Honestly, it is the 800 pound gorilla within the carrier realm: will Sprint follow AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless down the woeful tiered data route , laced with pain, confusion and general awfulness? We asked Sprint CEO Dan Hesse that very question today at Sprint’s campus, and the solution wasn’t exactly heartening. He stated that folk are simply willing to pay a worth premium (in terms of rate plans) for something that’s just dead simple — something that they do not have to think of once they use. He (rightly) admitted that almost all average consumers haven’t any concept of what a gigabyte is, or how long it takes to apply one up, and that’s the reason why the outfit’s unlimited plans are still striking a chord — and actually, more so now than ever with its three main rivals giving it a fair stronger differentiator.
When asked whether Sprint would eventually haven’t any other option but to interchange to tiered data plans if heavy users start to come over in droves, Hesse replied that having enough bandwidth to efficiently go around “will be a problem,” and while it’s working diligently with OEMs and app developers as a way to implement such things as WiFi offload, we were told that “nothing is guaranteed forever.” We specifically asked if the new tiered testing implemented at Virgin Mobile (which runs on Sprint’s network) was an early indication that Sprint was also leaning this manner, and Dan was steadfast in his denial. In line with him, the postpaid and prepaid sectors are markedly different beasts, and it is not reasonable to think about that Sprint will follow Virgin’s footsteps. Moral of the tale? Sprint’s clinging to unlimited for so long as it may, but we get the impression that a transition is imminent — no matter if it’s still many years out.
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