Sprint Unlimited Data Plans May See Price Hike or Go Away Entirely

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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That awesome Sprint Family Plan you got a few years ago with unlimited data and couldn't be bothered from which to switch away? Pay attention as this news may finally be that proverbial straw that broke the back of that poor camel.

CEO Marcelo Claure said..."For the next few months, unlimited continues," he said. "We might increase prices towards the latter part of the year." More ominously for data hogs on Sprint's network: he warned that the company might eliminate unlimited data in the future. A spokesman declined to add anything beyond Claure's comments.
 
I'd expect them to go away. What's not clear is will they fore existing subs off those plans at some point or are they simply grandfathering them? Hard to tell. One things certain, Sprint still has to dramatically improve their network to pull it off. I can't count the number of times I'm driving a few hundred miles on the interstate and I'll lose data for 10 minutes. If they can't cover the interstate within their footprint (i.e. they have towers, but they're to sparse), and you have to go to a bucket system, you might as well switch to a prepaid vendor like Cricket. They're cheaper before taxes and much cheaper after taxes.
 
Raising their prices or getting rid of unlimited pretty much destroys any reason to have sprint.
 
FWIW this has been threatened in the past, and never happened. Why? Too many people complained, left, or threatened to leave.

I have had Sprint 12+ years, and have had unlimited data for at least 6 years on a SERO plan. Nothing has changed for me. This idea has been thrown around multiple times in the past 5 years.
 
Raising their prices or getting rid of unlimited pretty much destroys any reason to have sprint.

I had sprint from 2006-2014, in the Los Angeles area, Inland Empire area, omg their network is so horrible, surprised they're still in business!

Went T-Mobile late 2014 and couldn't be happier!
 
My company is on an unlimited plan.

The last time we refreshed our phones, they were on us, incessantly, for MONTHS to convert over to a capped plan. Telling us it'd save us money.

They were right. Had we switched over, we would have saved, grand total, about $10 a year.

BEFORE factoring in bandwidth use. They'd tried to sell us on a plan that JUST BARELY met our bandwidth needs at the time. And our bandwidth use on the phones has grown significantly since then!

All told, had we switched over, it would have cost us a couple grand, simply in bandwidth overage fees.
 
It does not matter if their plan is unlimited or something else sprint will always have the a good price if not the best of the big 4 simply because their network has issues and the only justification for putting up with those issues is saving money. As a long time sprint customer I think sprint actually needs to kick a lot of the leeches off. This especially includes all the people grandfathered into SERO plans. It causes a huge drain on the network but these people contribute nothing to the financial situation at sprint. So what they really do is just make the network suck more for the rest of the decent paying folks.
 
I am still on a SERO plan but since my hips failed on me, I hardly use any data since I don't leave the house much. I probably left the house 12 times in the past year.
 
It does not matter if their plan is unlimited or something else sprint will always have the a good price if not the best of the big 4 simply because their network has issues and the only justification for putting up with those issues is saving money. As a long time sprint customer I think sprint actually needs to kick a lot of the leeches off. This especially includes all the people grandfathered into SERO plans. It causes a huge drain on the network but these people contribute nothing to the financial situation at sprint. So what they really do is just make the network suck more for the rest of the decent paying folks.

Everyone who has SERO and has a smartphone with 4g capabilities, has to have SERO-P.

After taxes, I pay 61/month. That is NO WHERE near the discount I used to get when I was just on the normal SERO plan, before "smartphones" and 4g. I was paying 30/month back then.

Most people who don't like SERO generally are people who are mad they did not get in on the discount :eek:
 
Everyone who has SERO and has a smartphone with 4g capabilities, has to have SERO-P.

After taxes, I pay 61/month. That is NO WHERE near the discount I used to get when I was just on the normal SERO plan, before "smartphones" and 4g. I was paying 30/month back then.

Most people who don't like SERO generally are people who are mad they did not get in on the discount :eek:

I had to have SERO-P AND the $10 Premium Data add-on when I got the 3G iPhone 4S.
The $10 was called the "4G" fee but they stuck that fee on the 4S which wasn't a 4G phone.
 
sero-Premium.jpg
 
They gave me a free Airave device since coverage sucks at my house, I am 1 street from the beach and the signal just tapers off,
sprint-sero-500-air-rave-plan.jpg
 
Are all the carriers making you pay full price for the phone now?
I like the subsidized way since I am going to have to pay for phone service anyway, might as well have the provider pay for most of the phone.
 
Never thought I'd see the day where Sero is no longer a good deal.

Boost Mobile. Unlimited talk, unlimited text, 2GB LTE Data, rest at 3G Speeds, $30/mo flat on autopay.
 
Are all the carriers making you pay full price for the phone now?
I like the subsidized way since I am going to have to pay for phone service anyway, might as well have the provider pay for most of the phone.

