“Sprint Nextel Corp. will offer Apple Inc.’s iPhone next month with unlimited data service plans to distinguish itself from rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, according to people familiar with the matter,” Olga Kharif reports for Bloomberg.
“Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, plans to begin selling the device in mid-October under a deal with Apple for the next model, the iPhone 5, said the people, who wouldn’t be identified because the plans aren’t public,” Kharif reports. “Becoming the country’s only operator to offer the device with unlimited data service for a flat fee may help Sprint draw customers from AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which already carry the phone, they said.”
Kharif reports, “Sprint already offers unlimited data plans for smartphones such as Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry and HTC Corp.’s Evo, which runs on Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Sprint’s unlimited voice and data service costs $99.99 a month.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Now, if they’d only offer unlimited coverage.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Game changer!! I still have unlimited plan with AT&T before their deceptive flip flop with their ridiculously low limits! Competition is good!
I’m a Sprint customer with unlimited data plan. I just received a letter from Sprint that their unlimited data plan (called Sprint Premier program) is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2011. I suspect they are not going to offer a NEW unlimited data plan when they are cutting their OLD plans off.
If that unlimited data works with personal hotspot, it could be interesting. We’ll see how much they charge.
yes that could be enticing.
You will need an additional plan for hotspot.
Oops. $99/month.
T-Mobile has a $50 unlimited plan. Now *THAT* would be a game changer if T-Mobile started selling iPhones with that plan.
However, T-Mobile throttles your unlimited data when it starts to reach a limit.
I wish I had the chance to see if T-Mobile would throttle a iPhone 5.
Doesn’t sprint already offer unlimited data?
So only thing new is that they will be offering it, with a new iPhone..
But like MDN said, unlimited coverage…. Which they don’t have.
Will be nice to see the iPhone vs android numbers next year now. If all carriers get the iPhone… Android sales will slump even more.
Sources say Sprint to make moon landing in October and using 4G to communicate with ant colonies on Mars.
I wish AT & T was the only iPhone carrier still. It made things easier, even though it was polarizing. Shields up to haters
It is a game changer. Only one thing, it is not $99.00 per month, it is $79.99.
$79.99 only gives you 450 mins, and it’s not $99.00 either. It’s $109.99 because Sprint charges you $10 extra if you get a smart phone which the iPhone will obviously count as.
Would you people please read the articles before commenting?
Sprint currently offers unlimited voice and data for $99.99/mo. Great if you’re a power user. AT&T and Verizon offer unlimited voice for $69.99/mo, plus your data plan.
I use my iPhone a lot for email, web browsing, etc., and I use about 1GB/mo. I suspect most people are similar to me, or at least not severe users, so AT&T’s 2GB plan at $25/mo would be just fine. That’s $94.99/mo.
For Verizon, you pay $30/mo for 2GB, so your monthly bill would be $99.99/mo., the same as Sprint charges for unlimited. We also don’t know if Sprint’s unlimited data plan will apply to iPhones, or if Sprint will introduce a higher priced unlimited plan for iPhones (the other carriers have their iPhone-specific data plans, so it’s a reasonable assumption that Sprint and T-Mobile will too).
Yes, it’s a better deal to have unlimited data, but if you never reach a 2GB limit then unlimited data has no real value. Also, with Sprint having lost money over the past 15 quarters, it’s debatable how much longer Sprint will be around even with the iPhone 5.
“Would you please read the…before commenting”, says the guy who, apparently, didn’t read all of Sprint’s all-in pricing details.
Sprint includes text messaging.
Sprint’s unlimited everything plan for all high end smartphones is $109.99. Everyone seems to be forgetting or isn’t aware of Sprint’s $10 surcharge for data plans on all smartphones. This will include the iPhone as well. And yes, the everything data plans do include text messages which I guess Bizlaw doesn’t need, Verizon and AT&T we all know charge extra.
All in all it sounds like a great deal but when you take Sprint’s coverage into account it still might be better to go with AT&T or Verizon if you don’t think you will be going over their data caps. The extra $5 or $10 may be worth it.
If you are on a family plan like I am you stand to save a lot more money. I save almost $100 a month when I compare my family plan to a comparable one from AT&T or Verizon. That will go down by $30 however when we all switch to the iPhone this October.
Sprint’s”Everything” plan is $79.99/mo.
unlimited data for iPhone tethering? Please say YES. Maybe this will force AT&T to change their ways……..otherwise, Hellooooooo Sprint!!!!
No carrier in America (or elsewhere in the world) includes free tethering with their unlimited data plans. Heck, no American carrier includes free tethering at all, regardless of how they meter the data.
No chance in ever seeing this, Sprint or no Sprint.
I have Tmobile and I get unlimited everything with free hotspot for $80 per month. It does throttle at 5gb but I’ve never come close to that. I use it with my iPad and MBA. I’ve had my no contract plan for about 10 months.
Sprint will not be offering this.
And that leaves T-Mobile. It tends to be a joke of a carrier these days, but it is still quite profitable for its parent company, Deutsche Telekom, even though DT wants to get rid of it.
An iPhone designed to work on T-Mobile’s data frequencies would likely get some decent traction on their prepaid monthly plans. A $650 phone plus $50 per month for unlimited everything would become cheaper than a two-year deal with AT&T and a comparable plan there within 8 months. Here’s the math:
T-Mobile:
$50 unlimited everything
$650 upfront for the phone
AT&T Plan
$105 per month ($70 unlimited voice, $25 2GB data, $10 text)
$200 upfront for the phone
The $450 price difference upfront is made up by the $55 difference in monthly plan with T-Mobile. $450 divided by $55 per month gives us 8.18 months, after which paying for AT&T is more expensive than T-Mobile pre-paid.
Obviously, family plans are a different story.
iPhone needs to come to T-mobile at the same time as Sprint. I have an ATT account, but don’t see any reason for Apple to ignore T-mobile’s portion of the market. My AAPL shares could use another boost!!
What we really need is either sprint or T mobile getting themselves together and deciding they will use volumes instead of profit/plan to drive up their earnings
Lower the price on your phone plans *just enough* that people want to switch over. for the first year or so, you will use all the money you earn from this to upgrade your network to keep it from failing as more people jump onto your service.
With the other competing companies losing customers fast, they will have to either lower their prices or offer something no one else has. And thus, the AT&T and Verizon Empires will fall. I hate how right now, it seems like each carrier is fixing prices. It’s not even funny. There is no real competition.