Sprint to start price war with $60 unlimited calls?
updated 11:35 am EST, Wed February 20, 2008
Sprint May Start Price War
Sprint is poised to fire the first shot in what may be a price war for unlimited cellphone calling, say analyst reports. UBS researcher John Hodulik believes that the provider is likely to offer an unlimited plan that would cost at most $80 per month but may be as low as $60 -- a 40 percent drop over just-announced $100 plans from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The wide gap could force other carriers to drop their own prices, the analyst says, potentially leading to a succession of rate cuts or feature bundles from rivals concerned about losing customers to Sprint.
Sprint has not commented on the accuracy of the claims but is believed to need such a step to halt a gradual decline in its customer base. T-Mobile is smaller than Sprint and has already included unlimited SMS text messaging in its $100 subscription fee to help differentiate its own service from AT&T and Verizon plans.
Any such discount is expected to have a dramatic impact on the US cell service industry. Until this week, most national carriers have relied exclusively on metered service for voice calls while reserving unlimited plans for extra features such as Internet access and messages. AT&T's plans in particular have also eliminated longstanding limits on smartphones, adding unlimited calling plans for BlackBerries, Windows Mobile devices, and the iPhone.
Great!!!!!!
02/20, 12:26pm reply
When the big companies fight like this, the only people that benefit are the customers. $60 dollars is a great price. I hope that this is true b/c it will force the other companies to drop their prices as well.
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
start at $40.00
02/20, 12:37pm reply
a month unlimited voice and data, and we'll talk. :P
Flying Meat
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Joined: Jan 2007
Wrong!
02/20, 01:03pm reply
AT&T specifically stated that the unlimited plan would not, NOT, include the iPhone.
Guest
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Joined: Nov 1999
Wrong?
02/20, 01:40pm reply
I prefer them to not provide the phone. For some reason, when they do, they lock half the features...... Verizon...
burger
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2000
not even for free
02/20, 01:43pm reply
I wouldn't sign up with Sprint if they offered free service. However, if their dropping the unlimited plan rate gets T-Mobile and AT+T to drop theirs... fine by me.
climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2001
Sprint...
02/20, 03:05pm reply
Has been the biggest looser in the iPhone bleed of subscribers.
ClevelandAdv
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Joined: Jul 2004
Re: wrong!
02/20, 03:10pm reply
AT&T specifically stated that the unlimited plan would not, NOT, include the iPhone.
Well, the linked article specifically was updated with iPhone pricing (which was $20 higher because of the required data plan).
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001