Why pay extra every month, even if the phone is paid for?
With T-Mobile, you can get the phone cheap or free and just pay the rest off over 2 years (interest free)
After the 2 years, your bill drops (since you are no longer paying the extra $20-$30 every month)

I prefer to just buy the phone outright. Keeps me from spending too much for a phone (by hiding the real cost in your monthly bill) and then keep using my phone as long as possible. My current Phone (S3) is 3 years old and still works fine. The wife and kid have Nexus 4's that I bought for cheap when the Nexus 5 came out. It all works out way cheaper for me, compared to what other people I know are paying.
 
Are all the carriers making you pay full price for the phone now?
I like the subsidized way since I am going to have to pay for phone service anyway, might as well have the provider pay for most of the phone.

It depends. Sero is great if you use a lot of data and coverage is good in your area. If you don't use a lot of data, Cricket is a better deal.
https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans

For 35/month, you get 2.5GB of 4g data on AT&T's network (it's not as fast as AT&T, but it's faster than what you typically get with Sprint). For 45 you get 5GB of data and for 55 you get 10GB. Keep in mind those are all prices after tax.

For most people, even without a subsidy Cricket is cheaper. Hell, I bought my phone outright (and I"m on SERO) from a 3rd party, because it gave me the flexibility to leave. I'll probably stay long enough to get an iPhone 6s and move to Cricket, because it's cheaper
 
Why pay extra every month, even if the phone is paid for?
With T-Mobile, you can get the phone cheap or free and just pay the rest off over 2 years (interest free)
After the 2 years, your bill drops (since you are no longer paying the extra $20-$30 every month)

I prefer to just buy the phone outright. Keeps me from spending too much for a phone (by hiding the real cost in your monthly bill) and then keep using my phone as long as possible. My current Phone (S3) is 3 years old and still works fine. The wife and kid have Nexus 4's that I bought for cheap when the Nexus 5 came out. It all works out way cheaper for me, compared to what other people I know are paying.

Unless i'm misreading it, T-Mobile charges 60/month for ulimited plans with a 3GB LTE bucket. Unless you use a lot of voice minutes, 50 bucks for unlimited data with 500 anytime minutes, and unlimited N/W (as well as everything else), is a better deal. Now maybe that plan is for subsidized phones (I didn't dig very deeply), but if you're not dropping to close to 30/month, SERO is a better deal, since you get a subsidized phone and a fairly cheap plan....but only if you change phones every 2 years.
 
I like how messaging data, picture data, data usage, and premium data are 4 separate charges.
 
I bought one of their mobile hotspots and gave it a good trial, just driving around the city I live in. I couldn't get data about a third of the time.

I can't believe anyone can use them these days.
 
First they must become better than VZW and AT&T before pulling this stunt.
 
Has anyone tried tethering the unlimited to see if it's *really* unlimited? I'm sure at one point or another they'd care.. or do they?
 
If Sprint actually tries to get rid of unlimited data for existing customers, they are just going to drive people towards T-mobile.

T-mo's network coverage might suck, but when you DO have coverage, their data speeds are significantly faster than sprint. (50mbit vs 7mbit).

Raising prices and dropping unlimited data would be suicide for Sprint. It's coverage isn't as good as at&t and verizon, and it's data speed isn't as good as t-mobile, so the only real advantage Sprint has right now is the low cost and unlimited data.
 
I am surprised data usage is even an issue for the company given the difficulty in actually getting a decent connection to use it.
 
I am surprised data usage is even an issue for the company given the difficulty in actually getting a decent connection to use it.

I think they're mostly concerned about places where they've rolled out more LTE and/or Spark.

Spark is great if you've got it and you're outside, but walk into a grocery store and you go from 20Mb, to 6. I've seen up to 30 Mb/s on sprint, but it's rare.

IMO, the only reason to be on sprint is if you have a Sero plan and acceptable data coverage in your city. Even then, it's only good, because you get a subsidized phone. However, until they unlocked phones, you could pick up new sprint phones on swappa below cost. I got a 128GB iPhone for 550 (give or take 20 bucks).
 
Never thought I'd see the day where Sero is no longer a good deal.

Boost Mobile. Unlimited talk, unlimited text, 2GB LTE Data, rest at 3G Speeds, $30/mo flat on autopay.

If you need 5 lines (or less and have people you know will pay regularly to get to 5 lines) then Cricket is the best deal out there right now. For $100/month I have 5 lines of Unlimited talk/text, 2.5GB 8Mbps LTE/4Mbps HSDPA, the rest of the month is throttled to 128Kbps (downlink only, you still get full speed on upload).

5GB adds $10/month to the base per line it is on, 10GB adds $20/month to the base per line it is on.
 
I hope the US catches up one day to very advanced countries like Argentina, Hungary and Spain for mobile data speeds!
 
First they must become better than VZW and AT&T before pulling this stunt.

Depends on where you're at.

