“While Sprint has continued to insist they’re dedicated to offering unlimited data, the writing has been on the wall for some time that this dedication is going to have a short shelf life. Sprint has killed off unlimited data for everyone but smartphone users, and now CEO Dan Hesse is acknowledging that they are throttling the heaviest unlimited users. At a conference Hesse acknowledged that Sprint throttles about 1% of those users, telling investor attendees that “for those that want to abuse it, we can knock them off.” While you’d expect network management, the problem is their ads say they don’t throttle.”

Read More at DSLReports.com 

“It turns out Sprint’s claim of unlimited data has a few limits.”

“In October, Sprint placed a 5-gigabyte monthly cap on Sprint Mobile Hotspot, a service that allows you use your smartphone as a Wi-Fi modem for $29.99 a month. Data used over 5GB now cost 5 cents per megabyte. Previously, the service was unlimited if you used it on Sprint’s network.”

Read More at USAToday.com

Sprint faces complex and expensive challenges over the next few years.

Most analysts predict that if Sprint meets the technological, financial, and managerial hurdles over the next two years, the company could be well positioned for success in the highly competitive, rapidly evolving wireless marketplace. The challenge for Sprint management is to keep a laser focus on Network Vision implementation through 2013 and beyond.

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Sprint’s past attempt to buy T-Mobile ignored the fact that each company utilizes different technologies – technologies which are incompatible.   This wasn’t the first time Sprint put their desire to become bigger ahead of what was best for their customers.  In 2005, when Sprint acquired Nextel, the same incompatibility problems prevented Sprint from integrating the two companies’ customers – and they still haven’t done so.  If Sprint acquired T-Mobile, Sprint could have ended up serving customers on three different networks – its own customers, those still on Nextel’s network and T-Mobile’s.

This is yet another example of Sprint putting its own interests ahead of consumers.  Had Sprint been successful in its attempted merger with T-Mobile, it is the customers who would have ended up paying.  Incompatible technologies are more likely to lead to poorer quality of calls.   And, as Sprint works to integrate their systems, the large expense will need to be made up from somewhere – so customers could see higher rates for their phone service.

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Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and his executive team held a meeting for investors this morning to discuss Sprint’s Network Vision plan.   It is pretty safe to say that the investors and analysts came away with more questions about the company’s plans than when the meeting began.

One veteran telecom analyst, David Barden from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, quipped (with audible twitters from the audience):  “I’d be lying if I said I understood all the things you threw up on those slides.”

Other analysts expressed something close to incredulity that Sprint’s executives declined to comment on Clearwire’s financial prospects, given that Sprint has a majority economic interest in the company. In fact, after presenting a slide that suggested Sprint will have plenty of financial flexibility, Sprint executives acknowledged that this projection did not include the huge subsidy and other costs it will be required to absorb as it launches the “iconic” iPhone.

In one heated exchange, Sprint was asked why it was committing itself to at least $6 billion in its Network Vision buildout (including funds it had committed to LightSquared) when it could get Clearwire’s full network LTE capacity by providing it with “only $600 million, just one-tenth” of what Sprint says it’ll invest otherwise.  The questioner opined that Sprint’s plan was “ridiculous,” garnering loud applause from the audience. [Computer World, 10/7]

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