Sprint EVDO Monthly Caps Arrive

This does not apply to business users (as far as I can tell), so if this is an issue for you just sign up for a business account.

Not for retail either.

Thank God...lol

That is in conflict with what I'm reading elsewhere. It seems that 7/13/08 or thereabouts was the cutoff to be grandfathered in, so if you have a newer contract no matter what type, it's going to be capped.

This is something that will almost, guaranteed, wind up in court.. why do I say that? I'm already talking with an attorney about it, who also happens to be a customer.

The problem is that Sprint used contracts to sign people up... you know, those pesky things that bind you to an agreement? Well, at the time *I* and many others signed up, there was an "Unlimited Plan" and a "5GB" plan.. What sprint basically did is took my unlimited plan and stated that there is a 5BG cap on it which is what the other plan offered was.

The fact of the matter is the plan stated "UNLIMITED" in it's title which described the plan. This isn't marketing and this isn't misleading, it's very clearly an "UNLIMITED" plan. No, they come and want to extend a cap on the service.. While I say "more power to them" to new subscribers, they sure as hell are not going to do so on me while I am in a 2 year contract.

Sprint, and anyone else, that wants to get into the use of a contract needs to take a quick look into the dictionary as to what the meaning of a "contract" is. They want to sign you into a contract that is one sided, and they can't. It's been proven time and again that you can't be bound to a contract where there is open ended unknowns that you can be bound to... This is exactly what they are doing with their contracts. (Honestly, they need to stop calling them "contracts" because they are not.. they are simply Terms of Service)

As to what you said about confusion.. If there is any confusion, it's with Sprint. My bill in May said "in 30 days, we data use will be set to 5bg) or something like that. So.. that's from their own mouth. I think Sprint doesn't know what they are doing.

I think the best thing you're going to get from any lawsuit is the ability to get out of your contract with no ETF.

All the wireless carriers have a provision in their contracts that state if they change anything, you are free to leave without penalty. In essence they have a clause baked in that allows them to change anything they want, with your only recourse being to cancel without ETL.

But the only problem is »Sprint Refusing to waive Early Termination Fees

Thats interesting, but have we any confirmation of what they (Sprint) will actually do in practice?

Refer to the above photo.

In other words, they've sent us notices about the impending capping, have press releases, CEO blogged about it and the works. But when it comes down to verbally acknowledging it, they deny. When people call in to cancel, they are told there is no such thing as caps, it wont effect anyone, blah blah blah. Just don't worry about the notices. Then after the grace period is over to cancel, they start ringing everyone’s neck. That is my take on Sprints inner and outer works.

Maybe, but the objective is to either 1) ban this practice 2) force them to live up to their contracts as actual "terms" (ie: if I purchased a 2 year "unlimited broadband card" plan, then I should be entitled to get my 2 years) 3) allow for termination of plans with out ETF 4) Shape policy for the future 5) penalize Sprint for their practice and also ban others from doing the same as well.

It's not all about money.. it's the erosion of the law in this country that I can't stand. These so-called contracts these providers are using these days are complete and utter BS. Personally, I'd like to see them come to an end.

Heh, I almost signed up last month to ditch the pricier TWC, until the word that caps were being instituted ... a mistake avoided. Way to go Sprint!

Oh well ...

. so, were do you run to now.. where do you run?

Nowhere ... staying where I am for the time being. When something new comes along with caps that are not downright pathetic, then I might switch (not holding my breath really). But for now, I will remain bent over for TWC to do their thing

I am just curious, if they terminate someone's account for this, will the person still have to pay early termination fee?

No... and, technically, if you have purchased the unlimited plan in a contract and they are "capping it" at 5gb, this is no different than the text message rate change. Technically, you can terminate the plan. This was confirmed with a rep on the phone. Secondly, if you talk "honestly" with them, the few reps I spoke with all agreed, essentially, that it was B.S...

If they terminate your account, does the ETF apply?

