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| Boost Mobile to Offer Nationwide Unlimited on IDEN | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 30 2008, 10:52 PM (167 Views) | |
| offthegrid | Oct 30 2008, 10:52 PM Post #1 |
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So do they go lower than Virgin Mobile on this or throw in their turtle data and free text at the same price? Should be interesting as the high usage prepaid plans continue to get more and more competitive. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/081030/20081030006571.html Sprint to Rejuvenate Nextel National Network Thursday October 30, 5:33 pm ET -- Diverse roadmap of new handsets for 2008-2009 enhances customer choice -- Sprint and Motorola(R) extend long-term network partnership -- Customers enjoy industry's only national sub-second push-to-talk experience with Nextel Direct Connect(R) and productivity solutions OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sprint (NYSE:S - News) today reiterated its continuing commitment to the Nextel National Network and offering greater choice and flexibility to its customers. After careful review of the iDEN business, Sprint intends to retain and rejuvenate this important asset. As part of that commitment, Sprint and Motorola have extended their long-term partnership to provide enhanced network and infrastructure support, including software upgrades, and to provide the best products and services to customers. “The iDEN network is a key differentiator for Sprint, as it allows us to offer products and services no other carrier in the industry can match. We continue to build on our support for our industry-leading push-to-talk Nextel Direct Connect franchise through our aggressive marketing efforts which exploit the unique features and functionality of the iDEN network,” said Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint. “In 2008, we expanded our product portfolio with a new line of Sprint phones, which combine industry-leading push-to-talk with the ultra-fast speed of Sprint Mobile Broadband (EV-DO Rev. A) and Sprint’s largest voice coverage, offering greater choice and flexibility to our customers. We are focusing on plans to continue our push-to-talk leadership and bring more innovation to our customers going forward.” “Motorola has had a long and successful strategic relationship with Sprint, and we look forward to further strengthening this partnership,” said Sanjay Jha, co-chief executive officer and CEO of Mobile Devices, Motorola. “With its unique experience and functionality, iDEN has a loyal customer base and will continue to be an important part of Motorola’s portfolio. We actively support Sprint’s initiative and share its commitment and enthusiasm for the iDEN network.” In addition to the Motorola agreement, Sprint’s rejuvenation plans include these elements: A Powerful Handset Line-up On Nov. 2, Sprint will launch the Motorola i576, and later this year, will debut the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8350i smartphone. These devices allow customers to access the benefits of the only national sub-second call-set-up solution in the market, Nextel Direct Connect, Sprint’s premier, industry-leading push-to-talk (PTT) offering, as well as Bluetooth and GPS. In addition, Sprint plans to launch a total of eight new Nextel Direct Connect handsets as part of its new device portfolio in 2009, with five expected to launch during the first half of the year. With Nextel Direct Connect on Sprint handsets, customers can also enjoy lightning-quick broadband services, such as sending large data/video files and multicast capabilities. Sprint’s industry-leading next-generation push-to-talk services are available on the LX400 by LG®, Z400 by Samsung®, Pro 200 by Sanyo®, Pro 700 by Sanyo® and Motorola® Renegade™ V950 in select markets. Refocusing Boost Mobile In addition, Boost Mobile, Sprint’s prepaid business, is being refocused to compete aggressively for customers impacted by the current economic environment with a lower per-minute rate and other attractive pricing options. Boost Mobile offers phones and pre-paid services with no long-term contracts, credit checks or activation fees, primarily on the Nextel National Network. In early 2009, Boost Mobile plans to introduce Boost Unlimited on the iDEN network, offering a nationwide home calling area for one monthly fee – an excellent value in today’s economic times. Best-Ever Network Metrics with Feature Rich Business Solutions “Exclusively on the Nextel National Network, customers have the largest selection of military-specification-compliant, rugged devices, as well as an ecosystem of rich business solutions including GPS, inventory and fleet management, dispatch operations and workforce management,” said Danny Bowman, president of Sprint’s iDEN business unit. “In addition, we have invested billions of dollars in the iDEN network over the past several years, adding thousands of cell sites to bolster capacity and coverage. As a result, our customers on the Nextel National Network enjoy the fewest number of dropped calls in the industry.” The Nextel National Network, performing at best-ever levels, serves the largest community of Nextel Direct Connect subscribers on the fastest national push-to-talk network, more than 16 million at the end of second quarter 2008. Sprint is the leading wireless provider for business (based on an independent survey of corporate-liable users) and also supports assigned sales and care representatives and vertical-solutions experts in each region of the country |
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| Ian | Oct 31 2008, 06:14 AM Post #2 |
