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Sprint PCS Launches 3G Network
pdp1144 writes "Sprint PCS launched the first nationwide 3G wireless network today. Code named Vision it will allow wireless data speeds starting at an average of 50 to 70 kbps." The question is, how much? If the data plan is such that you can use up a month's allotment in five minutes of downloading... Simson Garfinkel had a good column on this recently.
it is called M-mode...
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
last I heard, any and all current US implementations of a "3G" system were only pseudo-3G in that they don't offer the full system capabilities.
What they offer is still way faster than any other wireless phone out there, but not the true 3G offering - I didn't read the article or look into this further, but were Sprint truly the first one out, that would be a big surprise.
I can recall msnbc talking about this recently and I *think* they also said that it wasn't full 3G
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
The states is finally catching up with Europe's telecoms... After many years of "waffling" on 2.5G and 2G. Even now, they aren't anywhere near Europe, but they are getting closer. What they really need now is the FCC to give them some more bandwidth to work with (take it away from the media conglomerates).
I say this takes another 3-5 years before it is as enmeshed as Europe's as well, and even then, Europe will still be heads and shoulders ahead.
~ kjrose
In a releated story from dc.internet.com:
Mobilepro Corp., with its subsidiary, Neoreach, Inc., a developer of semiconductor chips for third generation (3G) wireless communication services, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the RF Microelectronics Lab (RFIC) at the Information and Communications University in South Korea to co-develop a new semiconductor chip.
Under the agreement, engineering teams from Neoreach and RFIC will devote joint research and design expertise, staffing, facilities resources, project management, and testing for the development of an RF CMOS, a radio frequency chipset.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
PCS Free & Clear with Vision - Initially ranging in price from $44. 99 to $119.99, PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans will include megabytes for data usage along with varying amounts of voice minutes, depending on the individual plan. For a limited time, Sprint will offer special introductory rate plans that provide more Anytime Minutes than standard Free & Clear plans; allow customers to share minutes with another PCS phone for no additional charge and each phone will have two megabytes of data to use. An example of the introductory PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans include the $89.99 per month plan that features 2,000 Anytime Minutes that can be used by an individual or shared between two people.
If I recall correctly, 2000 anytime minutes right now is $149, so this could be a good initial deal! There's other pricing for laptops.
-DJ
The more technology I live with, the more I like to abandon it and go to the country. I never like phone calls, I usually dislike TV, I often dislike the Web and email and computers...
I am beginning to see a pattern here. Does anyone else notice that the in the last ten years, the fun seems to have slowly bled from computing and technology?
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
How many people said this about SMS messaging?
Now almost everyone with a phone in the UK uses it, and the advertisements are now gearing us up for sending picture messages.
A camera built into the phone so you can instantly send it to a friend? I kinda like the sound of it!
The expense will come down (it always does) and we'll forget what life was like before it all arrived (it always happens).
If you need to go and live in the woods, sure, but you were probably saying that when they invented the TV, so what's new?
saw this posted over at the treocentral forums...its from Salomon Smith Barney discussing the 3G launch.
"We have been tracking the signs for Sprint's upcoming "3G" launch, regarding
the brand, launch date, price, and handset selection. Our checks have
indicated that Sprint's new brand for its "3G" wireless data service is PCS
Vision, which will be billed on bits and bytes, rather than minutes.
On timing, we believe there is substantial confusion over the "official" launch
date. Based on our channel checks, "3G" capable phones may go on sale in the
indirect channels in stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City, beginning on
August 8. The "official" launch in Sprint's direct stores may not occur until,
at least, August 12, and may extend to August 19.
On price, we find that Sprint PCS will build upon its national pricing
schematic with its introduction of data, rather than become more aggressive for
national voice minute pricing. We would emphasize the data pricing described
in this report are indications and are still subject to change ahead of the
launch. We have received indications that Sprint will maintain its current
pricing for national voice minutes, which is constructive for the industry.
