Sprint Dropping Unlimited Tethering Data in November
Sprint Dropping Unlimited Tethering Data in November
Posted 10/21/2011 at 2:12pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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It looks like mobile broadband use is about to get a bit more pricey on what used to be the last bastion of unlimited data, Sprint. The carrier has confirmed rumors that it plans to move away from truly unlimited 4G data for its Wi-Fi hotspot and tethering plans. Most users will be subject to a 5GB cap starting in November.
Unlike other carriers that have moved to tiered data, Sprint seems to be applying the new policy to existing and new customers alike. There will no longer be the separation of 3G and 4G data for mobile broadband cards, but users will get tiers of 3, 5, or 10GB total usage depending on how much 3G data their plan previously included (WiMAX was previously unlimited).
Sprint has opted not to do overages in chunks like AT&T does, but rather to charge per megabyte. On-network overages will be billed at $0.05 per MB, and roaming will be $0.25 per MB. Sprint users feel free to rage down below.
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Keith E. Whisman
October 22, 2011 at 2:10pm
I just ordered a 32GB Iphone 4S black and the Simply everything plan from Sprint and have just started the 2 week wait for my phone to be delivered. Now when I finally get it, I'm not going to be able to wirelessly tether my Acer Tablet without fees? This sucks. There has to be an Iphone tether app availabl.e
Danthrax66
October 22, 2011 at 2:12pm
If you jailbreak your phone then you can but otherwise you ahve to pay extra to tether it has always been that way. There is no jailbreak out for the new iphone OS yet though.
BadCommand
October 21, 2011 at 9:50pm
I was just thinking yesterday as I watched one of Sprints countless commercials touting their unlimited data plan- I bet these wiley basterds are going to reel in as many chumps as possible and then pull the ol' switch-a-roo. Granted this is just tethering, but I have a feeling by spring the non-tethered data plans are going bye bye.
Watch and learn from the masters of disaster- Sprint!
guerco
October 21, 2011 at 9:33pm
Price Fixing! That is all I have to say. Why do you have to raise the price of youre data if you are offering something cheaper? Fk sprint, t-mobile, att, and vierizon!
Tedster
October 21, 2011 at 9:17pm
Rocking my unlimited (grandfathered) 4g verizon data here :D :D :D
makes me mad at sprint. Meanwhile, if you wanted to, you could get a 10 GB/month LTE data plan for verizon for the same price as sprint's unlimited plan. not the 2gb plan those ads show. meanwhile, I also use PDANet. Unlimited 4g tethering for me :D
Ted
Peanut Fox
October 22, 2011 at 4:00pm
Even though it's unlimited, just like Sprint we on Verizon are still required to pay a fee for tethering. Though there are 3rd party applications to get around this.
dethdeks
October 21, 2011 at 7:39pm
i love how everyones bitching about unlimited cap n all this shit and going over. iv had a 500mb data plan limit on my BB since iv gotten it and iv yet to go over it once and i use my phone constantly. theres a reason phones now adays have wifi built into them so u can connect to your home wifi when ur home and not have to worry about getting raped over data useage while at home, when im out and about yah i understand theres not gonna be wifi available where i go but seriously iv had my phone for almsot 2 years now and like i said before have never once gone over my 500mb cap. and i send pictures to facebook and videos to facebook and recieve pictures and videeos via mms and bbm constatnly. so people with there 1-2-3 gb caps that are bitching about it need to STFU or GTFO. seriously if your using 1-3 gbs on ur phone a month get a fucking computer.
blkpanthr
October 21, 2011 at 8:49pm
Im with you here...
again, i have to point out....people that abuse tether are too cheap to pay for home broadband/wifi
Holly Golightly
October 21, 2011 at 9:39pm
Maybe it is because people want to pay 1 broadband bill instead of two?
blkpanthr
October 21, 2011 at 11:08pm
thtas why mobile does this...your attititude..mobile IS NOT your home boadband....
it's mobile, get a job you commie....
