Archive for Sprint
by Debi Jones
February 19, 2008 at 8:12 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, News, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, ATT, Carriers, Voice, Rate Plans, T-Mobile
Hours after Verizon Wireless announced their unlimited calling plan for $99, AT&T responds with a $99 plan of their own. And not to be outdone, T-Mobile USA this afternoon announced a $99 calling plan and then ups the ante by adding unlimited messaging. Sprint, the other of the top four carriers, has yet to release their nationwide unlimited plan. The question is: will they further up the ante and put pressure on these shiny new flat-rate plans?
Verzion’s Offer Details
- $99 - Nationwide Unlimited (voice)
- $119 - Nationwide Select Unlimited (voice, SMS, MMS)
- $139 - Nationwide Premium (voice, SMS, MMS, VZNav, VCAST, email)
- $149 - Nationwide Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and data)
- $169 - Nationwide Global Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and international data)
- $199 - Family plan with two lines, $99 per additional line
- Subscribers not required to extend their contract to select these new offers.
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AT&T’s Offer Details
- $99 - Nationwide Unlimited (voice)
- $134 - Nationwide Unlimitied with unlimited messaging and Media Net
- New customers can choose month-to-month or 12-24 month contracts
T-Mobile USA’s Offer Details
- $99 Nationwide Unlimited (voice, SMS and MMS)
So Sprint? Last May Sprint began offering an unlimited rate plan bundling nationwide voice, web access, email and messaging for $119. The offer has been limited to markets in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Tampa, Fla., and parts of Northern California and Western Nevada. Today Sprint claims they have no plans for expanding their unlimited plan beyond these markets. The office pool betting opens at COB today. Place your bets on an announcement for tomorrow morning. Anyone?
Winners: Power Users
Losers: Stock Prices Fall for All Four Top US Carriers
Yawners: Non-Power User Mobile Subscribers
Carriers strike quickly to eliminate Verzion’s differinator on price announced this morning, and up the ante each time. Craig Moffett, analyst at Sanford C. Berstein, compares Verzion’s bold move on flat-rate plans to Sprint’s long distance flat rates for landlines in the 1990s, removing confusion from pricing plans, making them easier to compare and hastening a rapid decline in prices. Today’s standard for long-distance is either free or as a feature in a service bundle.
Let the games begin!
by Debi Jones
July 27, 2007 at 3:18 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, SMS, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, ATT
Many mobile prepaid service plans in the US still require a per SMS charge. Most charge for sending and receiving and include a premium charge for sending to other countries. Have you ever sat down to figure out how much you’re really paying for this frictionless and convenient mode of communication?
The Plans
ATT
- $.15 send & $.15 receive - domestic
- $.20 send & $.15 receive - international
- $4.99 200 message bundle
- $19.99 unlimited messages
Verizon
- $.10 send & $.10 receive domestic to other Verizon phone
- $.15 send & $.15 receive domestic to other carrier
- $.25 send & $.10 receive international
- no bundles
Sprint/Nextel by Boost Mobile
- $.10 send & $0 receive
- $5.00 unlimited messages
Virgin Mobile MVNO via Sprint
- $.05 send & $.05 receive
- $4.99 200 message bundle
- $1.99 50 message bundle
A Bit of Math
SMS max message size is 160 characters. One character equals one byte. There are 1024 x 1024 or 1,048,576 bytes in 1MB.
So there are 1,048,576 / 160 or 6553.6 SMS messages in 1MB of data.
NOTE: this assumes you use all the characters available in every message which none of us do. Some examples of really short messages show up on my phone frequently like “Ready?” “You home?” “Let’s go.” For illustration purposes and easier math, I’m assuming all 160 characters per message are used.
Calculating message traffic per MB these prepaid subscribers are paying the following rates.
Fun Facts
ATT
- $983.04 per 1MB of message data - domestic
- $1310.72 per 1MB of message data - international
- $163.84 per 1MB of message data - 200 message bundle
Note the unlimited amount depends on how many are sent, but for illustration lets’s say you sent and received 1000 SMS. You’re per MB charge is $131.07.
Verizon
- $655.36 per 1MB of message data - domestic to other Verizon phone
- $983.04 per 1MB of message data - domestic to other carrier
- $1638.40 per 1MB of message data - international
- no bundles
Sprint/Nextel by Boost Mobile
- $655.36 per 1MB of message data
- $32.77 per 1MB of message data (assuming 1000 messages per month)
Virgin Mobile MVNO via Sprint
- $327.68 per 1MB of message data
- $163.84 per 1MB of message data - 200 message bundle
- $260.83 per 1MB of message data - 50 message bundle
No wonder the Internet is jealous of mobile data! Oh! and Happy 15th to SMS.
by Debi Jones
June 22, 2007 at 7:43 am · Filed under Mobile Tech, Events + Conferences, BREW07, CDMA, SIM, Sprint
The BREW conference is underway in San Diego, CA. The attendance is strong and there are lots of applications which deliver “media”. My first observation at the conference was the following. The phrase mobile content is last year’s color, and now, all is media. Ringtones, wallpapers, logos, text messages, pictures, and of course, video are all media.
Brian Finnerty, director of devices at Sprint Nextel, reached the top of the escalator just as I walked up to it. I took the opportunity to ask him a question or two.
me: “Sprint has always been known as the carrier with the coolest phones. Why didn’t Sprint land the iPhone?”
Brian: “They didn’t ask us. Apple wanted a GSM carrier so they could launch worldwide, or internationally.”
me: “What about SIM cards for CDMA carriers? Will Sprint have SIM cards in the near future?”
Brian: “We are deploying SIM technology without the card.”
me: “When?”
Brian: “It’s working on the phone I have in my pocket, right now.”
me: “Can I see that?”
Brian: “No.”
me: “When will Sprint release it?”
Brian: “In August.”
Nextel phones use SIM cards, and the new cardless SIM solution may be one benefit that can be credited to the merger. From a consumer perspective the benefit of having a card module is the ability to move it from one phone to another or change network operators by popping in a new SIM card to an existing device. It’s unclear what the consumer benefit will be for Sprint’s cardless SIM.
x-posted on: mobilejones.com