However, the decision may limit the company's ability to improve its share
relative to the aggressive pricing tactics of its competitors. We find the
data pricing indications to still be somewhat expensive with a minimum
increment of around $10/month on the existing national plans for 2 MB and
likely around $0.02/Kilobyte thereafter. All-in, pricing is not substantially
cheaper than current data plans in the market.
On the handset front, we believe Sprint will launch with several new color
phones by Samsung, Sanyo, and LG as well as with a PC Card, likely from
Novatel. Price points for the handsets should range between $179.99 and
$279.99."
"* Branding -- We expect Sprint PCS to launch a new brand name for its "3G"
service, "PCS Vision." The service will offer applications such as MMS
(multi-media messaging), games, downloadable ring-tones and screen savers,
and ISP-like access for laptops/PDAs.
* Timing -- We find a substantial level of noise within the channels, regarding
the launch date of Sprint's "3G" service. Based on our channel checks, we
believe "3G" capable phones may go on sale in the indirect channels in store
such as Best Buy and Circuit City, beginning on August 8. New displays may
not be constructed until the weekend. The "official" launch may not occur
until, at least, August 12, and may extend to August 19. Our conclusion is
that August 8 will begin somewhat of a soft launch, with the promotional
campaign set for, at least, 1-2 weeks later. We find few employees have been
trained on the service, based on our discussions. Some employees expected to
be trained within the next week. Also, several company stores expected to
receive their full "3G" displays from Sprint within the next 7-10 days. We
do not believe the direct PCS stores are stocking material levels of
inventory of the new phones, yet.
* Pricing -- We have learned that Sprint PCS is currently planning to maintain
its national voice pricing and charge a premium for data access by the
megabyte and kilobyte. Our data points on pricing are preliminary and are
subject to change ahead of the launch. We believe Sprint will begin offering
data packages at an access level of $49.99 with data plans going up to
$119.99. The company will offer these plans on several new color-screen
phones with data capabilities as well as a PC-card modem at launch. Services
will initially focus around multi-media messaging (including digital
pictures), gaming, and laptop connectivity.
Figure 1 highlights the preliminary pricing indications we have received from
our research. Sprint has essentially added a $10 charge for 2 MB of data to
its popular national price points at $39.99 and $49.99. For 8 MB of data,
Sprint has typically added $20-$25 to each of the access charges. We expect
the additional charge per KB to be around $0.02 if customers break their
buckets.
FIGURE 1. PRELIMINARY INDICATIONS ON 3G PRICING
Monthly Charge
$49.99 $59.99 $74.99 $84.99 $89.99 $99.99 $119.99
Peak Min. 350 500 750 750 1,000 1,000 1,300
Off-Peak Min. 3,650 4,500 5,750 5,750 7,000 7,000 8,700
MB Data 2 2 2 8 2 8 8
Source: SSB research and estimates.
To put the pricing into perspective, we return to our VEP, voice-equivalent
pricing model, that is far from perfect, but allows us to compare the price
for data services on an apples-to-apples basis with voice. The methodology
uses average throughput of the data network to convert data traffic into
voice minutes. This can give us a back of the envelope measurement to
compare with voice capacity and pricing. We calculate a voice equivalent
price (VEP) per minute for a given data plan as follows:
where VEM, or voice equivalent minutes, is defined by the following formula:
Using average throughput of 30 kbps (our average 1X experience on Verizon's
Express Network), we find Sprint is pricing these buckets at a healthy
implied voice equivalent price of $0.70 - $1.13/minute
FIGURE 2. VOICE-EQUIVALENT PRICE POINTS
VEP
Throughput 2 MB 8 MB
20 kb/sec $0.75 $0.47
30 kb/sec $1.13 $0.70
40 kb/sec $1.50 $0.94
Source: SSB Estimates.
The sensitivity analysis above shows that Sprint has flexibility to increase
the size of the data buckets, especially if the loaded 3G network offers
faster average throughput speeds. As the speed of the network improves,
Sprint is able to achieve better voice equivalent pricing per minute. Data
margins will be sensitive to the cost for content and subscriber acquisition
and education.
