It’s an unlimited industry now. but what about Sprint Nextel?: Top carriers tout limitless calling, await answer from nation’s No. 3 carrier

Come one and come all. Three of the nation’s top four wireless carriers now plan to offer unlimited voice calling for $100 month.
Verizon Wireless gets bragging rights for the being the first carrier yesterday to stick its neck out on the much-anticipated pricing model. But not to be outdone, AT&T Mobility announced an identical plan within a couple hours and, as the day came to a close, T-Mobile USA Inc. unleashed its own unlimited calling plan. However, T-Mobile outdid its larger competitors by throwing unlimited messaging into the mix for $100 per month, proud to carry on as the nationwide carrier with the lowest costs.
Sprint Nextel Corp. was the only tier-one carrier that didn’t show up for the nearly industry-wide rendition of Kumbaya around the campfire. And analysts took notice. The No. 3 carrier came out of the unlimited gate a year ago with a trial offering in San Francisco. It expanded the offering to Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Tampa, Fla., in May 2007. Sprint Nextel’s plan includes voice calling, text messaging, data, e-mail and picture messaging for $120 a month.
Sprint Nextel said it has no plans to roll out the offering nationwide and declined to comment on rumors about a cheaper unlimited plan or an unlimited voice and data plan in the works. Last week, before the barnstorming by its rivals, a Sprint Nextel spokesperson said the carrier is still trying to gauge consumer interest in the all-you-can-eat plans by selecting key markets in which to test the offering.
Regardless, analysts see the carrier’s continued silence as a missed opportunity.
Indeed, the only surprise in yesterday’s round of announcements was that Verizon was first and Sprint Nextel has yet to respond, wrote Ric Prentiss, a wireless analyst at Raymond James and Associates Inc., in a research note.
Prentiss said the firm believes Sprint Nextel is still planning to introduce a nationwide unlimited service, which may include the addition of data access.
“In essence, Sprint could start to offer a smorgasbord with both cold (voice) and hot (data) wireless products that might prove harder for competitors to match quite as quickly as yesterday’s $99 all-you-can-eat voice plans,” Prentiss wrote. “This is because T-Mobile is just now building out its 3G network from spectrum acquired in Auction 66, AT&T is still rolling out its 3G coverage, and we think Verizon’s 3G network is short on cell sites to guarantee high-speed data throughout the network.”
Prentiss concluded: “A smorgasbord offering would truly be a real game-changing event, versus just accelerating the commoditization of voice.”
The response
Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are jumping on the bandwagon as well. Boost Mobile and Helio L.L.C. each separately tweaked their unlimited plans earlier this month.
Cellular South responded to all the hoopla by highlighting its previously announced unlimited plan, which includes messaging and data at $80 for handsets or $100 for smartphones. Alltel Corp. followed suit, letting its public relations team remind observers about its recently expanded “My Circle” feature, which allows customers to call select numbers without pulling from their monthly bucket of minutes.
Interestingly, T-Mobile USA offers a similar plan called “myFaves,” yet it still felt compelled to follow suit with an unlimited offering.
“We believe that some form of unlimited pricing was inevitable for the industry, and that Verizon saw value in being the first mover in this regard. As with number portability, eliminating early termination fees, many data offerings and open access, Verizon maintains market leadership and cedes no marketing ground,” analyst Thomas Seitz wrote in a research note for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
The industry was tipped off to Verizon’s plan by bloggers last week, and the long weekend gave carriers the time they needed to respond, Seitz added.
Each of the carriers fell lock-in-step, albeit with a nice dose of competitive gamesmanship.
“The introduction of unlimited voice and data wireless plans is the beginning of a fundamental shift in how wireless carriers are structuring their plans. We believe Verizon preemptively introduced its unlimited pricing plan due to speculation last week that Sprint was going to announce its unlimited offering,” a team of analysts with Morgan Stanly & Co. Inc. wrote in a research note.
Verizon’s new unlimited plan is available now, T-Mobile’s will be available Feb. 21 and AT&T is opening the floodgates Feb. 22.
Interestingly, though, unlimited plans are nothing new to the industry. In 2002, AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which is now part of AT&T Mobility, introduced an unlimited calling plan for $100 a month to promote its new GSM/GPRS-based wireless network. The plan wasn’t nationwide, but included coverage anywhere in the country where the carrier had the new network in place.