Sprint Nextel expands unlimited trial, competition adjusts

Sprint Nextel Corp. has extended its unlimited voice and data trials to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Tampa, Fla. and Philadelphia, branching out from its initial market in San Francisco.
The carrier has two unlimited plans available: a $120 per month plan with unlimited voice, text and data use, and a $150 per month plan that includes all of those options plus unlimited data access via a PC card. Sprint Nextel says the first plan represents monthly savings of $110 compared with regularly priced services, and the second is a savings of $140 per month.
The packs are available to customers who purchase a Sprint Nextel CDMA phone or a dual-mode CDMA/iDEN Powersource phone. Current Analysis analyst William Ho said in a research report that the expansion of the unlimited plan “suggests that the San Francisco trial is producing sufficiently positive metrics that the all-inclusive plan may have some legs outside the high-tech San Francisco market. . It may take some quarters to see the full effects, but with over two months’ worth of San Francisco operations experience, it looks good so far.”
Sprint Nextel’s unlimited offering is also available in Sacramento, Stockton, Redding and Modesto, Calif., as well as Reno, Nev.
Sprint Nextel also has recently begun experimenting with unlimited offerings through its Boost Mobile L.L.C. sub-brand in some Texas and California markets in an effort to better compete against flat-rate prepaid competitors such as MetroPCS Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc. The Boost unlimited offerings use Sprint Nextel’s CDMA network instead of the iDEN network where Boost runs its regular, prepaid service.
MetroPCS’ CEO and president Roger Linquist told analysts during the company’s quarterly call that, so far, the Boost unlimited offering hasn’t had much effect on the carrier’s metrics.
“To date, we have not seen any significant impact on our gross adds or increased churn outside of ordinary seasonal trends,” Linquist said.
However, the flat-rate carrier has tweaked its offerings in the markets where Boost is offering unlimited services, according to Ho. MetroPCS added at least one service-such as unlimited long distance, text and picture messaging or unlimited Web use-to each of its plans in the Texas and California markets where Boost is competing.