Sprint plans to keep unlimited data plan for a while, amidst struggling financials and LTE iPhone
At this point, almost every US national carrier has switched to tiered data plans – except one. Sprint, the smallest CDMA carrier in the States, has been able to offer its customers unlimited data for much longer than its competitors did.
There has been some doubt in the past about the carrier's ability to keep offering truly unlimited data, but Sprint's still been able to keep the plan around, regardless of its finances and even its network technology. At the beginning of April, Sprint sent out a press release stating that LTE devices will still get in on the limitless fun; and today, CEO Dan Hesse told CNET in an interview that he and his team have no plans to discontinue unlimited data, even if an LTE iPhone was to come along. “I’m not anticipating the unlimited plan would change by that point," Hesse said. "That’s our distinctive differentiator.”
He went on to explain that he feels unlimited data and the iPhone are "a marriage made in heaven." Hopefully his customers feel the same way, too, since Sprint just announced a Q1 loss of $863 million. Profits were up, though, as well as the number of subscribers. The carrier also activated 1.5 million iPhones, so hopefully by this time next year Sprint will be a bit more comfortable in the bank.
[CNET | CNN]
