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A memo leaking out of Sprint and into the hands of TechnoBuffalo has the carrier doing away with their early upgrade policy for existing customers. The move comes at a time when Sprint continues to hack away at customer-oriented policies. The carrier is citing “high costs” as the reason why customers will no longer be able to upgrade to a new phone at a discounted price 10-14 days prior early.
The cost cutting maneuver was likely brought about due to the expense of rolling out an LTE network to compete with AT&T and Verizon and the high price Sprint paid to carry the iPhone. With Dan Hesse and crew feeling the crunch, it may be just the first of several cost-cutting moves. The end of early upgrades shouldn’t turn away too many existing customers, but what’s next? The end of unlimited data? Let’s hope Sprint doesn’t get that far.
[via TechnoBuffalo]
Yes. I expect the unlimited data plan to be scrapped or modified before the LTE launch.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
yet another feature to merge into the conglomerate of american carriers. What they dont realize is that at this point, their unlimited data is the only thing keeping their smartphone customers. They keep removing things and even that wont matter any more.
If Sprint so much as touches their unlimited data plan then AT&T here I come, I can use my company discount with them but they don’t offer one for Sprint, so I really wouldn’t have a reason to stay with Sprint.
Same here
OH NO, now I can’t get an upgrade a whole 14 days early!!!! /s
14 days? I upgraded 4 months early last time….
From the wording, it seems like this was in addition to that. It states “upgrade eligibility” and not anything about end of contract. It used to be the Main line was “upgrade eligible” at 12 months and the rest of the lines were “upgrade eligible” at 20 months. Thus this extra 14 days was most likely not known by the majority of subscribers.
If they are going to screw the rest of their customers to carry iPhone they sucks.
Say goodbye to Unlimited data shortly after they flip the LTE switch.
Just like everyone else
Data is limited by their slow ass 3G
Sprint was good, then they released the original Evo and their network speeds plummeted. Then they upgraded nearly all their towers, and speeds were decent again – then a week later (literally in my case) they released their iPhone, and now 9 months later I still get speeds like this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21884233/linked/rps20120516_135450.jpg
This isnt all that big of a deal…14days really?? who gives a flying [*]
They look like they are going to pull the bomb on us….NO MORE UNLIMITED DATA. After this article being posted, im officially going to revoke everyone, who is on my shared plan, the ability to make changes on the account or accept their 2yr renewal. Im not taking the chance in someone messing up and locking me into a tiered data plan when Sprint finally announces one. Ive already warned everyone that they are gonna have to purchase their phones at full price if accepting another 2yrs requires a change to a tiered data plan. Id rather be grandfathered in for life.
paranoid much?
Lol…you betcha…shoot i may have shitty slow speeds but its reliable enough for me to keep unlimited.
The only reason to keep Sprint is unlimited data? Their 3g network is a joke. Look at this article to see what I’m talking about… http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/which-is-the-nations-fastest-network/2012/04/18/gIQAJ4pfQT_story.html
Keeping unlimited data on a network that is horrible is like buying dialup because it’s $15 cheaper than cable.
That’s if you are stuck on 3g, which a lot of people arent
The cost of iphone is really killing sprint. Right before iphone came to sprint, sprint got rid of all the perks for existing customers like yearly upgrade for their premiere customers which is pretty much everyone with a smartphone, bumped up price of their data plan by $10 earlier last year. Love how all the carriers are taking benefits away.
the iphone was not worth this. my epic 4g needs to be replaced soon.
as soon as att announces a refresh for the G note with S4 or quad chip im gone.
Two words if you live in an urban area Simple Mobile. You Can hook up all the newest unlocked droids from Google. Including gnex gs2 and gs3 unlimited everything. 60 bucks a month now contracts. Planning on jumping from metro and hooking up a gnex.
This 14-day window does actually mean something in certain situations. My dad’s line wasn’t up for an upgrade until two weeks later at a point where Best Buy was selling the Nexus S 4G for $0.01. If it wasn’t for Sprint letting him upgrade early, he would have missed out on the deal.