According to leaked Best Buy inventory screens, Boost Mobile will be reviving its CDMA side by launching the BlackBerry Curve 8330, Sanyo 3810 (which will be branded Mirro on Boost) and the recently launched Sanyo Incognito.
The BlackBerry 8330 will be launching at $249.99 with its own rate plan that bundles unlimited voice/data/messaging for $79.99, while the Sanyo Mirro will launch for $99.99 and the Incognito for $149.99 under the normal $50 unlimited plan. The relaunch of the UNLTD by Boost service is set for January 13 with the launch of the aforementioned Curve.
this means Boost is no longer 100% IDEN/Nextel
@duker
Is that such a bad thing that it is no longer 100% iden?
Last time I checked when I called an Iden customer I got only a message that said “Please wait while we try to locate the subscriber you are trying to reach”. Oh by the way… it never reached them but it did reach their voice mail.
Hybrid phone is the best thing that happened to the nextel side of sprint.
I think its the best thing yet that they ever came out with….finally boost is starting to join in with the competition with its first smartphone….sooner or later..everyone is going to have a smartphone…..
I Boost CDMA was still only sold in certain regions. Will this be national and will new subs be able to get it?
[…] going to offer the $50 unlimited on CDMA? Yesterday we got a bit closer to the answer. According to PhoneNews.com, Boost will launch three CDMA handsets in the near future, two of which will operate under the $50 […]
“Last time I checked when I called an Iden customer I got only a message that said “Please wait while we try to locate the subscriber you are trying to reachâ€. Oh by the way… it never reached them but it did reach their voice mail.”
Uh….that’s the message you get when they are using Direct Connect. It asks you to hold for a few second and if the Direct Connect all ends it will connect you, if the Direct Connect call continues it will send you to Voicemail.
I am not saying that these rumors are false, but it doesn’t appear to make any business sense for Sprint which owns Boost.
Yes, according to one source, there are more than 25,000 Boost Mobile customers already using Blackberrys on Boost (“BoostBerry”)
Yes there would be a strong demand for this product and the service,
However, currently Sprint currently has a hundreds of thousands of Blackberry Curve 8330 customers on two year contracts paying $80-$120/month who paid $100-200 for their Blackberry.
1.Sprint would loose significant revenue
Why would Sprint throw in the towel on their contract Blackberry business to gain no contract Blackberry customers.
Once Boost offers this, no Sprint Blackberry customers would ever renew their contract.
2. Why charge only $250 for a Blackberry Curve when the nearest competitor (MetroPCS) charges $450
The only “official” no-contract competition for a Blackberry is metroPCS which charges $450 for the Curve and then $50/month for crippled (no GPS) service that is only unlimited in the major cities where MetroPCS operates.
Aside from the screen shots that were contributed to one website, Boost will not confirm or deny this rumor.
Its good competition for Metropcs because their blackberry goes for 299.00 now and not 450.00 anymore……
Thanks for the correction on the price og MetroPCS Blackberrys.
Also this will kill the sales on Boost Mobile’s new IDEN Motorola smartphones
@dw
The message that you and I are talking about is when calling a nextel/iden customer the old fashioned way. There is no wait time for direct connect…hence that is why its called direct connect.
Plus I was using a non nextel phone(touch diamond) when I made that call so I would not have used direct connect.
Although I think sprint/nextel has gotten better at connecting you to a nextel only phone the hybrid phones work better because they also use the sprint network not just the nextel side.
JJ, dw is saying the person you are calling is using DC. When DC is in use no phone calls go thru and vice versa for DC.
Idk if this rumor is true I’m with Pilgrim and what he said..
I am a boost customer and i have the 8350i that works on boost. And i have seen people make the 8330 work on boost cdma already.. So i dont know why they would announce this. When someone can just easily get a 8350i and make it work on boost iden or get an 8330 and make it work on boost cdma and loose out on pic messaging.
Boost has had their cdma side for 2 years now, and a year ago they stop advertising it becuase it was taking away from sprint’s costumers. So doing this now would destroy sprint.