Sprint is clearly trying to hold the line on its national voice pricing,
which is constructive for the industry and the company's subscriber
economics. However, its national competitors have not broadly shared
Sprint's strategy. Thus, pricing is a double-edged sword for PCS as the
company is trying to improve subscriber economics at low access plans, but
may limit its marketshare in the process. We do appreciate Sprint's effort
to differentiate on its service offering, rather than on price, and view it
as a constructive signal that Sprint is focused on its subscriber
profitability. On the data pricing front, we believe Sprint's data pricing,
like its competitors, runs the risk of revenue cannibalization for customers
that use too much or too little data. We still believe material data revenue
is, at least, 12 months away given the pricing plans and level of customer
education required. We highlight the pricing of its competitors' 2.5G data
services below."
"* Handset Selection -- We are enthusiastic for the launch of Sprint's new line-
up of handsets that should begin with at least two color-screen phones at or
below $200 and a PC-card for laptops/PDAs. We expect Sprint's phones to
include the color Samsung N400 which should retail for $199.99 and likely a
color-screen Sanyo 4900 for $179.99. These phones should be 1X voice and
data capable. Sprint should also offer the Samsung A500 for around $279.99.
We also expect LG to launch a color-screen flip phone at or near the launch
date, but we could not ascertain the SRP (suggested retail price) from our
channel checks. We expect Sprint to deploy several PC-card modems that will
range in features and price. We expect PC-card modems to range from $249.99
- $399.99 at retail. The company should also shortly launch the Audiovox
Thera, an integrated phone/PDA using Pocket PC, as well as the color
Handspring Treo."
Agreed, the prices stink.
Verizon may not have as much coverage yet, but their Express Network 3G data service has a $99/month unlimited usage (day and night) plan.
Sprint wants $120 for 120MB, with $1/MB overage. Those rates STINK!
Maybe on a PDA you can do likttle 1MB downloads, but what is the point? The 14.4 service is almost as fast for your slow little Palm Pilot.
Sprint really needs to reconsider the pricing. There are millions of geeks with laptops looking for wireless (like Richochet) used to have, but not at these prices.
The major SNAFU is that there is no off-peak pricing. I bet most geeks would go for a "weekend and night unlimited plan" for $70/month.
And I firmly believe that Verizon isn't giving it away at $99/month... I mean just how much are you going to use it? Verizon has been giving away unlimited voice + 14.4 data night+weekends for $5 a month... as they realized that with "Unlimited" there is only so much you are going to use it.
Sprint had a chance, so far, they have blown it.
.. because it's impossible for you to switch the thing off when you don't want to be reached.
They're good for emergencies. Why not get one purely for that purpose? I bought a cheap shitty top-up-card thing for next to nothing, and I'm glad I did. Only the closest friends and family have my number so I don't get bothered unless it's urgent.
You've got mail. Pattern baldness. - Crow
Yet another person spews out regurgitated Sprint PCS "The Clear Alternative to Ourselves" commercials.
Verizon may be a patchwork, but even their digital area is larger than Sprint's puny "nationwide" network.
Look at a coverage map of Verizon's America's Choice plan (These are the digital coverage areas - I don't think the analog towers have the advanced roaming features needed for such a plan). Then look at the coverage for Sprint's plans.
Sprint's "roaming" area is about 75% of the map. Verizon's "covered" area with America's Choice is 60%+ of the map.
