As a long time Sprint customer (and I did make the rounds before coming back to Sprint), I will say that their outrageously awful customer service issues are a recent problem.

The way I see it: some business school drop-out came up with the brilliant idea that the less phone time with customers, the better your company is doing. Worse yet, some witless overpaid executive approved it!

In fact, I heard a former employee mention that their pay is tied to the average time on the phone with any given customer: over 1.5 minutes = BAD.

The result: now you call with an issue, get transferred several times, spend more time on hold than with any living breathing rep, and often hang up without resolution.

Now they have the best "unlimited" deal in town. Other carriers have noted that they are not planning on matching the "unlimited data" portion of the dealio. This could give Sprint an edge, if they only fire those two idiots!.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it. =)

This might help Sprint get back some of the customers they lost but Sprint should had done a little better maybe $89 or $79 unlimited. I am waiting for one of the carriers to offer something like this on the first 2 lines and then maybe $20 per-a-month for each additional lines. Sprint needs to do something to get their consumer base back and just flowing the pack is not going to help.

If Sprint don't do something they will be going out of business in just a few years.
If I was running Sprint I would do things differently. Maybe just maybe if sprint does this the others will follow and we the users of cell service will end up being the winners.

They can price it however they want if their customer service remains the way it is I'll stay away.

Couldn't agreed more. I recently placed an order for the 29.99 SERO plan for a friend, when he activated his phone, the plan is a Sprint basic plan.

How mess up is that?

Sprint actually started the unlimited nationwide/roaming calling + everything for 1 price ($120) before the other carriers. And again Sprint is responsible for the everything for $99 deal, hopefully others will follow. I've never liked Sprint. I hate that when I try to call some friends/family on Sprint I'd get voicemail even though they were driving about or in their homes or in MY home (yeah, do a test and call your friends sprint phone, yes, the friend sitting beside you in your couch - 2 out of 7 times I'll bet you get that 'sprint customer can't be located crap), but I'm atleast appreciative that they've started the evolution in American cell service prices.
I live in SoFla so we're a bit used to 'unlimited' calling+data+txt with MetroPCS, but unlimited everything even while you're outside of your calling area (currently sofla to atl) is new to me....and I welcome it. I've been a Tmo customer for over 5 years and can't wait for them to match the sprint simply everything plan *though I don't have GPS or TV to look forward to on Tmo, yet :)*.

If you look at the big picture, none of them really compete against each other. I mean, if you are lock in for two years or else pay a huge termination fees, then there is no competition. And once you are lock, you get no customer service whatsoever. They always blame it on your, the customer are the cause of the problem. I believe only the telecomm company lock you in for long term contracts. Whether if it's phone or internet or TV. If you going to use Verizon DSL, except a lock in for 2 years contract. IF, in the near futures, they offer a high speed, and you want it, you have to extended your already long contract. Cable offer the same package, but without a contract.

Again - screwed by the fine print.
1. "unlimited" is a lie. If you use to much bandwidth they can turn off your service completely.
2. No teathering or phone-as-modem allowed.

Now look - if these low-life creeps can fix those two lies / issues / false-advertising problems then I just *might* move my service back to Sprint - otherwise, as I told the customer service rep a few months ago, they "can kiss my as_".

It's still not low enough. There is no justification for 100 bucks a month for unlimited mobile everything. NONE.

For decades now people have bought into the lie being spread by the phone companies about the "cost" associated with long distance, etc.

Long distance charges shouldn't even exist. With VOIP and the Internet, the phone companies can send their calls as data over the same lines you surf and download over, and everywhere should be a "local" call.

There is NO reason why a combined unlimited phone/internet service shouldn't cost any more than a paltry 50 bucks a month for anyone, anywhere in the world.

There is also no reason why anyone should be locked into a binding contract for telephone/internet services.

Why is it that only wireless telephone, sattelite tv, and DSL providers lock you into contracts? Why is it that I could go get cable tv and cable internet without requiring a contract to keep my business?

Why is it that we are probably nearest the bottom in internet speeds in the industrialized world when places overseas (Korea, Japan, Sweden, and most parts of Europe) all have faster internet, more choice of mobile providers and the lack of exclusivity (i.e. things like lock-in via device like the iPhone, etc) while their networks still remain solvent? Where's the justification for the prices and practices?

This is why the mobile phone/internet industry is in an uproar and panic here in the States. We consumers are now finally realizing that we're being robbed blind by this nickle-and-dime methodology.

This is very well stated and needs to be said. These companies are making BILLIONS of dollars of profits and gouging the eyeballs out of consumers in doing so.

With as many competitors as there are in this market, prices should be WAY lower across the board, than they are now at this point. I think someone in Congress needs to investigate the US cellular carries for callusion and price fixing.

"These companies are making BILLIONS of dollars of profits and gouging the eyeballs out of consumers in doing so."

Are you freakin' LITERATE?

Sprint _lost_ 29 BILLION BUCKS last year! Yeah it was largely a writedown from their horribly botched Nextel acquisition (and Sprint's management du jure problems didn't help) but they're blowing through cash. Before the results they announced the impending layoff of another 4000 employees (over the 5000 they dumped last year) and closing of over a hundred corporate stores. Since their results (and hey-hey-look-away-from-our-problems-shiny-new-plan handwaving) this week they've gone on to borrow 2+ billion buck line of credit to cover their bills.

So no, being a cell carrier isn't, as much as the outraged whining would have it, a license to mint money. If it was every bank, fund, and VC would be pumping money into new ones (and all of those new ones are folding pretty much monthly.)

Sprint and Nextel suck.. thats why theyre sinking. Good riddance.