Sprint Cutting Unlimited 4G Data Plans

itwbennett writes "In a notice posted Thursday on the customer support section of its website, Sprint said it would impose monthly data caps on plans for all tablets, laptops, netbooks, USB and PC Card modems, and mobile hotspot devices — everything, that is, except smartphones. The caps will begin with each subscriber's next bill following notification, the carrier said."

Comments

An opportunity to get out of your plan

[Anonymous Coward]

They've made a material change.

Cast your contract into the fires of Mount Doom.

Only there can such evil be unmade.

Re:An opportunity to get out of your plan

[meerling]

Yep. Anytime they change your contract, you can opt out without any penalties what-so-ever. It's the law. Those guys hate it, and certainly will never tell you about it, but it's true.

To repeat: ANY time they alter your agreement/contract, you may cancel it with NO penalties. This is by FEDERAL LAW.

No, I'm not a lawyer, but I've used this little gem myself when a provider decided to screw up things.

Re:An opportunity to get out of your plan

[theskunkmonkey]

They made an unenforceable threat and you caved instead of calling them out just as they expect. Grow a pair next time and don't let them bullshit you.

Re:They better stop advertising it as "unlimited".

[Macrat]

Smartphones still are and will be unlimited for the foreseeable future..

until next week?

until next month?

Sprint Cost Saving Cuts and Fees

[jmhysong]

Sprint has been cutting back on features and raising fees for a while now. It's getting out of hand. They're probably doing it all in an effort to make up for the $28B they paid Apple to sell the iPhone. Here is a list of some of the changes.

* Removal of the Sprint Premiere Membership Program and the removal of all its benefits
* Using your phone as a Mobile Hotspot no longer has unlimited data but is now capped. It still costs the same $30.
* Adding a $10 a month 4g charge to every 4g line on an account regardless of whether you get 4g reception or not. This charge was then expanded to include all smartphones on the Sprint network, even if they weren’t capable of 4g.
* No more Billing to Account.
* An increase in administrative fees per line.
* Raising the Early Termination Fee on an account by $150 to $350 for each phone line.
* Changing the arbitration rules for settling customer disputes in a way that heavily favors Sprint.
* Stopping people from leaving Sprint because of the arbitration changes without being charged the ETF, even though Federal Courts have ruled that changes in arbitration rules are a material change in the contract.
* Eliminating unlimited 4g data from it’s Mobile Broadband plans.
* Dropping WIMAX for their new LTE 4g network. This not only means that if you do not have 4g currently, you will never have it for your current 4g phone but also that all Sprint 4g phones being sold today, even if you are within a current 4g area, will stop operating as 4g at the end of next year because they will not work on Sprint’s new network.

Sprint sucks.

Re:They better stop advertising it as "unlimited".

[d3ac0n]

I hate to be the one to say this, mostly because I have no doubt I will get flamed and/or modded to hell for it, but I'm feeling adventurous this morning, so here goes:

*deep breath*

Nobody is forcing you to buy a cellular data plan, or indeed buy any cell plan at all. It is perfectly possible to live life in the modern age without any kind of cellphone, and still take part in all that modern life has to offer without having to live like the Amish. You simply have to decide what is important to you.

If having that smartphone with data plan is important to you, then so be it. Be prepared to deal with the companies that sell that type of plan in your area. If you don't like the selections of companies or the manner in which these companies conduct business, then you must decide if that is more important to you than having the phone.

If your principles are more important, then to be true to them you MUST cancel your smartphone plan and go back to a land line and/or VOIP using an answering machine. Or possibly a smartphone without a cell plan using Wifi and Google Voice.

If having that smartphone is most important, then I would say that while you still have the right to your principles and opinion, they hold significantly less weight and are worth little regard to others as you yourself clearly don't believe in them enough to alter your life to suit them. In which case you are little more than a ranting, grouchy troll.

That said, I don't entirely disagree with you, It certainly does seem that the prices for cellular data plans remain artificially high, and the dropping of unlimited plans is not something that customers should want. However, if one looks at the big picture, one realizes that prices have actually come down overall for these plans.

If you think about it, back just 25 years ago a $100 a month cell plan with unlimited talk time was utterly unheard of. The best you could do was something like 1000 minutes and the prices were closer to $200 a month. And data couldn't be had for any price. Now you can get a single person plan with unlimited talk, text and (in Sprint's case, data) for right around $100 a month. Now, you may say that it hasn't come down far enough, fast enough, but ultimately that's a function of the market. If you don't like the prices, don't take part. Cellphones are (despite the protestations of /. members) still a luxury item.