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fiberguy2
My views are my own.
Premium Member
join:2005-05-20

1 recommendation

fiberguy2

Premium Member

Just shut it down..

Very simple.. the system is done on 6/2013.. then just shut it off! To charge customers $10 a month until then is pure crap on sprint's part. What I visualize when I read this is some corporate exec stomping his feet and throwing a tantrum because he's too impatient to let the system run to term.. "I want it now!!!" kinda like that little girl on Willy Wonka that turned into a blue berry.. I think the $10 fee should be looked into by regulators... these customers have every right to use the system until the time it's shut down.. if they want people off sooner, as others have said, then entice them to leave with promo offers. Otherwise, notify them, do your best to make people aware, and in june of 2013, shut the thing off. You'll be amazed at how fast people call up and switch!

It's pathetic that Sprint would resort to a penalty fee to speed up the shuttering of a network. It's so few dollars compared to their overall revenue that it's not even a cash grab.. it's just being nasty.

They're being a blue berry.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

I'm assuming they don't just want to cut off service to people and have them end up completely fucked and entirely without service. If they start charging customers more they'll likely call to complain after which they will be told unless they upgrade they're going to lose cellular service. If it fails to recapture the customer it will at the very least gain Sprint extra capital to pour into their network revamp.
zlm44mut4b
join:2003-07-28
Plano, TX

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to fiberguy2
While I'm sure a partial justification of the charge is to prevent an onslaught of calls and issues with these legacy iDen come June, it's more likely that Sprint saw the opportunity to milk these customers and they took it.

Customers using these devices (if in contract) should be able to cancel ETF free. At least Sprint is providing discounted devices as reported by others.

I agree that they should have waited until the date got closer before forcing migration. In addition, I think they're doing a tremendous disservice to these legacy customers by just shutting of large amounts of towers and leaving huge areas without any iDen service (already). ... plus I think the one year notice wasn't really sufficient for those customers that may use iDen for M2M, business, or governmental purposes.

xirian
Premium Member
join:2003-01-26
Beacon, NY

xirian

Premium Member

said by zlm44mut4b:

While I'm sure a partial justification of the charge is to prevent an onslaught of calls and issues with these legacy iDen come June, it's more likely that Sprint saw the opportunity to milk these customers and they took it.

Customers using these devices (if in contract) should be able to cancel ETF free. At least Sprint is providing discounted devices as reported by others.

I agree that they should have waited until the date got closer before forcing migration. In addition, I think they're doing a tremendous disservice to these legacy customers by just shutting of large amounts of towers and leaving huge areas without any iDen service (already). ... plus I think the one year notice wasn't really sufficient for those customers that may use iDen for M2M, business, or governmental purposes.

Its probably more that the people have been ignoring their offers for upgrades and they're hoping that they're be angry enough to call in when they see this $10 charge so they can offer to remove it if they accept an offer for a free iphone/android phone/etc.

Is anyone on nextel still on a contract? Its been known that its been coming to an end for a while, the idea that someone would actually buy a nextel phone on contract recently enough to be in contract is a bit disturbing.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

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This fee is like their $10 per device for 4G that everyone pays for on smart phones regardless if you have it or not.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

The $10 fee isn't for 4G it's for the large amount of data your smart phone can and will use.

The iDEN fee will be for customers that are costing Sprint money by staying on a network that Sprint is trying to decommission. It's costing Sprint several million dollars every month just to run a network that they're going to toss out in a few months. It's likely costing them more money to run than they're making off of it.

They want it taken offline and gone ASAP and they want the customers to switch to the network that has been set to replace the Nextel iDEN network for the past 6 years.
fiberguy2
My views are my own.
Premium Member
join:2005-05-20

fiberguy2

Premium Member

Tough titty! ... that's the cost of doing business. There is a date they go dark.. until that time they have to run the network. I disagree that they use a "fee" to "encourage quicker migration"... Comcast shut off their Digital Telephone service back around 2005 I believe it was.. at that time they let customers know that the service was going dark. They made several mailings, offered to migrate to their new CDV service.. made outbound calls.. even gave people a list of competitor's services they could go to in order to have continued service. At no time did Comcast charge their customers a "hurry up, we want to be done sooner rather than later" fee..

I do believe they were required to give notice and request a sunset date of the iDen service with the government. That's the date they have to live with. Just because the service costs them money as it gets close to the end, that's part of doing business. The fee is shitty and quite honestly if Sprint charged me that fee even once, it would be a sign that I need to look towards another provider.

