Talk forever: Everyone goes Unlimited, Sprint plan dropping to $60?
As reported here last week, all four major US cellular carriers - and a few regional and MVNO outfits, as well - announced unlimited calling plans. While AT&T, VZW, T-Mobile, and Sprint are all offering plans starting at around $100/month, unless you're in dire need of an all-you-can-talk plan right now, you might want to hold off for a bit on signing up for a new plan.
Rumor has it that Sprint may drop the cost of their basic unlimited plan to as little as $60/month within the next few months. Sprint's looking to shake things up both internally and across the industry in an effort to stop their recent slide and regain some traction in the ultra-competitive cellular marketplace. This report over on Yahoo! news quotes some analysts who make a lot of sense when they say that cutting their price to $75 or 80/mo would gain Sprint a slight edge, but a drop to the rumored $60/mo. unlimited rate would really create a much-needed buzz for the carrier.
MVNO Helio, who leases network bandwidth from Sprint, is currently offering a $99/month deal on their Unlimited All-In plan, which included unlimited messaging and handset-based data access.
Closely Related StuffSprint's going all out marketing the Samsung Instinct against the Apple iPhone. Here's the first of five smackdown videos: Instinct vs iPhone commercial 1, GPS. Part two of our hands-on look at Instinct, the new do-it-all device from Sprint and Samsung. We check out text messaging, and go behind the velvet rope at the launch party. Rock Band! Wakeboarding! Pizza! Noah goes hands on with the HTC Shift in this video, and learns what this CDMA version for the Sprint network can do. This ultramobile PC is a windows touchscreen device that uses Vista, and can run via WiFi or EVDO connection via Sprint. The HTC Shift also offers a Snap View interface which highlights your "day at a glance". Is this Sprint's iPhone killer? Noah goes hands-on with the new flagship Samsung Instinct phone at CTIA 2008 in Las Vegas. The Samsung Instinct is a new 3G touchscreen device with a custom UI that will be available at Sprint early this summer. Looking for a great messaging phone to use on the Sprint network? Well, Noah has found one in the LG Rumor. The bar style device come equipped with a slide out QWERTY keyboard that when opened, automatically switches the phone to messaging mode. Other key features include a 1.3 megapixel camera with 2x zoom, media player, and expandable memory card slot. Unlocked episode 1 with Noah from PhoneDog.com. Apple unveils the iPhone SDK and announces iFund. Unlimited plans take center stage with Sprint and Helio leading the way. Hands-on with the Helio Mysto and Palm Centro for Sprint. Could everyone's favorite MVNO be looking to merge with a less cool but bigger and badder MVNO? Could be.
Multiple media outlets have been reporting that Helio (everyone's fave, if you ask me) and Virgin Mobile USA (actually bigger and badder than Helio) are in talks to join forces. Details are a little bit sketchy right now, but one scenario desribed by The Washington Post has Helio's parent company SK Telecom buying out Virgin Mobile USA and then pouring some cash into the... Wow, Sprint's trying to steal some of that Microsoft-Yahoo! merger thunder, huh? First they hit the headlines as a possible acquisition target for Deutsch Telekom (T-Mobile's parent co.) and now this.
According to the Wall Street Journal (says CrunchGear), the US's #3 mobile carrier is looking to get rid of Nextel after a 2+ year marriage that didn't really do much good for them. Nextel lost almost three and a half million subscribers in '06-'07 and according to CG they're... A bunch of newspaper ads over the weekend point to the real-soon-like availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8330 on Sprint in not one, but two fabulous colors. While the ads say the CDMA Curve is "Coming Soon," Crackberry.com is taking it a step further in pointing to forum posters who claim Wed May 7th as the release date.
The ads say the 3G, GPS-enabled smartphone will cost you $179 after mail-in rebate, and with contract (two years plus data plan). But hey, you'll get your... German newspaper Spiegel's online outlet ran a story Saturday about a possible takeover in the offing that would shake up the US cell phone market in a big way. According to Spiegel Online, Deutsche Telekom - the parent company of T-Mobile Europe and T-Mobile USA - is eyeing an acquisition of Sprint, which would effectively mean the merger of the US's #3 and #4 mobile carriers.
Between Sprint Nextel's recent share price drop and the strength of the euro as compared to the dollar, DT... Hot off the UPS truck it's the HTC Touch, but in white, and running on Verizon. VZW launched the XV6900 at CTIA, and it's currently available only through the online store (should be in retail outlets April 30). So if you haven't had the chance to check one out yet, don't worry - we got ya covered.
Essentially the same device as the Touch that launched on Sprint last year, the XV900 is a slim touchscreen smartphone running Windows Mobile 6 professional topped off by HTC's handy... So this makes things a little more interesting. That photo I mentioned the other day with two mystery HTC devices in it? Engadget thinks we're looking at the HTC Raphael and Diamond, otherwise known as the successors to the Mogul and Touch, respectively.
Engadget's post features some fuzzy pics of what looks to be an internal Sprint document detailing the two new Windows Mobile devices, both with HTC's TouchFlo UI (and, of course, touch screens), and one with a slide-out... |
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Hot phones - check 'em out!Check out these cool phones. Get full specs, images, pricing, read user and expert reviews, watch videos and much more... Latest cell phone videos- LG Vu Unboxing VideoThis may be the coolest new handset of the year so far. LG's Vu is a touchscreen phone with a 2MP
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