Sprint Nextel Corp. announced today that it is raising its 3G data plans by $10. Sprint's wildly-successful Simply Everything plan has been an asset for their customers as virtually the cheapest all-you-can-eat plan in the U.S. For $69.99, Sprint customers could get a quality Android phone along with unlimited data, voice, and text. For an increasingly reliable Sprint network, this was a great deal and was one of the few reasons for people to choose Sprint over some of the larger Verizon and AT&T networks. Sprint began to chip away at this deal last spring with the introduction of the Evo 4G. Because it was capable of using their 4G WiMAX network, they charged an extra $10 for "premium data services" whether or not you lived in a 4G city. Since the launch of the Evo, Sprint has not released a single high-end Android phone that didn't use 4G, essentially making the most desirable tier of data a $79.99 plan. In many ways, Sprint is simplifying (oh, the irony) the issue today by requiring the $79.99 monthly price. It's seemed for months that they were moving this direction anyway.
Hopefully this won't hurt Sprint in the long run. For all of AT&T's network issues, Sprint is still considered the third carrier in the U.S. and people will want to know why their plans are edging closer and closer to Verizon and AT&T. The other issue is that for Sprint to raise these rates and justify it with the same "premium data services" excuse, it isn't likely to make customers happy. They probably should just call it what it is; a data hike by the carrier that depends upon its identity as a bargain network.