Ok, I thought Sprint temperarily offered the kickstart plan. I called about it Thursday in fact, and the rep I talked to claimed he didn’t know anything about it, after typing it into the computer, and apparently asking someone in the “back office,” who supposedly had never heard of it either. > On Jun 18, 2018, at 8:16 PM, M. Taylor <[email protected]> wrote: > > Sprint and Verizon's latest deals offer still more definitions of > 'Unlimited' > By Rob Pegoraro, USA TODAY, Updated 2 hours ago > > New T-Mobile still distant 3rd place competitor > Industry analyst Jeff Kagan believes the Sprint, T-Mobile merger will make > the new company a 'distant' third place competitor positioning itself to > enter the crowded 5G, wireless tv market place. It won't transform the > industry, Kagan said. (April 30) > AP > The wireless industry's favorite word these days is "unlimited"-and the > carriers like it so much that they want more than one flavor of it. > Instead, they asterisk their unlimited plans with different exemptions, and > some also sell multiple "unlimited" plans that let customers choose from > varying levels of limits. > The latest examples: two new sales pitches from Verizon Wireless and Sprint, > the largest and fourth-largest among the big four. > At Verizon, the latest plot twist is last week's announcement of a third > unlimited plan geared to its most data-intensive users. The new Above > Unlimited plan, from $95 a month on one line to $60 a month for each of four > lines, will offer three upgrades from the carrier's $85 Beyond Unlimited > plan when it becomes available June 18: > .Above Unlimited raises the threshold for "deprioritization"--in which > Verizon may slow your connection if nearby cell sites suffer > congestion--from Beyond's 22 gigabytes to 75 GB. Both numbers far exceed > usage estimates by third parties; for instance, the research firm Strategy > Analytics' opt-in telemetry measured an average of 5.3 GB of data in > February among unlimited-data customers. > .Above allots 20 GB of full-speed mobile hotspot use, versus 15 GB for > Beyond. Exceed that--or use hotspot at all on the $75 Go Unlimited plan--and > you hit a 600 kbps speed limit that makes this "tethering" useless in > practice. > .Above comps five single-day $10 Travel Passes each month that provide > full-speed roaming in 130 countries. > .Finally, Above throws in 500 GB of Verizon cloud storage, which may tempt > some subscribers to stop paying $100 or more a year to Google, Microsoft, > Dropbox or Apple. > Verizon will also let family-plan subscribers combine these plans -- the > remote worker who tethers frequently doesn't have to pay for the same > service for kids without a laptop. > Sprint, meanwhile, went in a different direction by announcing a > very-limited-time offer--it expired at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Friday--to get > subscribers of other carriers to switch to Sprint. This Unlimited Kickstart > offering was priced at just $15 a month for a single line or $60 a month > combined for four. > But it also stripped out many features of Sprint's standard Unlimited > Freedom, which runs $60 monthly for a single line and, through next June, > $90 a month for four. This mades Kickstart look much like an airline's Basic > Economy airfare: > .You must pay full price for a phone from Sprint or bring your own device to > the carrier; its lease deals didn't qualify. Best way to avoid that: Buy > direct from Apple or Google, both of which offer installment-payment plans. > .You get no hotspot use, versus the standard unlimited plan's 10 GB of > full-speed tethering. > .You lose Freedom's comped limited-commercials Hulu online-TV subscription. > .Kickstart imposes stingier limits on streaming-media quality--in > particular, throttling video to a DVD's 480p resolution, while Freedom > allows 1080p high-definition streaming. > Note that both Verizon and Sprint's new plans require enabling automatic > payments to get these rates, although neither demands a long-term contract. > The other two carriers, AT&T and T-Mobile (which is seeking regulatory > approval to merge with Sprint), have not announced any comparable switch-ups > with their current unlimited-data plans, although AT&T did announce a July > increase in the rate of the legacy unlimited-data plan (voice and text not > included) it stopped selling in 2010 from $40 to $45 a month. > But the wireless industry's recent, fiercely-competitive history suggests we > haven't seen the last of this story cycle; stay tuned and keep your phone > charged. > (Disclosure: I also write for Yahoo Finance, a property of Verizon's Oath > media division.) > Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. To submit a tech > question, e-mail Rob at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at > twitter.com/robpegoraro > Originally Published 10:50 a.m. PDT June 17, 2018 > Updated 2 hours ago > > Original Article at: > https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2018/06/17/sprint-verizons-lat > est-deals-offer-more-definitions-unlimited/708629002/ > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: > [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at > [email protected] > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
-- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