Holly Golightly
October 21, 2011 at 11:15pm
Wow, you capitalist are all just as dumb as your hero George W. Bush and Richard Nixon! Read the article stupid-ass! The caps include mobile broadband CARDS which is that "thing" you use to connect laptops! Gosh, what do they teach you in that dumb hill billy school of yours? Get with the future, and stop living for the past. Nobody wants to use home dial up modems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
blkpanthr
October 25, 2011 at 10:13am
Sprint has never once said its Data Cards are unlimited, or tethering for that matter (thats an additional service).....
only phone plans with data...
Holly Golightly
October 25, 2011 at 9:29pm
They used to say it all the time. When they advertise 4G, they did not mean 4G for cellphones only. They were advertising their network. T-Mobile for being throttled and the other two for being capped. That big yellow bar in the commercial going beyond the tv screen. So yes, they actually did say it, and here is the proof:
(Straight from the horse's mouth)
blkpanthr
October 25, 2011 at 9:42pm
i was referring to the TV commericals, they were strictly for phone plans...
They absoluely never metioned anything but phones.
I have no idea what you linked to..it doesnt seem to work...
Holly Golightly
October 25, 2011 at 10:00pm
On the right hand side, it says $49.99 for 4G Mobile Broadband Connection plan. It says it right there! Again, the commercial was not talking about the phone plans. Sprint was talking about their 4G network being unlimited. This includes mobile broadband cards as well as mobile phones. 4G network is like an umbrella term for their service.
blkpanthr
October 26, 2011 at 6:33am
Not sure what ads you were watching, but in the ones i saw the only "Plans" mentioned was their Everything plans....
those are PHONE plans, not data card/tether plans...
Networks have nothing to do with unlimited anything, a networks is a network...
The link you have provided is for broadband access.
what has that to do with tethering?
Thetering is connecting your PHONE to your laptop/desktop and is an entirely different service.
If you want unlimited data for you computer, youll need to get the $49.95 unlimited data only plan you have linked to.
Holly Golightly
October 26, 2011 at 7:25am
Okay, the article says they will be capping tethering AND 4G Data Hotspot. Those are WiFi cards you connect the laptop to... Is counted as mobile broadband. Everything that is not a smartphone WILL be capped. That $50 plan I showed you will be dead in a few more days, and NONE of the sprint customers will be grandfathered in. All that information is on the first paragraph of the article.
blkpanthr
October 26, 2011 at 1:28pm
No, hotspot is a feature of certain smartphones (my 3vo has it, my hero does not) and datacards.
also, there are standalone hotspot boxes (i believe sprint was showcasing one in the that odd camping commerical where the fat guy says "eat it Yoshi"), they require both a dataplan, and tethering service to support more than once connection.
It it concidered tethering, and can only leaglly (i say leagally, becaus you can root your phone and bypass the extra service charges) be activaed through a tethring plan.
Its basically multi-tethering.
So yes, hotspots would also be included in the tethering cap.
That braodband plan included one connection, in order to use the hot-spot feature (assuming your card supports it, some dont) you would need to pay extra for the service.
So no, that broadband service is not included in this article.
It is not hotspot, and it is not tethering...
Personally, i dont use any of that stuff, so as long as they dont cap the phone plans, im happy.
Holly Golightly
October 26, 2011 at 2:03pm
Usually you can connect 5 to 10 devices on these mobile hotspots. The only difference between these WiFi cards and cellphones is that cellphones will have unlimited broadband while everything else will not include it.
Like you, I too, would be happy with unlimited plans... Unfortunately Sprint just took 2 options away. So now you are sort of forced onto using a cellphone no matter what.
blkpanthr
October 26, 2011 at 5:14pm
yes, you can connect that many devices.
Not sure what you arent understanding here.
YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THE SERVICE. ITS NOT FREE.
HOTSPOT AND TETHERING IS AN ADDED SERVICE. IT NOT INCLUDED IN ANY BASE PLANS. NEITHER PHONE NOR DATACARD INCLUDES HOTSPOT/TETHERING. ITS EXTRA.
when you pay for tethering, you get hotspot functionality if you device supports it along with it. or vise vera.
hense, if tethering is capped, so is hotspot. they are tied together.
if you notice that link you had, its 4g ONLY..no 3G..at all....and it expires 10/31/11, wich is why the article says starting november.
if u click on the "see all plans", youll see it listed. It does not have hotspot/tether. Only the cheaper one does, and it is 3g capped.