As suggested before, I'm currently on Boost, which is still Sprint but without Roaming.

I was in Orlando in the past week for a conference, friend of mine was with me and had two phones on him: his personal and his company phone.

Between the two of us and three phones, we were using Verizon, AT&T and Boost/Sprint.

We frequently found spots where all three of our devices had no coverage.

However, I frequently had (minimal) coverage in areas where he still had none. Even if it was only 2G, it was still enough to pull up GPS directions on Maps. He had to use his Verizon phone more often than his AT&T phone to be able to use GPS. We ended up just using mine most because along the roads and in the hotel, I was often the only one who had uninterrupted coverage.

Being a former Verizon (and before that, Virgin Mobile/Sprint) user... this did not surprise me one bit. Verizon may have the widest coverage but it's still VERY spotty. I've always been able to maintain some coverage on the roads with Sprint. My only real complaint is 2G and 3G speeds and generally poor (but still usable) coverage that drains battery fast.
 
Everyone who has SERO and has a smartphone with 4g capabilities, has to have SERO-P.

After taxes, I pay 61/month. That is NO WHERE near the discount I used to get when I was just on the normal SERO plan, before "smartphones" and 4g. I was paying 30/month back then.

Most people who don't like SERO generally are people who are mad they did not get in on the discount :eek:

I think you mistake my intentions. If I had SERO, I might keep it, but I can keep something and still admit its a bullshit deal, I don't blame you or anyone who has SERO every person has to do what is in their own best interest and I never blame anyone for doing that so long as they do it within the confines of the law or policy. My beef is with sprint it is there job to regulate their customers, they have to create a cost structure that is sustainable and there are many people who gladly suck down unlimited 3G which really isn't a problem since sprint only very recently rolled out anything even remotely resembling a decent 4G network I am talking the last year only I travel a ton and up till a year ago I was almost always on 3G even though I was paying for 4G. Prior to that sprints 4G was only available in select major urban areas and spotty even within those. So lots of people on SERO will hang on for dear life to those ghetto old phones or do what it takes to not be forced to upgrade their contract. I think there is a point where a company should be able to say you cannot be grandfathered in forever. Same shit happened for nearly a decade with the Nextel merger. To damn many people wouldn't upgrade and sprint couldn't buy everyone out. This was a major cause of why sprint would end up being known as the last place carrier. If sprint has not learned their lesson yet they should learn it now, no ones contract should ever be valid for more than 2 years. That way if they make any major move or make any major mistake it can be corrected within 2 years. Kick all the unlimited users off or make them pay $100+ and improve the network for all of us. While $60 doesn't seem like its amazing to you it is a pretty good deal you wont find a full unlimited network plus full roaming agreements on any other carrier for that price for a reason.
 
Glad I dumped Sprint for Verizon a while back. Turns out Verizon will be the only one to uphold the truly unlimited data plan.
 
I think you mistake my intentions. If I had SERO, I might keep it, but I can keep something and still admit its a bullshit deal, I don't blame you or anyone who has SERO every person has to do what is in their own best interest and I never blame anyone for doing that so long as they do it within the confines of the law or policy. My beef is with sprint it is there job to regulate their customers, they have to create a cost structure that is sustainable and there are many people who gladly suck down unlimited 3G which really isn't a problem since sprint only very recently rolled out anything even remotely resembling a decent 4G network I am talking the last year only I travel a ton and up till a year ago I was almost always on 3G even though I was paying for 4G. Prior to that sprints 4G was only available in select major urban areas and spotty even within those. So lots of people on SERO will hang on for dear life to those ghetto old phones or do what it takes to not be forced to upgrade their contract. I think there is a point where a company should be able to say you cannot be grandfathered in forever. Same shit happened for nearly a decade with the Nextel merger. To damn many people wouldn't upgrade and sprint couldn't buy everyone out. This was a major cause of why sprint would end up being known as the last place carrier. If sprint has not learned their lesson yet they should learn it now, no ones contract should ever be valid for more than 2 years. That way if they make any major move or make any major mistake it can be corrected within 2 years. Kick all the unlimited users off or make them pay $100+ and improve the network for all of us. While $60 doesn't seem like its amazing to you it is a pretty good deal you wont find a full unlimited network plus full roaming agreements on any other carrier for that price for a reason.

I'm not sure why you think that's exclusive to Sprint. Most carriers let you stay on a plan after it's grandfathered. SERO doesn't hurt you at all. Frankly, once you take out the phone subsidy, SEROP is the same data plan that sprint offers anyone who buys an iPhone, but that plan has unlimited voice, while SEROP is probably 500 anytime minutes.

Aside from the subsidy the only way that Sprint SeroP is better than Cricket is if you use more than 10GB of data/month. Short of that, Cricket is cheaper and comes with more voice minutes.

And Sprint has pretty spotty coverage. I cant count the number of times I lose streaming audio when driving to a different city, on the interstate!
 
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