Sprint Adds $10 Monthly Surcharge for Unlimited Mobile Data Use

January 18, 2011, 10:20 AM EST

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- largest U.S. wireless carrier, will begin charging smartphone users an additional $10 a month for unlimited data use.

The change, effective Jan. 30 for new and upgrading customers, will help Sprint cover the costs for maintaining its network, according to a statement from the Overland Park, Kansas-based carrier today.

Sprint competes for smartphone customers with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, which today both offer lower-priced limited data plans. AT&T last year eliminated unlimited data plans for new customers.

“Sprint has been the price leader in the market,” said Jennifer Fritzsche, a Wells Fargo & Co. analyst in Chicago who has an “outperform” rating on the stock. “Sprint may be more confident in the pricing power it has with customers.”

Under the new pricing, Sprint will charge $79.99 for a plan that includes unlimited talk time and data, compared with $69.99 previously. AT&T charges $25 a month for 2 gigabytes of data and $10 extra for each additional gigabyte, and Verizon charges $29.99 for unlimited data use. AT&T and Verizon’s data costs come on top of voice charges.

Sprint dropped 7 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $4.38 at 10:13 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares gained 16 percent last year.

--Editors: Ville Heiskanen, Peter Elstrom

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net

We unveiled nearly all of RIM’s 2011 lineup over the past day or so, and we wanted to highlight the devices as well as give you a bit more background and personal thoughts on them — and of course, more photos. For starters, though, let’s talk about RIM’s NFC implementation and its real world use cases… we have been told RIM is planning to use NFC for pairing and streaming control with accessories, in addition to peer-to-peer information exchange. What does that mean? Well, you’d hold up one BlackBerry to another BlackBerry to add that person on BlackBerry Messenger, transfer your vCard information, or even share files. Future NFC uses headed to BlackBerry devices, we’re told, include things as crazy as building access control (no more key cards!), ticketing, and of course, payments. Hit the break for the rest of our break down!

BlackBerry Bold (Dakota)

The BlackBerry Dakota is the creme de la creme of the 2011 BlackBerry family, and it will carry the Bold name. RIM has taken various shots at this form factor and the Dakota will be the first one to see the light of day. We’re glad the company took the time to get it right, because earlier prototypes we’ve seen definitely fell short. The Torch is a great phone for some, but those of us who live and die by the perfect QWERTY keyboard found on RIM’s Bold line had trouble dealing with the thin plastic keys and minimal tactile response on the Torch’s board.

Beyond the heaven-sent full QWERTY / touchscreen combo, the Dakota will feature specs that are definitely a solid bump over today’s Bold devices. By 2011 standards they’re not going to blow anyone away, but higher display resolution, RAM upgrade, NFC, mobile hotspot capability and thin form factor are sure to please the eager BlackBerry-toting masses. Toss HD video recording and OS 6.1 into the mix, and we’re looking at the likely king of Waterloo in 2011.

BlackBerry Curve (Apollo)

The BlackBerry Curve sits lower than the Bold on RIM’s device lineup totem pole, but with the newest Curve ready to debut later this year, people will be in for a treat. With a decent screen, HSPA, a 5-megapixel camera, and an 800MHz CPU, the brand new BlackBerry Curve definitely won’t be a slouch. The styling flows very well on the Curve pictured above with smooth angles and… curves. The phone also appears sleek and perfectly proportioned. RIM’s Curve line is by far its biggest, and we think this update will definitely help keep RIM’s enterprise sales moving in the right direction.

BlackBerry Torch 2

RIM called the first Torch its best BlackBerry ever, though many would take issue with that statement. The Torch did nothing for me, personally. In fact, all it really did was make using a BlackBerry device more clunky and painful. Part of this is the hardware’s vertical slide out design, but part of it was due to the slow processor and weak internals. But if all goes according to plan, one of the Torch’s two big strikes will soon be taken care of. The BlackBerry Torch 2 should scream with its 1.2GHz CPU, VGA-resolution screen and large built-in storage. Again, these specs aren’t going to make anyone’s head spin in Q3 2011, but they’ll definitely give the Torch the shot of adrenaline it so desperately needs.

BlackBerry Storm 3 (Monaco)

We have not confirmed that the BlackBerry Monaco will launch with the “Storm 3″ moniker, though if it did, it would be practically nothing like the first device in the series. The first BlackBerry Storm, internally referred to as an “Apple Killer” and arguably one of the worst handsets ever to created by Research In Motion (remember how we reported it would be terrible before release?), shares nothing with the upcoming BlackBerry Storm 3 — no SurePress screen, no clunky hardware, no slow processor. This new full touchscreen device will be powered by a 1.2GHz CPU and feature the highest resolution display to ever ship on a BlackBerry — 800 x 480 pixels. We’ll have to see how it plays out in the marketplace, though, because by the time it is released in Q3, there will be much, much more advanced handsets with much more robust operating systems.

We hope you BlackBerry-lovers out there are excited with the information we have shared over the past two days. RIM is definitely moving towards better-spec’d devices — we’ll just have to see if it’s going to be soon enough, and if it’s going to be enough to compete with the iPhone and Android juggernauts.

