketing campaign.
Dear Sprint,
Please do not give up the only attractive thing about your service.
Won’t likely happen anytime soon given ‘unlimited’ is still their primary marketing campaign.
If they do go with limits, it will likely be better than competitors but I hope it’s reasonable throttling rather than pay per MB past limit. I would also hope for the limit to be significantly higher, like 4-5X higher than others.
Being that much higher than competitors would not make any sense. It wouldn’t benefit Sprint at all.
“…but there could be a number of different reasons why they aren’t saying anything.”
What reasons? I know it’s just speculation, but that’s why we come to Phandroid. I’d like to hear your professional opinion.
Well, the simplest reason could be that they want to announce it elsewhere and everyone is actually forbidden by the company to mention anything on the matter. This happens in just about ever form of business all over the world.
O rly? You’re so smart! You must be quite the brilliant businessman! /s. Quiet, troll. The fact that they would keep it confidential until the best possible time for them to announce goes without saying, obvi.
I have my reasons as to why, but would simply like to hear Phandroids’.
Troll? Wow, you are touchy. I responded with a sincere response. How am I to know what you do or do not know? Sheesh. You need to relax, bud.
LOL I thought you were just being a douchey smart ass. My bad haha
The ONLY reason I’m still with Sprint is unlimited data. They have by far the slowest data I’ve seen (200k on a good day) and their customer service is a joke. The day I have to give up unlimited data is the day I leave Sprint.
So what’s the point of having unlimited data if you’re only getting that kind of speed? Not like you can do much with it.
It’s pretty well confirmed that Sprint is going to leverage their ‘larger data plans’ against those of Verizon and AT&T. Sprint features a 3GB, 6GB and 12GB plan for their 4G “non smartphones” already at $35, $50 and $80 right now. Bet that LTE will be limited, using the 3/6/12 plan and you will pay to get it. Also, unconfirmed, but talk is no grandfathered users for unlimited data…
So basically, you are saying “I bet” and “unconfirmed”. So you have nothing to back up anything you are saying.
Great.
Well when you say “i bet” and “unconofirmed”, you obviously are making predictions because there is no confirmation, DUUUURRRR
Thing is, people on sites like these often post their opinions. Interestingly, the guy you attempted to slam for it basically pointed this out about his own post.
Love being grandfathered in on vzw lte :)
Love being grandfathered in on vzw lte :)
Verizon and at&t throttle their unlimited plan users if you fall into what they deem the top 5% of data users which could be anything.
verizon only throttles 3G…and only if you have a 3G only phone…and only if there are network issues in your area. They NEVER THROTTLE 4G phones.
They can grandfather people in and or take it away. Doesnt matter if you once had it. Verizon can and will take it away too. Or force you to up your monthly dues. Bottom line-they can do whatever they want and will do what is in their own best interest, not yours-the consumer.
It’s not going away anytime soon people. Just enjoy your unlimited data for the time being.
Knowing the industry, unlimited data isn’t sustainable but by Sprint having some of the slowest network data around their customers consume less data and so it’s less expensive for them to manage the network. T-Mobile on the other hand has been reporting that even through only 15% of their customer base have 4G smartphones they are responsible for almost 80% of data traffic. 1 in 4 customers are needing to upgrade their plan to one that’s higher than 2GB. The faster devices, even the low end ones, and easy access to those speeds are what makes that possible.
If Sprint has LTE widespread they would all of a sudden be dealing with a customer base consuming larger amounts of data in a given month and that will changer their game entirely.
I’ll stay with Sprint until the day they force me to give up unlimited data. That will be the day I switch carriers. Okay, maybe I will have a meeting that day, but within the week for sure.
Sorry to be off topic, but is the comment font different? I feel like it’s different.
If they were to say give me a phone that will run on the lte network they were setting up I wouldn’t care either way. Because I bought my evo thinking I was gonna get wimax ( in fact a Rep said I would have in q3 last year) so I have been paying for a service for almost exactly a year I will never see. So actually I take that back. Sprint owes anyone with a 4g wimax phone unlimited data for how long they paid for it and didn’t receive. And a complementary gnex since when I got the evo it was the hottest phone they offered and it’s now gonna be the case right? I mean can you say class action lawsuit, I think I’m owed the services I payed for and didn’t get, but why should I have to buy a phone when I thought the one I was getting I ono bought because of their “false advertising”.
sorry dude but keep dreaming. Sprint is not going to give you a free device when LTE comes out to your area. The only thing I can see Sprint doing is maybe let those who have Wimax devices upgrade early to LTE devices but I highly doubt Sprint will do anything like that. If you got the EVO in 2010, you should be due for a upgrade sometime this year so you can pick up a LTE device.
BTW the $10 fee is a smartphone data charge not a 4G data charge. It might have started with just 4G phones in 2010 but it hasn’t been strictly 4G phones for about a year now.
Just give me unlimited 3G on sprint and Cap off all the 4G they want and im happy to stay with Sprint…Im really hoping they stick with a business model like that. If they do network congestion will free up eventually on 3G.