Unlsess sprint plans to move their regular costumers up to 4g service??, and leave the boost cdma side on the 3g??.. dont know but this just tells me that its a fake, its not even advertised on the website, so this would also be bad advertising on boost part.
Eithercase if they do this, both companies will loose out. Sprint will loose out becuase the current costumers will switch to boost. And boost will loose out becuase the people will just buy a 8330 hack it themselves and make it work on the $50 unlm plan without mms feature (which some people have overcome), like they have been doing for months. And lastly this will destroy the boost iden side, why get a iden phone when you can just get a cdma phone..
A better buisness transaction would be if boost added the 8350i to their lineup and just as a $20 extra for blackberry messenger, email, and other BIS features. And the current and future boostberry users like myself can just buy into that.. they will make tons of money for people who dont want plans, sprint stays safe, and everyone is happy.. Only person i would see getting hurt from this is Nextel, but thats a whole different problem….
sorry for the long read i just kept typing…
Thanks Alex…
I just had a friend drop by a Boost Mobile company-owned store and the sales rep confirmed that Blackberrys will be available for $249 before the end of the month. The rep did not know anything about the service plan, or what features were included: GPS?
This is still not 100% confirmation until we actually see the phone in the store, but something is happening.
Maybe Alex is correct and this is a way to differentiate between 3G moving to 4G Sprint vs. staying at 3G Boost. It may be unrleated, but the former President of Boost, Matt Carter, was just promoted to be in charge of Sprint’s 4G rollout.
i called and told boost about how they should get blackberries and the prices and its exactly like i said to them
[…] leaves Boost Mobile UNLTD, which is returning to CDMA sales, as the only method of using a Sprint CDMA phone on prepaid service. Trackback | Permalink […]
It appears Boost will be carrying the Curve 8330. I presume they will offer TeleNav GPS for $10/month in-line with other Boost offerings.
Have an inside source this is about to happy and the price is $60 for Blackberry not $79….. I think it’s great for the average person who has suffered in 2009!
http://www.examiner.com/x-17239-Chicago-Homelessness-Examiner
This deal is ok, but I personally think the straight talk plan from Walmart is the best value plan on the market. Straight talk is 5$ cheaper then this plan(45$) and it also has unlimited minutes, texting, and web browsing. Straight runs on the Verizon network which I heard is the best network on the market.
Does SmartTalk have a BB or any EV DO device, can they do ptt? They are supposed to get the Rant too, would be even better if they did this with Virgin also while adding a roaming buy up option they would have the best deal going. I don’t see how this is a bad thing because Sprint and Boost serve two different markets
These comparisons to Walmarts plans are comparing apples to oranges.
Yes, the Walmart plan is good value, but it doesn’t have all of the features and phones available to Boost customers. Any Nextel/Sp[rint phone will work on Boost and if the features that are unique to Boost are important to you…
The new Boost CDMA plan is also for Blackberrys and is 3G (can be tethered) with full “technical” support from Sprint. The Walmart plan does not include service for Blackberrys.
The Boost IDEN plan includes unlimited North American (US, canada, Mexico) Nextel Walkie Talkie with the Option of unlimited worldwide Nextel Walkie-talkie service for an additional $10 (Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, and several other countries.
If all you want is a very basic MetrocPcs, Cricket, ro Boost phone, then comparing it to Walmarts’ phone is fair.
[…] going to offer the $50 unlimited on CDMA? Yesterday we got a bit closer to the answer. According to PhoneNews.com, Boost will launch three CDMA handsets in the near future, two of which will operate under the $50 […]
[…] Virtual Operators (MVNOs) Following up on the relaunch of CDMA service this month, Boost Mobile has launched its branded version of the recently released […]
i got the boost blackberry and its great i love it its and extra 10 bucks a month but its so worth it so instead of paying 50 bucks a month its 60 and u still get unlimited everything ive had it for about a month and i dont have complaints