Yup they still are for now. But if you are a data hog there could be limitations. Check out the fine print they forgot to mention after the jump.
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Sprint touts itself as the only true option for unlimited mobile data, but CEO Dan Hesse said yesterday that even on the Sprint network, data hogs can be penalized.
“We can manage them and we do that quite aggressively,” Hesse said at Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference.
For 98 to 99 percent of Sprint data users, “it’s an unlimited experience,” Hesse said. “[But] for people that want to abuse it and really run up the big data charges, we can knock them off.”
Hesse didn’t specify how much data use would be considered abuse. But he pointed to someone whose device was roaming while in their house in “rural Montana.” So it’s not completely unreasonable to think that Sprint might penalize you for using a huge amount of data while roaming on Verizon’s network, for example.
Sprint still remains the only major U.S. wireless carrier that allows users to sign up for unlimited data plans. T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T all have tiered data plans, with the exception of those customers who are grandfathered in to older, unlimited options, but even those users are subjected to throttling.
Hesse said providing unlimited data is a “core focus of the company.” Just like Sprint pledged to improve the customer experience and brand back in 2008, the focus now is unlimited data, he said.
“We see far more benefits” to providing unlimited data than restricting data usage, Hesse said.
That only extends to smartphones, however. In October, Sprint dropped unlimited data on cards and other data devices.
AT&T ditched unlimited plans in June 2010 in favor of several tiered options: 200MB of data for $15 per month; 2GB of data (not 5GB, like the previous cap) for $25 per month; and tethering for $20 per month. Existing customers with unlimited plans could keep them, but last summer, AT&T said it would throttle the data speeds of mobile customers who use an “extraordinary” amount of data, even if they are on unlimited plans.
Verizon opted for tiered data in July 2011: $30 for 2GB per month, $50 for 5GB, and $80 for 10GB. It kicked off its version of throttling, dubbed network optimization, in September.
T-Mobile, meanwhile, says in marketing materials that it offers unlimited plans, but users face data throttling if they exceed a monthly data cap—usually between 2GB and 10GB, depending on your plan.
Also yesterday, Hesse pledged to roll out Sprint’s 4G LTE network to 10 cities by mid-2012, including Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, and San Antonio.