So that plan may not get capped, as it has no hotspot.
Time will tell.
I root my phones, put on custom roms that include unlocked tethering, and i dont use datacards, so it doesnt effect me anyway as long as they dont touch the phone data.
heres my interpretation: one phone/datacard using data may use a bit of data. Sprint doesnt care. hense no cap.
start sharing that connection with more than one computer/device/tablet/icraplet, and the data usage jumps conciderably. Sprint has decided that if you are gonna use that many devices, they are gonna cap you. And charge you for the extra devces through a tethering plan.
Its basically to stop the cheapskates from going "ohhhh....free data for my whole house!!!"
Holly Golightly
October 26, 2011 at 6:22pm
It's not free data for the house. They pay for a monthly access to their broadband service every month. They should be allowed to use any device and visit any site they so please.
It was never about free-anything. It is about finding a cost-effective solution. Wireless broadband is considerably cheaper than FiOS or DOCSYS 3.0 and 4G speeds are very fast. Again, why shouldn't people be allowed to use their service as they want?
It is funny how you label those people cheapskates... Like we are ALL millionaires... Right? Fact is, this is the way we surf the internet in the future. So I guess you too will soon be a cheapskate too...
blkpanthr
October 26, 2011 at 6:56pm
i think you are missing the point...
most wired boradband providers cap their data...
why shouldnt wireless carriers do the same if you are going to covertly use their services as a wired boradband replacement?
you may not like it, but tough shit, its their service...pay it or drop it...
Holly Golightly
October 26, 2011 at 7:07pm
It is that kind of thinking that put companies out of business. Luckily I have unlimited broadband and pay way less than what Verizon and AT&T charges. No hiccups, and it is always reliable. I do not keep track of how much Kbs I am using or anything. Truly, it feels good to be worry-free.
I can't believe they both cap their own DSL modems. I mean, who the hell still uses that? There will always be a market for truly unlimited broadband and people are willing to pay a premium for it. I do not have time to waste, counting every single Kb and doing the math of next month's usage. No thank you.
One day, broadband companies are going to get regulated, because the Internet will soon be seen as a utility, and will be regulated as one. Oh my gosh, can you imagine if they capped how much electricity you used? Life is good when you are worry-free of tideous tasks. Tough shit for people like you who care for the greedy companies.
blkpanthr
October 26, 2011 at 8:21pm
[rolls eyes]
you cant regulate a privately held company...they will just shut their doors...
this isnt a socialist country..
nor will it every be, the contstitution forbids it...
you can regulate the internet all y ou like, but you cant regulate who provides the service to connect ot it...
a far as markets go, everyting in this country is what the market bears...if everyone caps, thats the market...deal with it...
Holly Golightly
October 26, 2011 at 10:24pm
Your old times are dead "buddy." This isn't the 1950s. We have public service and businesses must follow strict guidelines. The moment the word "public" appears on anything (hint: public schools, public library, public hospitals, public housing, etc.) that is socialism working there buddy. You capitalists are too blind to even notice your own president is a socialist. The constitution is a joke. If it were taken seriously, would would not have gone to the Iraq war. That, right there is unconstitutional, but your capitalist buddies wave their rifles in the air. And just how that can bypass the constitution, so can socialism. Like I said, your president is a socialist. Deal with it! What are you going to do? Burn down every public service building and hand out flyers to enroll in private institutions. Guess what? Not everybody is a self-made millionaire. Not everybody can afford to go to Harvard. Not everybody has the same chances as you do. So yes, let all the private companies get regulated. You are going to see AT&T become a victim of Socialism the moment they block out the T-Mobile merger. Think about it. What is AT&T going to do about it? Go to Europe and pay the higher taxes? Go to Africa where the market low? Or go to China where they will be blocked? They have nowhere to hide! I guess there is always Mexico. No respectable government. Anything goes. Heck, AT&T can buy out every business there. Point is, USA already has strict guidelines. As a matter a fact, BP had to pay the government a big fine for spilling all that oil at the Gulf of Mexico. Government regulation is all around you dude. Get used to it. It would be wonderful if the government can provide free broadband for everyone. All with the power of our tax dollars. Imagine, one less bill to pay... Oh, but you do not care. You rather support the enemy and go broke yourself. Capitalism is self-destructive, and you sir, are living proof of that very same problem.
