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Virgin Mobile shuffles Beyond Talk pricing, saves BlackBerry owners duckets
Virgin Mobile, the contract-free subsidiary of Sprint, is giving its Beyond Talk plans a pricing overhaul -- with its cheaper choices getting a bit of a bump in the wrong direction. Sprint spokesperson Jayne Wallace confirmed to FierceWireless that this week its $25 unlimited text and data plan that comes packaged with 300 minutes will move to $35, while its 1,200 minute $40 option will become a $45 one. It's not all bad news though -- the unlimited everything $60 service tier is being cut to just $55 and the company is doing away with the $10 add-on fee for BlackBerries. So, try not think about it as a price hike, think about it as saving you $15 a month when the blessedly Blur-free Triumph hits. Update: And now it's doubly official!
Google and Sprint team up to take your digital dollars with new NFC payment system? (updated)
There's been rumors of a Google-fied mobile payment system for some time, and now it looks like the Mountain View crew is teaming up with Sprint to finally make it happen. Last month, we heard that the Now Network would bring NFC payments to its customers this year, and Bloomberg reports that the partnership and payment system will make its debut on May 26th. Apparently, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are the first cities getting the service, which is a much broader initial footprint than its Isis mobile payment competition. The anonymous sources also say that Verifone and Vivotech are providing the hardware and software that will let you replace your credit card with a Nexus S -- because you always wanted to replace your credit card with your Nexus S. Update: According to All things D, the payment system will be put through its paces by none other than El Goog's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt at the D9: All Things Digital conference next week -- where we'll be on hand to peep the contactless payment presentation in person.
Sprint announces Overdrive Pro 3G / 4G mobile hotspot router, available on March 20th
Road warriors riding the Sprint WiMAX truck will be pleased to know that there's a new mobile hotspot device in the house. Dubbed the Overdrive Pro 3G / 4G, users can now simultaneously connect up to eight devices -- as opposed to just five previously -- to the mobile web via this little 802.11n router from Sierra Wireless. Better yet, Sprint has halved the price for this new model to $49.99 after a $50 rebate with a two year $50 service agreement, yet you still get the usual goodies like microSD expansion and built-in GPS support to boot. You can pick one up at Sprint stores starting on March 20th, but of course, the previous Overdrive is probably sufficient for most humble uses, anyway. [Thanks, r0fl]
Motorola's i886 for iDEN is running one of the strangest Android builds you've seen
Motorola's i886 for Sprint's IDEN network featuring both landscape QWERTY and standard numeric keypads bowed during CES a few days back for $79.99 after $50 rebate on a two-year contract -- and as we'd observed a while back when we first saw the user's manual, it runs a pretty convincing Android clone UI. Turns out, though, it's less of a clone than you might think: Phone Scoop has discovered that the i886 -- which doesn't have a touchscreen -- is actually running real Android (albeit without the Android Market) accompanied by generic J2ME like you'd find on your average dumbphone. If we had to guess, Motorola took advantage of Android's status as a free, open-source platform here, tailoring it for the i886's needs without worrying about the normal Google certification process that would've earned them Market access -- and given the lack of a touchscreen, we're sure they wouldn't have been able to earn it anyway. From Moto's perspective, it seems like a good way to get a proven, familiar platform without a lot of engineering effort -- they can toss their proprietary platforms and save a little bit of cash in the process. Follow the break for Phone Scoop's video of the i886 in action.
Net neutrality: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile react
Amazingly, the FCC still hasn't released the full text of the net neutrality rules it passed by a contentious 3-2 vote yesterday, so we can't really say much about what's in them -- and while this sort of delay is typical of the Genachowski FCC, it hasn't stopped the carriers from issuing statements on the new rules. We've got to say, responses to the new rules range all over the map: Sprint commended the FCC, T-Mobile needs some time to look things over, AT&T called it a "fair middle ground" but railed about "radical voices" and "heavy-handed government regulation" (seriously) and Verizon -- well, Verizon issued what appears to be a veiled threat to sue everyone. That's pretty interesting, since it sure looks to us like the FCC all but rubber-stamped last summer's Google / Verizon neutrality proposal, but you never know what's happening behind closed doors -- and remember, Verizon's last major policy statement was a call to revamp the entire Telecommunications Act, so Big Red might have bigger plans in store. We've rounded up all the reactions below -- check 'em out.
