Forbes is reporting that Sprint is going to announce "significant" job cuts next month, and that the US' number three wireless carrier could be prepping for another price cut in hopes of gaining some ground on industry leaders AT&T and Verizon Wireless.  The Forbes article quotes an analyst at Pali Research (wasn't there a Shakespeare line about killing all of the analysts?) as saying he "expects ... executives ... could consider lowering its prices."

Wait, hold the presses!  An analysts "expects that Sprint could consider lowering prices"?  Wow, that's almost like betting the farm on it.  Except minus the bet and plus a whole bunch of wishy-washy qualifiers.

Seriously, Sprint's in a world of hurt and has been suffering from a horrible customer service reputation.  While they currently outrank T-Mobile in terms of US subscribers, T-Mo consistently scores high in the area of customer satisfaction, and has finally gotten around to rolling out their 3G network.  Sprint's readying a nationwide rollout of "Sprint 4G" (aka Xohm) WiMax service, but mainstream consumers are more concerned with cool phones and helpful customer service reps than cutting-edge tech.   Low prices can go a long way, but not quite all the way - witness Verizon's long-held place at the top of the US wireless pile, despite their consistently high prices as compared to Sprint and T-Mobile.

Sprint led a price war earlier this year with the launch of their $99/mo. "Simply Everything" plan, combining unlimited voice, messaging, and data for under $100 per month.  The company also has found success with their flagship consumer device, the Samsung Instinct, which takes advantage of all services offered under the Simply Everything plan.  However, Sprint's stock has lost some 80 percent of its value this year, and closed at $2.73/share on Monday.