Don't care if they want it gone and offline ASAP.. again, tough titty.. they need to follow the rules that they're required to as a communications provider. If they didn't want to run the iDen network they never should have tried this great disaster experiment called "Spring, Together with Nextel" in the first place. With the amount of money they wrote off as a loss from the merger, I think they can eat a few million..
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

They've been trying to get rid of iDEN for years. They're finally getting rid of it and trying to either take customers over to CDMA/LTE or toss them to the side. I'm sure people will be more than willing to inquire as to why they're paying $10/mo extra. When the CSR tells them that it's because they need to switch to CDMA/LTE and get a new phone they'll probably do it and ask to have the $10 fee waived, which I think the CSR/Sprint will be more than willing to do if they're going to switch. It's probably more to get people's attention and raise a few extra dollars.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

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If Sprint and Dan knew what they were doing from the get go with Nextel- they would have moved over customers a LONG time ago after the merger. It's their own fault they allowed customers to sign up all this time and move between the two companies.

I don't feel sorry for Sprint and they should be investigated for this. They want their cake and eat it too.

And as for the $10 4g fee, its not about the data usage, its about them being greedy as they're the ONLY company to charge that and have since they sold off their WiMax network to Clear.

And Sprint's CDMA network is NO where near ready to replace iDEN. The coverage on the CMDA side is still horrible in many areas, including metro cities. They tried to fix that problem with their AiRaves but only made the issue worse and Spending money while doing it.
TBBroadband

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And that's my point. Sprint is just about grabbing the money. The same as their $10 smart phone fee for 4G data. It wasn't charged for 3g or even 2g, only when they started out with 4g on wimax.

I wonder if this could be a breach of contract against Sprint since they are in fact changing their pricing.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

said by TBBroadband:

And that's my point. Sprint is just about grabbing the money. The same as their $10 smart phone fee for 4G data. It wasn't charged for 3g or even 2g, only when they started out with 4g on wimax.

I wonder if this could be a breach of contract against Sprint since they are in fact changing their pricing.

It likely only applies to people out of contract which most iDEN customers will be because the phones aren't really made anymore and there's really been nothing new released in awhile.
NiteSn0w

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Sprint still owns the majority of the Clearwire.

the $10 fee was for 4G WiMAX in the beginning, but currently it only applies to smart phones, even the iPhone 4S is charged the $10 premium data fee.

$69.99 covers voice, SMS, MMS and basic data (for MMS and feature phones) part of the plan, $10 covers data, What's so hard to understand about that?

Sprint's CDMA network will be a great replacement once network vision is completed, especially when ESMR 800 is completely deployed. Coverage will be better as will performance. I'm in the Cleveland metro and I have no problems with Sprint's service, I have never dropped a call and I have never been without service. It always works and is always on.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

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The $10 would apply to everyone still on the iDEN network on the Sprint postpaid side.

By charging this fee Sprint would be in breach of their contract as it would alter their price plan, especially a below the line fee that was never there to start off with.
TBBroadband

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Everyone knows Sprint still owns Clear, but the point is they still charge $10 for something that NOBODY else charges. Sprint is becoming nothing more than a money grab cell carrier and it shows. $10 to access 4G even if its not available to you. $10 to stay on a network that Sprint was required to keep up and running until the end of June.

Sprint has been claiming for YEARS that network vision would be great. But yet they can't get their current CDMA network to work in major cities let alone build a new network and make it work.

And if you're in Cleveland you need to go out into the burbs where it matters. the Heights has poor quality service. You have to stand in the middle of streets to get service and lucky to get 1 bar at times. The burbs is where it matters in Cleveland, especially in the Heights where the $$$$ is at. If Sprint can't provide service to an area where the average income per family is over $200k then they have issues and Network Vision will never work for them.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD to TBBroadband

Premium Member

to TBBroadband
said by TBBroadband:

The $10 would apply to everyone still on the iDEN network on the Sprint postpaid side.

By charging this fee Sprint would be in breach of their contract as it would alter their price plan, especially a below the line fee that was never there to start off with.

no one wants to swap millions of units on 7/1/2013. Either the sub swaps now, or walks. If sprint breeches the contract, all the customer can do is walk anyway.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband

Member

Well nobody agreed to allow Sprint to charge $10 per month either for a network that they were required and agreed to operate until 7/1/2013.

Someone needs to go and smack Sprint around a little bit for this. It wouldn't be permitted with anyone else, and if it was anyone else charging this fee, everyone would be all over complaining about it.

Also Sprint made their bed by allowing customers to switch back and forth and allowing them to keep signing up so now its time for Sprint to deal with what they created. This is another sign on Dan not knowing how to run a company and Sprint should have gotten rid of him long ago.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

Allowing customers to switch back and forth how?