Sprint phasing out Nextel's iDEN network, selects vendors for $5b network upgrade project
Looks like the Motorola i1 Android set (not pictured above) will stand as the highest-end Nextel phone ever -- Sprint just announced that it's phasing out the iDEN network sometime in 2013 as it begins a new four to five billion dollar network enhancement project called "Network Vision." We've expected this for a while -- the Sprint / Nextel merger has been beset by subscriber losses and rumors of a breakup for years now -- but this is the first time we've gotten a date. Sprint's rolling out push-to-talk on its own network to support its 10.6 million Nextel customers, but we don't have a schedule for that yet. Sprint's also announcing vendors for Network Vision: Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung, and Ericsson will each handle a region and be tasked with expanding and fortifying Sprint's existing 1900MHz 3G network while buying 800MHz, 1900MHz, and 2.5GHz spectrum for future use. Interestingly, Sprint's definitely hedging its WiMAX bets a little -- it can upgrade its new gear to LTE with swapping in a baseband card and issuing a software patch, which certainly gives the company some 4G flexibility should Clearwire not pull things together. We'll see what happens -- the underdog's making some moves.
Sprint axes Huawei, ZTE telecom bids due to security fears in Washington?
Huawei might be making inroads into the US consumer smartphone market, but the Chinese telecom supplier's attempts to break into big business have been stonewalled. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint is excluding both Huawei and competitor ZTE from a multi-billion dollar contract -- where they would have been the lowest bidders -- primarily because of national security concerns. The US Secretary of Commerce reportedly called Sprint CEO Dan Hesse to voice concerns about letting firms with possible ties to the Chinese government supply local communications infrastructure, a perspective also penned by eight US senators back in August. "DoD is very concerned about China's emerging cyber capabilities and any potential vulnerability within or threat to DoD networks," the Department of Defense told the publication, without naming Huawei or ZTE directly. We're not doctors, but it sounds like someone's got a serious case of supercomputer envy.
Sprint fails to impress Wall Street with Q3 2010 earnings, still notches 644k net adds
Sprint certainly isn't out of the woods yet, but at least it's picking up customers from somewhere. The company's Q3 2010 earnings were ushered out today, and while its stock fell around ten percent on the news, a few silver linings were present. The carrier saw postpaid subscriber losses of 107,000, but that's an 87 percent improvement compared to Q3 2009. The CDMA network added approximately 276,000 postpaid customers during the quarter, 471,000 (net) prepaid subscribers and 644,000 total wireless subscribers from a net perspective. It also landed its second best postpaid churn result ever, but the bottom line still looks battered -- the operator announced a net loss of nearly a billion dollars ($911 million, if you're scouting specifics). Of course, phasing out iDEN should probably help things in the long run, but even its 4G advantage could quickly fade if (or more likely, when) Verizon gets its LTE act together next year.
Sprint promises WiMAX in NYC on November 1, LA on December 1, and San Francisco a few weeks later
The fact that Sprint and Clearwire have teamed up to deliver WiMAX to New York, LA, and San Francisco isn't news. In fact, we've already seen the networks light up in operational readiness modes on the way to full consumer availability. But now we've got dates, the first specifics that we can recall for these cities. Now, according to both Clearwire and Sprint, New York's WiMAX service will go live on November 1st, LA's on December 1st, and San Francisco sometime around the end of December. We'll see if those early 5Mbps to 7Mbps download / 1.2Mbps upload speeds we've experienced can be maintained once the service meets the crush of the big city horde. Of course, this is nothing but good news for wireless consumers who'll also see Verizon light up its competing LTE network in these cities (38 in total) at about the same time.
Sprint clears 35MHz of spectrum for future use, wonders if it's alone in the world
You know that "National Broadband Plan" that the world keeps yapping about? Sprint's down with it, and has been since before it ever existed, apparently. Based on a glowing press release outed this week by the carrier, it has just wrapped up a five year initiative to free 35MHz of highly valuable spectrum needed for future broadband expansion. After spending a cool $750 million from 2005 to 2010, the company has now cleared 35MHz of broadcast auxiliary service (BAS) spectrum across the country, though there's obviously some ways to go before Obama has 500MHz of cleared spectrum at his disposal. As it stands, Sprint has transitioned the broadcast auxiliary services to a new, more efficient spectrum plan in the 2GHz frequency band, and while the exact hows and whens have yet to be laid out, we're hearing that this could provide access to "faster, cheaper broadband services" in the future. Huzzah?