jimmythestu
October 22, 2011 at 8:25pm
You left out Ronald Reagan since your lumping all the republicans in to the "capitalist camp" there. I'm sure both your sociology and your cultural anthropology professors are proud of you. Frickin' moron. You wouldn't know the difference between feudalism and communism if it bit you on the ass. Don't even mention the types of governments there are since it will just blow right by you. What's this crap about you and the future? You don't like Thunderbolt because it's from Intel. But your all about the future. Face facts, if your at home and your using broadband for your internet connection you are either out where you have no reliable wired internet service provider in which case I feel for you and understand your pain. I have been there. Or your an idiot because you can't handle more than one bill! That's just silly. It's nice to have the "thing" to connect to your laptop because the lights went out and you need to get something done like school work in my wifes case or your on a deadline to get something done for work. But when you don't really have to use broadband over a regular internet service provider you deserve everything you get. Like the man said, root your phone and get a free app to do the job. That will "stick it to the man". It's always a treat to read your posts Holly. You never know what kind of drivel will come off of the end of those fingers. By the way I think you got screwed by the teachers at that super suburban/urban school you went or are going to. Hillbilly is a compound word. Yep, I think ya got cheated!
Holly Golightly
October 22, 2011 at 9:10pm
Oh gosh, another person who came from a family of jackassery. Oookay smart guy, let's see if you can handle babytalk, because apparently my words are too hard for you to grasp.
USA, right now is under an economic crisis. Unemployement is still increasing as banks refuse to invest in the economy. Not everybody can afford $100 phone bills and $75 home broadband bills at the same time.
As I said in the Intel comment section, the future is all about wireless technology. No more clutter and tangled wires all over the place. One wireless broadband card to connect all of your devices. I hope you do know ClearWire is in talks of releasing a 120Mbps mobile broadband cards. LTE+(Advanced) which is probably 4 times the speed of your home cable box, or more than twice as fast as your Fiber Optic connection. Like I said in this post and the intel one, wireless is the future.
Do you understand that computer can be connected to mobile networks? As I said it in clear English, and I will say it again, wireless is the future. No more clutter no more tangles. This is the future of the internet, not being stuck within 50 feet to your WiFi router. Not being limited by the length of your ethernet cord. Wireless! To go anywhere I want, pay 1 bill, save money, and get the speed I want. This is the future, and you need to embrace it... Redneck!
illusionslayer
October 23, 2011 at 11:35am
I do enjoy when people insult someone's intelligence and then continue to act dumb anyway.
1.) The USA is not under and economic crisis. They might be approaching one but even then they would be in a crisis not under one.
2.)Of fucking course not everyone can afford a $100 phone bill. I don't see you complaining about the $1,000,000 cars that some people can't afford, though. $100 phone bills are for people that are both willing and capable of paying for the extra features that they want.
3.) "twice as fast as your Fiber Optic connection." Are you really going to tell me that you think 120Mbps is actually faster than the Gbps speeds Tech-Forward countries are getting over fiber?
4.) Let me use two paragraphs to say what I could have said in a single sentence about wireless. Oh and then I repeat it again. And perhaps one more time. Because, after all, saying it more than once means I'm right no matter what.
5.) The future is paying for things and not complaining about it. Not pointing out that some people can't afford it. Can you imagine trying to tell someone in the 50s that they needed to pay $100 to talk to their friends?
Holly Golightly
October 23, 2011 at 12:08pm
1.) Tell that to the Wall Street Protestors. Tell that to the people who live in Flint Michigan... Actually, tell that to the entire Rust Belt Region. Not everyone has oil reserves, jackass!
