Last year, Sprint was between a rock and a hard place, but things were already turning around for them. They had just made it through an across-the-board slump: customer service, network quality, pricing, phones offered, etc. Then, last year it was if the company had entirely reformed. Their customer service is now top notch (give or take a few reps), their network is much better, they offer some of the hottest phones on the market, and they were even the first carrier to tout “4G” speeds with their WiMax network.
All of these things helped, but none of this was what really took current customers by surprise or reeled in a slew of new customers (WiMax was introduced a few months after). Their data plans, or Everything Data plans, with their next-to-none pricing did the trick, along with the EVO 4G. You can now have an individual data plan with 450 minutes for $69.99 per month, or you can have a family share plan starting at 1500 minutes for $129.99 per month for the first two lines. With these plans, everything besides calling landlines and roaming is unlimited. That means calling cellphones (any carrier), data, text messaging, Sprint TV, etc. Sprint's plans were groundbreaking, to say the least, undercutting its counterparts by roughly $20-30 for the exact same thing.
Shortly thereafter, AT&T introduced cheaper, tiered data plans. Some were unaffected by AT&T's tiered data, in other words, grandfathered into their unlimited data; others didn't care because they wanted a smartphone and didn't want to pay $30/month for a data plan, or they didn't want a smartphone to begin with; and the remaining customers were outraged that they could no longer purchase an unlimited data plan. Much to their surprise, Sprint learned that they played their cards right by going totally unlimited with data. You may recall a rumor from a few months back that stated Sprint was considering moving to tiered data. Well, now you've heard it from Dan Hesse himself, no tiered data for now.
If Sprint were to have jumped on the tiered data bandwagon, scrapping something that undoubtedly boosted their business, they would have been taking two leaps backward. But they didn't, they're avoiding it, keeping the Everything Data plans for now and potentially taking a route of their own by offering a single fee that provide data services to any device you may have on your account (phone, tablet, etc.), furthering the grasps of the term “unlimited.” Some customers like peace of mind, even if it costs them a little more, I know I do. I'm glad to hear Sprint is keeping their head on their shoulders and continuing to please the customers that they've worked so hard to earn. Keep on keepin' on, Sprint! You're obviously doing something right.