Ok, so, if I blow through my data caps, they'll nuke me? Is it an auto-nuke where I just pick up my phone, one day, and it's dead and I'm left to scramble for new service, or do I get some sort of notification so that I can find a new provider?

News like this, on top of the "Sprint's selling their towers" thing a few weeks back, *really* makes me wonder if Sprint is trying to get out of the mobile phone business...

I'd imagine they just shut off your data access.

No, if you go over your caps 2 out of 3 months they will terminate your account... Remember when they shut off about 1000+ phones in one day a couple years ago... If you want out of your sprint contract, fire up bittorrent for a few months and there you go..

First "5GB monthly cap (300MB if roaming)" setting up two separate limits that cannot be easily monitored is just asking for a customer service nightmare.
Second, if most people's usage is below that 5gb cap, why even bother? The fact that they are placing the 5gb cap on the service already tells you a lot of people must have been going over that.

With all these continued incentives to do business with Sprint such as sub-par customer service, poor network coverage, bandwidth caps, and billing incompetence there's no way Verzion will survive.

Sprint -- If you're a masochist, we're the right provider for you.

im a pro sprint person but this kind of knocks that down a bit.

Looks like sprint is going to jump on the VZW bandwagon since Alltel has been bought and will soon convert to the big V's ways.

I'd agree with you on all of those points except poor network coverage. Their network coverage ranks well above "poor".

Already canceled my account (effective tomorrow) without ETF since this notification was on my June bill.

Nice I will be doing the same tonight

Broadband card or Phone eligble ?I think I may bail if I can

Bail where, though? Bail one 5gb capped service for another?

Not just that reason.. I am having connecting call issues.I never had them before. I have it now on all my phones.

.. well, this won't get you out of your phone service contract.. just your data plan.

Thx

Sprint stock has dropped along with the customer base, and they dont know why. Details at 11:00

Just curious... for the benefit of a sprint user stuck in hell.

No.

Bring a loser who cant get cable or DSL, I just switched from satellite to Evdo to get away from the FAP satellite had.

Lets not forget, having a Playstation 3 will really throttle that service for me now, because just downloading a demo alone will take up 1/5 of my cap. What about online gaming or internet radio? What about streaming Netflix movies on my TV?

ITS NOT FAIR! I'm paying way too much for this kind of service.

According to the FCC your area is served by broadband, therefore you have no right to complain! You take your dial up and LIKE IT mister!

(nah, I feel for you, good luck)

Okay, so for those who are dumping Sprint out of principle or practicality, to whom have you switched for your wireless broadband needs?

I started with Sprint last October so I have a few more months left of my contract. Who else provides a cap-less wireless broadband service with nationwide coverage?

Easy, I'm switching to Millenicom, who is a Sprint reseller. They have a plan where you bring your previous Sprint device, and activate it with them. You are still on Sprint's network, but the service is unlimited. Coverage is identical to Sprint, since you are connected to Sprint's network. Only thing you're changing is who you pay the bill to.

»www.millenicom.com/mobil ··· BYOD.htm

Was trying to remember who that company was. Thanks.

Its things like this that makes news of future wimax plans just seem pointless.. Cause we all know, they will throw the cap down on this as well. Yay! so much for progressive technology in America!! Hey lets all go back to 2400bps baud modems! Then on top of that have a grand total of 20 hours dialup connected time.. Assuming the timer doesn't keep on counting if your connection randomly drops, you'll have plenty of connected time to check e-mail!!!

Woo hoo!! Flinstones, meet the flinstones, who the hell are we????

What is happening to this country? This kinda crap, along with people being billed for a gas tax if they find ways to "save fuel", why do we even bother? Holy crap!.....

