We all knew it was coming, but we can still nonetheless mourn the passing of something that made Sprint stick out a bit from the competition: namely, the Sprint Premier loyalty program. Although the program will remain in existence until the end of 2011, Sprint just sent out its last edition of the Sprint Premier Connection newsletter.
So, to recap, here are all the cutbacks Sprint has made in the last few weeks:
- No more annual upgrades for customers who qualified for Sprint Premier Gold status
- No more one year contracts
- No more $75 early upgrade discount
- Increased upgrade fee of $36 (formerly $18)
- Reduced exchange and return policy to 14 days (formerly 30)
- No more "bill to account" upgrade option
- New 5GB cap for Mobile Hotspot data
- Data caps on 4G for tablet users
- Blocked third-party tethering apps in the Android Market
Sprint had better deploy one heck of a 4G LTE network pretty darn quick. And they better finish up their 3G enhancements, too, because when you list everything all together like this, it's not looking too good.
But then again most of the competition is just as bad, if not worse. Sigh.
Thanks, David!