2.) People are force to pay for "Smartphone Plans" which go up to $100 after taxes and hidden surcharges and fees. It is not like they have a choice. Nobody wants flip phones anymore.
3.) Fact: Verizon FiOS is a Fiber Optic Network that only does 50Mbps down and 20Mbps up. This service (last time I checked) was $160. ClearWire's highest price now: $55 and I can travel nationwide with this $55 service. Goodluck finding a long enough fiber optic cable to take with you to vacation. The future is mobile. Not many people like the idea of being stuck to their desk, or 50 feet away from their router. Get with the times you old bag.
4.) I don't care how many times I say it, the future is being truly mobile. Being wireless while saving money at the same time. I do not want to be stuck in one area. I want direct access to my accounts no matter where I am. I am unwilling to pay the "smartphone" price AND unwilling to settle with a feature phone. I text more than I talk. Actually, I only used 26 voice minutes this month, big mouth!
5.) The future is about getting the best, truly mobile experience out there. This is why people are buying tablets instead of laptops. Nobody wants to be glued to their desks or stuck at their homes. We have the right to complain and litigate. Hey, atleast people in the 1950s had more common sense than you.
jimmythestu
October 23, 2011 at 11:34am
First of all I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for any disparaging remarks made to you. Sometimes higher education can give one a sense of arrogance especially when one see's things that aren't quite right. I'm not going there it would take too long. Seek first to understand then be understood. However it's bad form to bring someone elses family into question when you have no idea who they or what their accomplishments are or have been. It shows ignorance. Not that ignorance is a bad thing, it simply implies you don't know. That being said I had ClearWire and was not happy with the expence or the service. I lived a mile from the tower and the signal would drop out or slow to a crawl. It just isn't as reliable as a slower wired connection for home use. When it does get reliable well yeah I'll be all over it. As far as going everywhere you can't really do that because there are dead zones or atmospheric conditions that inhibit signal. Not to mention the amount of traffic and distance that can be transmitted. I have Verizon 3g. Got grandfathered in on the unlimited plan. Use it for calling, listening to music and GPS. All the way up to Detroit Rhapsody played great. Five days later on the way back it cut out every ten or fifteen minutes for a couple of hours till it decided to behave itself. Speed ain't everything. Reliability and cost is higher on the list that sheer speed for myself. Now if your an around town kind of person and you don't do a lot of traveling then great, ClearWire out. I take my laptop everywhere I go and when I need to file a report or communicate with the office when the modem provided by my company can't get a signal I'm kinda stuck. Just happens to be Sprint. Those caps aren't going to affect me but it is kind of a hassle to ask for permission to jack into their network to get online. When they get it everywhere and reliable, cool. Untill then I'll always have a network cable with me.
Holly Golightly
October 23, 2011 at 1:30pm
It matter not how much you paid for your education, your car, or your enlarger... Whatever, I am not here to show off. In this day and age, it is all about the speed. Reliability was something people worried about back in the 1990s, when dial-up was not the most reliable service. But now, everybody has cellphone reception. If they can get this reception, they can get broadband, too. Maybe you need to move out of your remote dead zone and come back down to the real world. Although, maybe if you purchased one of those Dubai condos, maybe you can get your own wireless connection, just for you. Show how far your education can really pay you up for.
I Jedi
October 23, 2011 at 2:04pm
Hey Holly, I agree with you, to a point. Speed is very important, but I believe reliability is just as important if not more. You can have a 100Mbps connection, but it won't mean shit if your connection keeps cutting out, or you have very high latency issues, which cause you to talk to other computers very slowly. I would prefer, imo, to have a 15Mbps download with a 4Mbps upload and less than 100ms latency than have a 100Mbps download with a 45Mbps upload, but very high latency and/or network issues. With speed, the thing about it is that most servers you connect to when downloading a file generally allow you to download a file between 800Kbps to as much as 4Mbps; however, this number varies widly with whom you download files from, and can be much higher or lower than the ones I gave as an example.