Maybe i'm overreacting?

guess who hurts the most in offering unlimited "everything" for $99 a month? Sprint. Who started this $99 a month price war... you may not think so, but my guess is it was Srpint, not Verizon or AT&T... it's their own fault they're in such trouble... that and bungling the Sprint/Nextel merger. We're talking two comparable wireless carriers.. not Time Warner Cable and AOL Dialup/Portal here.. retrenching on service offerings will be seen for what it is.. a price increase in disguise. Consumers cut way back when gas hit $5 a gallon, similar subscriber losses are hitting telecom companies as well.. the news is beginning to snowball out.. Dish Network, quarterly subscriber loss... Verizon significant DSL & Landline subscriber loss, let the belt tightening wars begin!

don't think I would take a Sprint phone & free service if you paid me.. good to be rid of them for a while now! Nothing but bastards working at customer retention department these days anyway... trying to meet unrealistic goals of keeping you as a customer on the highest price services available. Then they lie to you and try to deceive you about details of lower priced plans. Scum of the earth, hope the company fails in wireless (company is too big to collapse completely without some big fish going to jail) .. they are doing a good job at it!

Personally I have a EVDO card just to storm chase, it's not uncommon for me to use 200-300MB in a single chase.

Since 90% of my chases are not in a metro area, well you get the picture.

With the loss of Alltel in the midwest to Verizon that option is gone now too.

THANKS!

I thought that current users before the 7/24/08 deadline are grandfathered in to be unlimited... And also I got a leaflet in my last bill that said my phone as a modem plan will not be affected by the changes blah, blah... and that if i upgrade my phone for really cheap, not only do i get a cool phone and a cool new contract, I also get capped usage.. Who knows what they are doing?

It pretty much kills frequent interstate use- I can't tell you how often I find myself in roaming via interstate travels. I'm certain I've passed that cap SEVERAL times.

Pretty much what I read this as...

If you use it as a dedicated home connection, for video or P2P where DSL/Cable won't reach - then you're out of luck as 5GB is easily reached. In my case we use it for remote RDP / VPN Encapsulation.

If you use your service for travel, as intended, then you're out of luck as 300mb is easily reached.

Soooo... am I missing something here?

I have 3 Moto Q's and 2 EVDO USB Novatel modems on a Sprint commercial account- I can assume that account is going to hit the limit VERY fast as we use the EVDO modems in the field frequently.

I read the comment about it not applying to business use, but as far as I know, other than payment - there is no service difference. And I can't see it in the fine print anywhere.

Does Sprint TV bandwidth apply here?

I've noticed that the 59 a month data plan has a 5 gig cap, but for those customers who have the 15 dollar (like me) vision plan, it still reads unlimited.

I'm tethering using a 6800 and so far so good... It's a lot freaken better than to pay a hotel's 12.95 for going online for 1 day.

Every time I tether I check the speed, last week in Burbank, CA I was getting about 900 down and about 200 up. Then at Washington Dulles I went online again, and was getting about 2100 down and 400 up. Then this morning in Hillside, NJ (while waiting for my car's oil to be changed) I got these numbers:



I really hope Sprint doesn't FCUK around with us power vision users.

Well here it is. not exactly a smart move by sprint.

Sure it is- how many people will switch over this? The other options are Verizon Wireless, which has caps and a more restrictive TOS; Alltel, which is only in a limited area and is soon to be swallowed up; at&t, which has caps and much less coverage; and T-Mobile, which I don't think has caps (yet) but also doesn't really have ANY 3G coverage (yet)...

Easy: »www.millenicom.com/mobil ··· BYOD.htm

Natural choice since the cap is really only going to affect data card users. Just cancel your Sprint account (without ETF if you do it soon enough), and bring your data card over to Millenicom. In fact, my Sprint service cut off today, and in less than 30 minutes, I am back online and activated with Millenicom. Millenicom is a Sprint reseller, so it offers the exact same coverage as Sprint.

Thank goodness you printed this story. I was about to upgrade from a very old plan to the $129 Everything plan, in other words double my montly payment. Since my phones are now out of contract I'd say it's time to look around at the other companies. After all these years never thought I would move on...but