Virgin Mobile's pre-paid MIFI spotted, purchased, unboxed, and photographed
Sure, Virgin Mobile's MIFI isn't due out until Monday -- but that hasn't stopped one lucky shopper from finding one on the shelves of his local Best Buy yesterday. The enigmatic reader (only identified by the initials "NS") even went so far as to include some unboxing pictures for our (and your) pleasure. Between this, and Sprint's recent Beyond Talk announcement, it looks like 2010 is shaping up to be a good year for pre-paid wireless. [Thanks, NS]
Sprint and Virgin Mobile announces Beyond Talk $25 prepaid plan, new prepaid brand
Sprint Nextel, through its Virgin Mobile brand, has announced a pretty big shift in its business model by offering new prepaid plans that begin at a mind-blowing $25 a month. Starting on May 12, three new Beyond Talk plans will include unlimited messaging, email, data, and web, as well as 300 minutes ($25), 1,200 minutes ($40), or unlimited minutes ($60) of talk time. And that ain't all -- BlackBerry data service can be added for an additional $10. Of course, you'll be paying full price for your phone, but at least the selection is indeed better than the usual pre-paid fare, including the Blackberry Curve 8530 ($300) and LG Rumor Touch ($150). We don't know how the other carriers are going to respond, but this does prompt the question: would you put up with Sprint's handset selection for a plan this cheap? PR after the break. Update: The Wall Street Journal has it that Sprint is also fixing to launch an entirely new prepaid brand, and while it declined to share a name for the new branch, it did confess that it "will let customers pay upfront for cell service by the minute rather than signing up for a month at a time." As you may expect, it'll be aimed at "middle-aged Americans who only use cellphones occasionally to make calls," and it'll join Boost Mobile, Assurance Wireless and Virgin Mobile in Sprint's rapidly expanding stable of prepaid sub-brands. Is it difficult to tell these guys love the prepaid and can't quite figure out how to make ends meet on the postpaid side? Nah...
Clearwire WiMAX to cover 120 million prospective HTC EVO 4G owners by end of year
With the HTC EVO dual-mode 3G/4G handset launching this summer (and nearly ready for pre-order) with built-in hotspot capability, we've got a pretty good idea what all you US Americans are wondering: is WiMAX available in my city? Well, buried inside the Clearwire financials is mention of the 19 additional cities scheduled for WiMAXing this summer, joining the 32 markets (pictured above) and 41 million people already served by its 4G network offering 3Mbps to 6Mbps average downloads with an occasional 10Mbps peak: Clearwire also today announced plans to launch 4G mobile broadband service in 19 additional cities this summer, including previously announced markets Kansas City, KS; St. Louis, MO; Salt Lake City, UT, and the core area of Washington, D.C. and newly announced markets Nashville, TN; Daytona, Orlando and Tampa, FL; Rochester and Syracuse, NY; Merced, Modesto, Stockton, and Visalia, CA; Wilmington, DE; Grand Rapids, MI; Eugene, OR; and Yakima and Tri-Cities, WA. Things will get really interesting later in 2010 when Clearwire and Sprint take their 4G mobile broadband network to New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh for a 120 million person strong data footprint. LTE who?
Sprint to announce 'groundbreaking new device' (HTC Supersonic?) tomorrow
Sprint Premier customers are being treated to a rather tantalizing account alert tonight: "Visit us tomorrow for an exciting announcement about a groundbreaking new device." No other details provided, but if we had to make an educated guess, we'd say all signs are pointing towards HTC's Supersonic, the long-rumored WiMAX smartphone with a 4.3-inch screen and Android 2.1 with Sense UI. A 4G device would certainly fit the billing as "groundbreaking," and we've already heard of plans to unveil the phone at CTIA, which officially kicks off tomorrow. A web chat transcript found on the Sprint Community seems to corroborate, but we can't at this point verify the validity of the screen capture. You can view the entirety of the purported web chat after the break. If we do wake up tomorrow to a shiny, large-screened WiMAX phone, care to take bets on what Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is gonna talk up in his Wednesday keynote? [Thanks, Jackson R and Aggrey J]
Motorola makes i1 official, melds Android and push-to-talk this summer on Sprint
