U.S. Cellular: We’re unlimited too

Make room for one more on the dance floor. U.S. Cellular joined the army of national carriers that this week opened the floodgates on minutes by introducing unlimited calling plans for $100.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA Inc. all announced new unlimited calling plans for $100, but the latter took things further by including unlimited messaging.
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. Sprint Nextel’s plan, which was expanded to Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Tampa, Fla., in May 2007, includes voice calling, text messaging, data, e-mail and picture messaging for $120 a month.
A Sprint Nextel spokesperson said the carrier has no plans to roll out the offering nationwide and declined to comment on growing rumors about a cheaper unlimited plan or an unlimited voice and data plan in the works.
Wall Street has all but declared the move inevitable, however, assuming the carrier’s new CEO Dan Hesse is willing to take significant risks to put an end to the steady customer exodus the company’s been suffering of late. Carrier stocks have dipped a few percentage points since the unlimited war began, but that may be a reaction to expectations of a lower-cost offering from Sprint Nextel, which could force all carriers to drop prices even further.
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.