Verizon third-party dealer documentation has confirmed that current customers with the $30 unlimited data plan will be able to keep the plan for the life of the account, including upgrades to newer devices and standard contract renewals. This follows the revelation of the carrier’s forthcoming tiered data plans this week which will be launched next month on the 7th. The plans will take a page from AT&T and include separate tethering data charges at $20/month for 2GB of access on top of the monthly fees for device data, which start at $20/month and go all the way up to $80/month regardless of 3G/4G data access.
Verizon Internal Documentation Confirms Grandfathering for Unlimited Data
Humberto Saabedra
Humberto Saabedra is the Editor-in-Chief of AnimeNews.biz, PhoneNews.com and an occasional columnist for Ani.me. He can also be found musing on things at @AnimeNewsdotbiz
“… will be able to keep the plan for the life of the account, including upgrades to newer devices and standard contract renewals.”
VZW & AT&T appreciate longterm accounts, thereby honoring grandfathered plans, SPRINT on the other hand, “just does not get it”!
SPRINT has some 11million iDEN accounts which will be shut down per CEO Dan Hesse by 2013, in addition to that, only 10% of the remaining 33 million account have switched to “Everything Plus$10 Plans”, forcing others to willfully to leave SPRINT, since SPRINT does not honor “grandfathered plans with “upgrades to newer devices “.
SPRINT, stop the madness, or else your days are indeed numbered, you have made one too many mistakes, NEXTEL? WIMAX? T-Mobile?
Maybe SPRINT should take a page from the big boys for once, and admit to failure of it’s longterm accounts handling, before it is too late, since the writing is clearly on the wall.
Thank You
Must you try and turn everything into a rant about Sprint? This article doesn’t even have ANYTHING whatsoever to do with Sprint!
Furthermore, you’re trying to spread a falsehood. Dan Hesse has never said that 11 million accounts will be “shut off” in 2013. How about you take your own advice and stop with the madness
@EP
iDEN phase-out to begin in 2013
We’ve heard Sprint executives, including CEO Dan Hesse, talk about the eventual end of their iDEN network. To this point we haven’t heard anything about a time frame. Now we have. This morning, while announcing a $5 billion overhaul of its network, Sprint said that it would begin phasing out iDEN starting in 2013. That doesn’t mean that the network will be gone during that year, but only that they will begin the process of migrating iDEN customers to the company’s primary network.
Posted By : Joe Prepaidreview
Posted at : December 6th, 2010 – 10:28 am
Sprint will pull the plug on the once much beloved, but now essentially zombified Nextel iDEN network in 2017 as part of a complete overhaul of the carrier’s many networks, Sprint’s Steve Elfman, president of network and wholesale, said Monday.
The Nextel termination comes as part of Sprint’s new “Network Vision” initiative, which Elfman called “a multi-year initiative to enhance voice and data services”.
Sprint currently has three different networks and technologies, each with their own sets of cell towers: Nextel’s old 800-MHz iDEN system, Sprint’s 1900-MHz CDMA and Clearwire’s 2500-MHz WiMAX.
Network Vision tries to integrate those three networks into one, merging base stations into multi-mode devices and eliminating a lot of redundant towers. Sprint will attempt to introduce CDMA-based phones with speedy push-to-talk in 2011. They can then start phasing out iDEN in 2013, re-using the spectrum to improve the quality of their CDMA signal inside buildings. (The lower-frequency iDEN spectrum is very good for penetrating walls.)
Nextel’s iDEN system is currently sold under the Sprint and Boost brands. It has a faithful following for its super-fast push-to-talk function, but the network’s glacially slow data speeds have made it unappealing in a more Internet-centric world. The network hasn’t been upgraded in years.
Phasing out iDEN and consolidating cell sites will save Sprint a lot of money. The company says it will net $10 billion to $11 billion in savings over the next seven years, with 35 to 40 percent of that coming from ditching iDEN.
“The savings will start to phase in in 2012,” Elfman said.
Elfman also had mixed messages about 4G technologies. While Elfman confirmed that “our 4G strategy [is] WiMAX with Clearwire,” he also said the carrier may explore adding LTE on the old Nextel spectrum.
“What we are buying is CDMA at 800 and 1900,” Elfman said. “Inherent in both of those frequency bands comes LTE at the radio head, so if we choose to deploy LTE to really call it the next revision of CDMA and use LTE, we can.”
December 6, 2010 12:58pm EST 0 Comments
Sprint Sets Nextel’s Death Date, Toys With LTE
By Sascha Segan
Sprint plans to improve the quality and in-building penetration of its 1900 MHz CDMA network and maximize its spectrum holdings in the 800 MHz, 1900 MHz and 2.5 GHz bands. The company also plans to migrate iDEN customers to CDMA and offer new push-to-talk services on its CDMA network beginning in 2011.