I have complete digital coverage with all features over most of upstate New York (the boonies), including where I went to school in Ithaca. Sprint??? Syracuse, Buffalo, and recently Binghamton, that's it. Oh, Ithaca now has service as of a few months ago, but if you leave town with Sprint you're roaming. The entire region was digital for Frontier Cellular (now Verizon) customers over three years ago.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I really enjoy how invariably the posts in each slashdot article about cellphones are split 50/50 between:
a) "I HATE CELLPHONES THEY ARE THE BANE OF ALL THINGS GOOD AND SHOULD BE OUTLAWED, GREAT THIS JUST MEANS THAT EVEN MORE PEOPLE WILL BE YAPPING IN PUBLIC AND AT MOVIES" (seen here)
and
b) "FINALLY CRAPPY OLD AMERICA IS CATCHING UP WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD, FINALLY, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG, WE'RE STILL BETTER, TAKE THAT AMERICAN CAPITALISM, CELL PHONES FOREVER!!" (seen here)
bound to fail more than charging the same for 100 megabytes downloaded through a tiny screen than it costs me for my car payment. I am not exactly a tight wad. I think my $35 a month for my cable modem connection is the best thing since sliced bread -- but you would not believe how many people refuse to even pay that for home high speed connects. (these are even people in the tech industry...) This is the market that these cell phone companies are going to try to tap for an extra $80 bucks or so to download a few megs through their cellphones??? What are they smoking?
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Datapoint: a couple of weeks after acquiring my current communicative toy(TM) - a simple nokia 6310 - I found myself using said GPRS at about 2am to hunt hospitals in a given town.
;)
Compared to the hassle of hunting a pen & paper and listening while some insert-female-voice-here noise dictates a phone number, being able to see a little bit of text in front of you has its uses.
Personally I think the remaining 99.5% of the time this is going to be used is on the executive corporate toilet - anyone for next-gen Snake between the stalls?
~Tim
--
Rushing on down to the circle of the turn
If you are considering a purchase of any kind of internet connectivity, wireless or otherwise, from Sprint, I have some advice for you.
Run. Run like the wind and don't look back.
I just had Sprint's 8 Mbit Down/ 1 Mbit up business ADSL installed a month ago. It worked beautifully, gave me 5 usable static IPs, and was a modest $160/month for a two year contract.
Within two weeks of having the service I got an email alluding to a "reorganization" of their DSL service.
Eight days later I got a snail mail telling me the service was being cancelled for "economic" reasons ("we would have held you to your two-year contract as a weak individual, but don't even think of trying to hold us to our end of the bargain, and here's a $400 refund on your $600 bill of shut-up money"). Oh, and we'll give you a service that is one sixth as fast (1.5 Mbit down, 384k up) for $130 month, installation waived, because we're such nice folks. Of course, I can buy the exact same service Sprint is reselling (Covad ADSL) directly from Covad for just $80/month ($50 less per month for the identical product!), so that great deal Sprint is offering isn't so great after all.
When I tried to get clarification by phone from Sprint representatives who apparently knew even less than I, I got as a response "look, half of us our losing their jobs, what do you want?"
I want the service I signed a two year contract to receive and am paying for, and I want to know what the hell is going on.
So, long story short: there is no way in hell I will buy any service, wireless or otherwise, from a company as flakey and unreliable as Sprint has proven themselves to be, and I would encourage anyone else considering any of their services to be extremely skeptical of Sprint's ability to deliver.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I have yet to lose digital coverage and features with my phone in ANY area where my roaming light wasn't on, and I've done a lot of traveling up and down the Northeast. My roaming light rarely turns on. Verizon blew away Sprint in Ithaca, and it's marginally better where I'm currently living in Central Jersey.
If you want a better example, try inputting 08836 as your zip code for Sprint.
Compare Sprint's coverage of New Jersey (50% coverage of one of the most densely populated states in the country? You've got to be kidding me!!!) to Verizon's 100% coverage, which has yet to go to analog fallback or lose features for me. (I am now living in central Jersey.)
Basically, Verizon and its predecessors had superior coverage 2-3 years ago to what Sprint has now, and will always remain ahead of the game.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Ricochet is about 40-100Kb/s, so it's comparable to 3G. And it's flat-rate, at $44.95/month.
I had Ricochet service five years ago, and it was quite good. It was a viable alternative to dial-up at the time.
" For a limited time, customers can sign up for unlimited data usage plans for $49.99 for the first three months and $99.99 for the rest of the contract term" News.com story