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Nice to see, though Boost and Virgin Mobile are both from basically the same company (albeit Virgin owning part of VMobile). |
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| offthegrid | Nov 6 2008, 07:53 PM Post #3 |
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$60 for unlimited voice and text according to this but its an analyst making the claim. http://urgentcomm.com/networks_and_systems/news/sprint-revive-iden-1105/ |
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| Ian | Nov 10 2008, 03:35 PM Post #4 |
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Doubt it'd not include chirp, and doubt it'd be that inexpensive. But we'll see... |
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| offthegrid | Nov 13 2008, 10:40 PM Post #5 |
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Boost Unlimited is $70 a month right now and thats with everything but the nationwide roaming (a feature whose cost to the network is dubious) so I'm betting an all in package comes in at $70 to $75 plus tax and fees. That would put tremendous pressure on Virgin and Net10 to lower their rates. Well Virgin anyway, I'm not sure Net10 is serious about their product there never was any type of rollout just leaked on the web. |
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| Ian | Nov 14 2008, 09:56 PM Post #6 |
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Not so sure about Virgin Mobile...they're partly owned by Sprint last time I checked, so I wouldn't think they would directly compete with Boost. OTOH Boost still has a network footprint different than Sprint's CDMA network. |
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| mharris127 | Nov 15 2008, 12:56 AM Post #7 |
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I have to agree with OTG that Net10 just barely marketed their unlimited plan, figuring if they picked up 100 or so customers that it would be all profit. I hope the Boost iDen version of unlimited is competitive and that it knocks the socks off of postpaid plans. |
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| offthegrid | Nov 15 2008, 08:07 PM Post #8 |
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Virgin was supposed to have taken a chunk of their IPO money and paid Sprint to knock their ownership position down to 17%. I haven't delved that deep into their corporate reports to verify that but I'm betting that it happened. The downside to IDEN is the network itself. It was designed as a two way radio network with the telephone capabilities as secondary. Boost Unlimited will soon over run the network next year and push the IDEN business users away both from a congestion point and some from a status point. Actually they have to position it lower because the network is so bad. Text delays, callers can't be reached and data under 20k? What century is this? Say anything like that in the Nextel forum and prepare for castigation. Whatever they do it will spice up the product. If they match Virgin for unlimited what if they drop their other plan rates lower than Virgin? Virgin still has 20 cpm for a no fee rate whereas Boost is now a dime. Theres a lot in the middle between unlimited and a dime. Just a side to mharris if Net10 had a qwerty phone that plan would be selling gangbusters. I'm surprised they haven't come up with a bring your own phone flash to Net10 deal yet. Best native coverage, long battery life for gsm phones especially gprs ones and a low package price. The phones are what is missing. But we agree there never was any serious effort to roll it out. |
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| Ian | Nov 16 2008, 09:14 AM Post #9 |
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THe problem with Net10 is the firmware is pretty darned proprietary. Though i'd agree that if they had a texting phone of some sort (maybe something from Pantech) the plan would sell like hotcakes. Basically if you use more than 900 minutes per month you're better off with Net10 than even Sprint...and Sprint's text and data plans are quite competitive. Plus it's prepaid. But yeah, Boost Mobile alone is responsible for a lot of iDEN congestion. unlimited at a bargain-basement price will just plain kill the network. Unless of course they intro hybrid-style phones that use CDMA for voice. Then again, is it just me or is CDMA having capacity issues (fast busy) up here? |
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| offthegrid | Nov 16 2008, 09:37 PM Post #10 |
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When Forsee originally announced Boost Unlimited he said they would roll it out in limited markets where they had excess CDMA capacity and only in markets where Metro and Cricket did not already have a presence. Then they went out and instead went head to head with Metro and Cricket but still only in limited markets. The product never got out of beta because Forsee was a lame duck. I have to believe that the product had a cannibalizing effect on their postpaid customer base. Not everyone needs to roam nationwide. The carriers have used that to raise rates. Based on other areas if Boost Unlimited had been rolled out in my area it likely would have included Sprints New England native coverage area which would meet my needs 98% of the time so why pay $100 a month when I could get away with $70? The other possibility is that the product caused congestion on the cdma network something Sprint could ill afford. I think the new deal is just to put more traffic on the IDEN network and set the company up as a whole to be sold. Vodafone could sell their share in Verizon buy Sprint and have tens of millions cash leftover. |
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1:09 PM Nov 26