Right on cue, just after the aptly-timed teaser poster, Motorola signs on just the right dotted lines to make its i1 push-to-talk Android handset official. Let's run through the specs quickly, shall we? A 3.1-inch HVGA (320 x 480) touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 4x zoom, WiFi, and microSD expansion -- no mention of the processor, so we'll have to find out on our own later. The OS version is 1.5 and, while there's oddly not a single mention in either the press release of fact sheet, given the official images and unofficial leaks, it's definitely got Motoblur. The browser of choice is Opera Mini 5 with support for Flash 8, and if you're worried about Mother Nature's wrath, the i1 meets Military 810F standards for handling averse weather conditions. iDEN lovers can pick up the call sometime this summer on Sprint, with price yet to be named. Update: Motorola's just sent word that the i1 does not have Motoblur, despite the presence of the traditional green call / blue contacts buttons. That begs the question, then, of what exactly defines Motoblur here (is just the Happenings widget missing?), and what Android skin is on the i1 -- the press images here are definitely not showing vanilla 1.5. We're still awaiting a response to that, stay tuned. %Gallery-88737%
Motorola Opus One caught on video, dawg
It's pretty rare that a tech demo starts with the phrase "you know what I'm gonna do?" But, this one certainly does, a dark, shaky, but thoroughly comprehensive exploration of the recently rumored Motorola Opus One smartphone. Jive- or profanity-averse readers (or anyone who hates zebra cake) will probably want to skip the four videos embedded below, but we'll give you the highlights: iDen is confirmed, Android 1.5 Cupcake is currently installed with Motoblur frosting, there's a five megapixel camera on the back, and with its push-to-talk this one looks to be going to Nextel or Boost Mobile. Those are the deets, but click on through if you want to do that video, dawg. [Via iNicc0lo]
Sprint wraps up iPCS acquisition, Nextel merger drama may finally be over
It's been eons since Sprint bought Nextel, but regional affiliate iPCS had managed to keep the fallout from the deal tied up in courts for years -- a side-effect of its claim that the merger violated Sprint's agreement to stay off iPCS' turf. After a few court losses, Sprint ultimately decided to bite the bullet and buy iPCS outright, and now, that deal's finalized to the tune of $831 million including Sprint's assumption of $405 million in debt. Though iPCS customers now become Sprint customers as a result of the acquisition, they'll effectively notice no difference -- the regional was already offering Sprint service exclusively under the Sprint brand, so this whole deal is little more than an escape hatch for the head office to tie off these legal wranglings once and for all.
Sprint bails on QChat, goes back to iDEN for all its PTT needs
We saw the writing on the wall here for a while, but Sprint's now gone ahead and made it official that it'll be phasing out its push-to-talk offerings based on Qualcomm's QChat technology in favor of -- what else? -- good ol' iDEN. For Sprint, the move makes sense; when the EV-DO Rev. A-powered QChat system was introduced last year, a Sprint / Nextel schism was a very real possibility -- but since, the company has ended up pouring money into its Direct Connect network, sprucing it up, and placing a renewed emphasis on its prepaid Boost Mobile brand which shares Nextel's airwaves. There really isn't much use for two incompatible PTT systems on any network, so one had to go -- and yes, QChat is getting the boot. Existing customers will continue to be supported, but Sprint says that it won't be offering new models; good thing iDEN phones just got pretty for the first time.
Sprint handed customer GPS data to law enforcement over 8 million times last year
Privacy advocates and career criminals alike are in a lather over reports that between September 2008 and October 2009, Sprint Nextel ponied up customer location data to various law enforcement agencies more than 8 million times. Speaking at ISS World 2009 (a conference for law enforcement and telecom industry-types responsible for "lawful interception, electronic investigations and network Intelligence gathering"), Sprint Nextel's very own Paul Taylor, Manager of Electronic Surveillance, lamented on the sheer volume of requests the company's received in the past year for precise GPS data for Sprint customers. How did the company meet such high demand? Apparently, his team built a special "web interface" which "has just really caught on fire with law enforcement." We're glad that Sprint's plans to streamline the customer service experience don't stop short of those who serve and protect, but as the EFF points out, plenty of nagging questions remain, including: How many individual customers have been affected? Is Sprint demanding search warrants? How secure is this web interface? Check out an excerpt from Taylor's speech after the break.
Sprint finalizes Virgin Mobile USA acquisition, rushes out to snag some cranberry sauce
It's hard to say if these guys were just looking to get this whole thing finalized before the holiday break, but either way, all the requisite i's have been dotted and t's crossed. As of today, Sprint Nextel has acquired Virgin Mobile USA -- a process that began back in late July -- and frankly, there's nothing you can do about it. The move will obviously position Sprint as a bigger player in the prepaid space, but outside of that presumably true assumption, it's tough to say what else the newfound lovers will do together. So, will the Facebook statuses be updated soon as well? Hello?