Tags: 1.2GHz, Apollo, BlackBerry, bold, Curve, Dakota, EDGE, exclusive, GPRS, GSM, HSPA, Monaco, Monza, QWERTY, RIM, storm, Torch, Torch 2, touchscreen, UMTS

Email This Post

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

According to an unconfirmed report, Chinese manufacturer Quanta Computer will build and ship over 1 million BlackBerry PlayBook tablets for RIM in the first quarter of 2011. DigiTimes cites industry sources in reporting the numbers, and also states that Quanta will ship between 700,000 and 800,000 Motorola XOOM tablets in Q1. The report claims RIM will launch the Wi-Fi-only version of the PlayBook in March, with 3G and 4G versions to follow in the second quarter. The report also claims, however, that Motorola will begin offering an “LTE version” of the XOOM tablet in the second quarter of this year after launching the 3G model in Q1. This claim is inaccurate according to Motorola, which said its XOOM tablet would only gain 4G LTE connectivity using a forthcoming external modem attachment. BGR published a lengthy hands-on video demonstration of the BlackBerry PlayBook in December, and we played with it again at CES in early January. The QNX-based tablet managed to impress us on both occasions. We also checked out the Android Honeycomb-powered Motorola XOOM tablet at CES and it was quite impressive as well.

Read

Tags: Android, Android 3.0, Android Tablet, BlackBerry, BlackBerry Playbook, channel checks, DigiTimes, dual core, honeycomb, Honeycomb tablet, manufacturer, manufacturing, Motorola, Motorola XOOM, playbook, projections, Q1 2011, QNX, Quanta, RIM, Shipments, tablet, Tablets, Xoom

Email This Post

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Oh, sure -- you're making much use of that Zipcar app already, but what if the tables were turned somewhat? For suburbanites with two cars in the garage (one of which is collecting major dust), Getaround's mobile app allows you to be Zipcar. Put simply, those with a spare vehicle (or a vehicle that routinely stays parked for certain blocks of time each day) can load their vehicle, location, schedule and price into the app, and then nearby Earthlings can poke around and see what's on offer. If they're interested in taking your ride for a spin, they can hit you up via the app and agree on how many hours / days / weeks they'll be needing it. In essence, you're looking at peer-to-peer car sharing, with Getaround snagging 30 percent of the rental rate; speaking of rate, that can range between $4 and $25 per hour, with the owner setting the price. Those based in San Francisco can tap into the source link to become involved in the beta, and don't be shocked if you see a Tesla Roadster listed for $25/hour -- that's actually one of Getaround's first customers, and you can rest assured that red beauty will be calling your name this weekend.

Getaround app turns you into Enterprise, lets your rent out your dormant whip originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   | 

Smartphone manufacturers are raring to get onboard with Verizon's 4G LTE network, if the Consumer Electronics Show last week was any indication. Four new handsets from HTC, Samsung, LG, and Motorola are set to debut by the middle of this year and will be fully enabled for the 4G network.

The four upcoming phones—the HTC Thunderbolt, LG Revolution, Motorola Bionic, and an unnamed Samsung phone—all share some solid features: they have front and back cameras, run Android 2.2, will come with Skype preinstalled for video chatting on their 4.3 inch screens, and can function as mobile hotspots. Many features, like video out and storage options, will likely guide customers to one or the other.

The HTC Thunderbolt has no HDMI out port, though it is DLNA-capable and can stream video wirelessly to compatible devices. It appears to have no internal storage but includes a 32GB microSD card. And like its doppelganger, the EVO 4G, it has a kickstand on the back.

The Motorola Bionic, the successor to the popular Droid line, is unique among the phones we saw for its dual-core 1GHz processor, which should make it a standout for multitasking. It was also the only phone that made a point about its high screen resolution, referred to as "quarter HD" at 540x980 pixels. The Bionic has both DLNA and HDMI out, with 16GB internal storage and a microSD slot for additional space. Both the Bionic handsets Verizon showed us and the models Motorola had set up in their booth appeared to be running an incomplete version of Android 2.2, which was a little unusual.

Like the Bionic, the LG Revolution supports both DLNA and HDMI out and has 16GB internal storage, expandable through its microSD slot. It's also the only phone with Bluetooth 3.0, a feature that should help it manage power consumption while connected to Bluetooth devices.

The Samsung 4G model we were introduced to had no given name, though a Verizon rep told Ars it had its moniker pulled at the last minute (we snapped a picture of its model number in the settings screen—SCH-I510). The Phone With No Name will have a Super AMOLED screen like the Samsung Fascinate released last summer, as well as an HDMI port. Neither Verizon nor Samsung have been very forthcoming about more details of the phone—there are no storage metrics or specific resolution, though we know it's the only phone without DLNA support.

The phones that had their OS fully installed (all except the Bionic) were quick and opened programs and menus without a hitch. We quickly tried the 5 megapixel cameras on the Revolution and the Bionic, and neither were too impressive; the other two phones have 8-megapixel cameras, so cell phone photo enthusiasts may have better luck there.

Unfortunately, there's still a lot of information missing from the phones' profiles before we can make conclusive descisions about them, including whether they'll be able to update to future versions of Android. This is an issue manufacturers have struggled with, some more than others, and even promised updates are very slow in coming. Reps have likewise made themselves scarce on the topic of prices.

There are also no official release dates for any of the phones, though Verizon's goal is "to launch them sometime in the first half of this year," Verizon's Albert Aydin told Ars. All the new phones seem like they would be formidable opponents for the iPhone 4, which is stuck on Verizon's CDMA network. But if Apple's history of iPhone releases is any indication and manufacturers hold true to their midyear launch dates, an updated iPhone 5, not 4, may be the one they're up against.