The company plans to use iDen’s 800 MHz spectrum for voice and eventually take advantage of 1X Advanced technology. About 11 million Sprint customers use the iDen network which carries walkie-talkie voice services, but does not support high speed data. iDEN’s push-to-talk feature remains the fastest in the industry as compared to Sprint’s Qchat and Verizon’s PTT which use CDMA’s EVDO Rev. A data channel.
Posted by Sam Churchill on Monday, December 6th, 2010 at 2:16 pm.
@ dailywireless
2011-03-09
Sprint’s iDENtity Crisis
By Michael Harris UNISONSITE
Sprint merged with Nextel…
A Tale of Two Networks
Today, Sprint Nextel is America’s third-largest wireless carrier with more than 44 million subscribers. Nearly three-quarters of Sprint’s wireless customers — over 32 million — use the company’s CDMA network, operating in the 1900 MHz PCS spectrum band. The other quarter (more than 11 million customers) receive service through the company’s separate iDEN network operating in the 800 MHz band. Additionally, through a partnership with Clearwire, Sprint is delivering 4G services in the 2.5 GHz band.
About the Author
Michael Harris is principal consultant at Phoenix, Ariz.-based Kinetic Strategies, Inc. Applying more than 15 years of experience as a strategist, research analyst, journalist, public speaker and entrepreneur, Michael consults with select clients in the networking, Internet
and telecommunications industries.
About Unison Site Management
Unison Site Management is the largest independently owned cell site management company in the United States, managing thousands of wireless leases. As wireless lease consultants, Unison helps cell site owners protect against uncertainty, maximize return and provide peace of mind.
“Because we’re running two networks instead of one network, we see the costs of running our network as a disadvantage.â€
– Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO
lol, oh let F1 have his little rant, and let’s allow for our highly esteemed market forces edict the changes that are to come. Let every flock to the prepaid tracfones, boosts, and virgins 🙂 Why not recognize good things when they’re right there in our faces, and along with them, the bad. “Down with the big boys, up the little uns!!! Feed the madness!”
tx EP, I feel a lot better now.
@F1
A. I thought you were boycotting Phonenews…
B. You still didn’t address what your diatribe had to do with this article. I’ll answer that for you: NOTHING! So, again, why do you try and turn topics that have nothing to do with Sprint into rants about Sprint??
C. The excessive copying and pasting was unnecessary (and though you included by-lines, if you’re going to take someone’s article, you probably should link to it). I’m well aware of Sprint Network Vision plans and their plans to wind down the iDEN network. However, your faulty syntax: “SPRINT has some 11million iDEN accounts which will be shut down per CEO Dan Hesse by 2013” implies that those people are just going to wake up one day and their accounts are going to be gone and their phones will have no service. They plan to MIGRATE those accounts over to the CDMA side and gradually PHASE the iDEN network out, not just one day decide to flip a switch and shut those people down. Now will everyone move over to Sprint CDMA? No, of course not, some will defect to other carriers. Either way though, when the end finally comes for iDEN, there should be little or no people using it. BTW, there’s less than 11 million subscribers on the iDEN network currently and at the current rate of attrition, there will be FAR less than 11 million by 2013….
@ EP
A. Actually I have reduced my postings by about 90%, I’m trying different posting styles, as a last resort. I have been this forum since it was called “PCS Intel”, it is a shame that one has to go through that.
B. AT&T and VZW are without a doubt competing for the same slice of the pie as SPRINT, agreed? Thereby, any constructive critisism regardy the companies policies, is not only just and appropriate, but also needed.
How else should one expect any improvement? Without any feedback, on a public forum?
C. “The excessive copying and pasting was” necessary for the following reasons:
a. Phonenews software censores link postings, even a single link, as a possible Spam, thereby eliminating countless posts.
b. I had to reference multiple sources, to avoid bias sourcing, however as stated above, it would be impossible to convey that response to you on this website, in the much prefered format (“link to it”) that you sited.
c. I never declared the11million account losses. as an over night opration, simply stating that another product of SPRINT, is been eliminated, and my expressive dissatifaction with SPRINT’s handling of “legacy plans & accounts”.
d. Lastly, my “diatribe”, if you want to define it as such, is not exclusive to SPRINT, search my writings regarding AT&T and the U.S. Supreme Court, on this very website. In short, I’m a Consumer Advocate, as such, I feel obligated to respond when needed, just as you are free to express your position.
On a different note, btw feel free to post your test results, after four months of record slow (i.e 12kbs) speeds, interesting how suddenly “record speeds” are appearing on the same old device:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1357985510.png
Wireless history: Airtouch 1996/SPRINT PCS 97/VZW/T-Mobile/SPRINT
Wireless exclusive since: 1997
Current device: PALM PRO 850 WM 6.1
Wireless Plan: SPRINT Fair & Flexible 700 w/mod
Thank You