My point is this, if you download a movie from iTunes, you might only pull that file down at 4Mbps, but have a top speed on your Internet connection of 25Mbps, so that means you're only using 1/6th of your total downloading speed, but iTunes caps you at a certain rate of downloading speed. Unless you have multiple people sharing one connection, or have a ton of bandwidth-intensive apps. open, speed, imo, is not truly the ultimate ruler when it comes to having a great connection. I agree with you that having Internet speed is very important, but I do not personally believe it is the ultimate king.
P.S. Honestly, guys, is there a point to having this flamewar here, anyway? Calling Holly, and I quote, "get a job you commie...." does nothing more than irritate the fuck out of her, make you look foolish, and totally starts everything proceeding after the word commie. I'm not rushing to anyone's defense and/or attacking others, but we're a community, and Holly has as much of a right to say what she wants to without being labeled negatively. Admittedly, Holly shouldn't respond to any negative comments to continue any negative discussions, but I somewhat feel for her when I see everyone just gang on her because she said something you all thought was stupid.
jimmythestu
October 23, 2011 at 6:32pm
You know Jedi, I did apologize to her. She brings it on herself. Instead of being gracious she continues to be abrasive. Heavan forbid she finds out who really paid for my education. Being one of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children my uncle flipped the bill back in the day. I really don't want to date myself. (i shouldn't have baited but I couldn't help myself) She just tends to have a myopic view of things and when she gets called on it she lashes out. You and I both know not everyone has cell phone reception or high speed internet All you have to do is look on a Verizon map. But people that don't have it are of no consequence or are morons to Holly. This is the first year I've had to buy a car in fifteen years. Aways had company cars. Company downsized and me along with it. Took seven months but I got back to work. Try to get a bank to loan you the money for a car and not be on the job for six months. In my fifties. Fuckin' scary dude. Not quite sure where the enlarger and Dubai fit in. I used an enlarger in high school photography. Swear to God I'm afraid to google it though. I drove through dead zones I don't live in one and if she did any traveling she would know that.
Everybody ought to have a cell phone signal. Half the world doesn't even have electric. 2 out of 3 people don't have clean drinking water. 90 % of the people in the world don't own a car. The 7 friends I have that live in New York City proper 2 have a car. She just has a narrow view of things in comparison to say, the world. Look what happened when Jay Wilson declared no offline mode for Diablo 3 people went absolutely ape shit. Then he says well just update the wiring in your house. People are still ranting about that one. It's just this limited view of how things really are as opposed to what she and others think they are. Then theres the nonsensical stuff that she says that only she understands. I know what you mean by feeling sorry for her man but damn
blkpanthr
October 23, 2011 at 4:18pm
She is an self admitted communist.
That was not name calling. it was the truth.
And as we all learned in middle school, communists want the government to redistribute wealth evenly without the individual earning it, so telling her to get a job was in line with the facts of her choice of economic/political systems..
Perhaps it was inflamitory, but lazy self-entitled people who want everything given to them infuriate me...
livebriand
October 21, 2011 at 7:24pm
OK, we REALLY need more Android (and wp7) devices without the cell part, because I'm not paying tons for data I'll never use. At least Samsung finally listened and made the Galaxy Player, but there's still little selection. Required data plans and greedy carriers are the exact reason why I refuse to get a smartphone.
Holly Golightly
October 21, 2011 at 8:12pm
Hey man, Zune HD together with ClearWire 4G. A wonderful partnership, withouth the annoying voice plans.
blkpanthr
October 21, 2011 at 6:51pm
Everyone is pretty much overreating.
The article says TETHERTING.
Thats a paid extra service.
its is NOT the regular data plans.
Honestly, this is a non-issue.
Anyone who is using that kinda data, is trying to not pay for boradband at home.
I have no issues with this, as long as they dont touch the data plans, which i doubt they will as thats their biggest selling point against the other networks.
