Sprint Nextel cuts phone-as-modem pricing from $50 to $15 per month

Sprint Nextel Corp. is providing another possible incentive for customers to stick around, knocking $35 off one of its monthly plan offerings – but shoppers will need to check the fine print.
According to industry research firm Current Analysis, the carrier lowered its Phone as Modem add-on plan price from $50 to $15 per month. To take advantage of the new, lower price tag, customers must own a Power Vision (CDMA2000 1x EV-DO) phone with connection capabilities to their laptops.
However, the new pricing, which Current Analysis said would make customers sit up and notice, comes with strict requirements. Because the PAM option is an add-on feature, the $15 offer is only available alongside certain data plans, including the Sprint PRO Pack ($30 per month), Blackberry Personal Pack ($30 per month), Worldwide Blackberry Personal Pack ($70 per month), Primary Data Plan ($50 per month) and the Worldwide Data Plan ($70 per month).
“The attachable plan must be bought in conjunction with any one of three domestic or two global data plans for PDAs/smartphones, customers still have to shell out $45-85 a month (on top of a monthly voice plan) and it may still boost Sprint’s overall revenues. Before this, PAM was $49.99 standalone with no base plan requirements,” the report said.
Sprint Nextel’s other laptop data option is its PCS Connection Card plan that runs $60 per month. Both the PAM and data card options have a 5-gigabyte monthly data usage limit and a 300 megabyte off-network roaming usage limit.