They still have the best prices, regardless.
dgrmouse
October 23, 2011 at 2:16am
You are very stupid and very much deserve to have your money taken from you. I need not say more, 'cause you wouldn't be able to understand it anyway.
blkpanthr
October 23, 2011 at 11:14am
Logic does not apear to be your stong suit.
Ad hominem comments are not an argurment.
Tyger
October 21, 2011 at 8:06pm
While this is a really boneheaded move on Sprint's part, it's probably also an irrelevancy. It's boneheaded because no one that is stuck on their 3G network, because their 4G rollout has been an abysmal failure of biblical proportions, is going to continue to pay for speed around 3x dial up. (At least that's what it''s like in my region) It's irrelevant because they probably have like 5 users on their 4G (an obvious exageration), so it doesn't really matter.
Remember how qwest was talking at their meeting earlier this month about how they were going to make all these changes to their network to roll out 4G type speeds on their flavor of the month type of 4G (WiMax, LTE, whatever trips their trigger next), well fellow Sprint prisoners, now you know how their going to pay for it. Trust me, tiered data on phones on their network is just around the corner. As the article says, this is for both new AND existing customers. Existing customers aren't being grandfathered in like what happened with users on at&t and Verizion.
That will be their final nail, they'll switch all users to tier data and the exodus will begin. Sprint's demise is only a matter of time.
EDIT - My issue is speed, not just data.
I Jedi
October 22, 2011 at 10:08am
I cannot agree with you anymore than I already do. The fact is that consuming data isn't the issue, it's actually having the means TO consume that data, for which most people cannot with speeds almost at low as dial up. As I stated in another post, I myself, in my city, only get 100Kb download with 50-100Kb upload and 500-999ms ping on an average day. A good day, which is when I get up at six in the morning, and closer to local business area, I can pull down a Mb of data, reluctantly until the afternoon when the data space is then being used again by everyone.
In all honesty, I would rather have Verizon on a tier plan, so that I actually feel like I'm able to use my phone for more than texting/calling. My poor Epic 4G smartphone has been reduced to texting/calling because of these ridiculous speeds, which hinder me from actually being able to do bandwidth-intensive programs, such as Netflix. Sprint takes being "shitty" to a whole new tier of its own. I'll give them this, their in-store reps. have never pissed me off, always been nice people, but Sprint's network is fucking shit on a scale of its own.
bikerbub
October 21, 2011 at 5:43pm
as a former sprint customer, i can say for a fact that this act describes Sprint to a 't'.
Step 1. Release massive marketing campaign, stating that you are the only company to have unlimited data.
Step 2. Run these ads for 6 months to engrain the mentality into the public.
Step 3. Remove your own unlimited data plans.
Step 4. ???
Step 5. Profit.
Bunch of dirty lying fucks.
Danthrax66
October 21, 2011 at 5:14pm
Or you could just not pay for tethering root your android phone and install the free wifi tether then tether for free as much as you want.
Marthian
October 21, 2011 at 3:55pm
So maybe I shouldn't have cell service?
This "bandwidth is a resource" is really stupid, and being the US, it's atrocious.
Then again, we have really crappy internet service too.
whathuhitwasntme
October 21, 2011 at 2:59pm
well, since sprint "wimax" is only in VERY LIMITED areas
this is a non issue for most spring customers like me
I am stuck in the slow lane with 3g data, 4g is a myth in most of the coverage area for sprint.
Likely this will end up being a factor later when my contract expires in 2012
I Jedi
October 21, 2011 at 2:40pm
The only reason I was staying with Sprint to begin with was because of the unlimited data. It now seems that is beginning to disappear in chunks. I live in a suburb, where after two years of promises to get their 4G network up, they still haven't managed it, yet Verizon got its 4G network up in my suburb in less than a year after promising it to us. Do I plan to switch to Verizon, maybe... maybe not. Verizon has terrible data caps, which makes me less than enthusiastic to choose them. With Sprint, I get 100Kb download with 75Kb of upload on a average day with Sprint, and often get ping as bad as 999ms or more, which is unacceptable in today's high-speed world. I look forward to my contract expiring in a year from now, or even less if I finally get fed up paying 85 + a month for nothing but dial up.
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