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Here's Hesse saying 4G is free again

Yeah, from what I understand it's not the "4G" you are paying the $10.00 per month extra, it's uncapped data usage. I think Sprint is assuming that with 4G speeds, people will be using over 5 gigs per moth of data.

Personally, if my extra $10.00 per month will ultimately ensure that I get faster internet speeds and an improved network within a reasonable amount of time, I'm all for it. Upgrading a nationwide network cannot be cheap. I don't want to be in a situation like iPhone users on AT&T with poor data coverage caused (at least in part) by an overloaded network.

And not for nothing, you don't want to be like that guy that got the $18,000.00 bill for data usage from Verizon. It only took 5 years of fighting in the court system to finally settle that.
 
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we are ultimately paying for the future. we all pay the $10 now and eventually when all other carriers jump on the 4G bandwagon there will be competition. at which point that $10 will most likely disappear. the $10 we pay now will ensure us a good foot forward when the time comes. i just hope sprint will acknowledge that we, the few, the proud, the mar... oops. chose to help push them to the top.
 
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that or it gives competitors an excuse to charge 10-15 for their 4g services as well, sprint set the wrong model here, im dissapointed

agreed, since sprint is the first to come out, they're setting a model (the wrong one) for other carriers when they release their 4g. i doubt verizon, att and tmobile will provide their 4g for free once they're out.
 
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agreed, since sprint is the first to come out, they're setting a model (the wrong one) for other carriers when they release their 4g. i doubt verizon, att and tmobile will provide their 4g for free once they're out.

true but Sprint already leads the way with uncapped data. Tmobile and ATT have the advantage to see all the grief that Sprint will get for "paid" 4G. noone will want to pay MORE than $10 at that time. meaning they will either be the same price or lower. at which pont we will see Sprit lower or even null the price.
 
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I still dont get how people think that these companies dont care about profits.
I dont know for sure how much is spent putting up the 4g towers and all the things needed to make it work.
It its stupid to think that they will give that for free with how much money they spent.
They are not google they dont run on advertisement giving us faster internet does not directly benefit them other then having more people wanting to get it. And i am sorry but i dont think that alone will pay the bills and also put out a profit.
 
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I still dont get how people think that these companies dont care about profits.
I dont know for sure how much is spent putting up the 4g towers and all the things needed to make it work.
It its stupid to think that they will give that for free with how much money they spent.
They are not google they dont run on advertisement giving us faster internet does not directly benefit them other then having more people wanting to get it. And i am sorry but i dont think that alone will pay the bills and also put out a profit.

Then the CEO shouldn't have said it. Period.
 
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I still dont get how people think that these companies dont care about profits.
I dont know for sure how much is spent putting up the 4g towers and all the things needed to make it work.
It its stupid to think that they will give that for free with how much money they spent.
They are not google they dont run on advertisement giving us faster internet does not directly benefit them other then having more people wanting to get it. And i am sorry but i dont think that alone will pay the bills and also put out a profit.

Funny thing is geeks and gadget-hounds all tend to be anti-corporate anti-business and anti-profit... yet the "profit motive" (aside from war and space travel (which were both also extreme forms of competition)) has spurred every major technological innovation in the last couple hundred years .. and if we were to remove business and allow the government to take over.. we'd be stuck in the 1700's and instead of EVO's we'd be talking about the latest milk churner

Keep in mind, especially those of you who said Sprint is setting a bad model precidence with the start of the $10 "media experience" charge, that Sprint offers the best voice/data/feature rich plans of any carrier... I got the $99 plan when it came out and moved to the $69 plan when they started that... and trust me 450 minutes are way too much for me as it is since I only really call cells during the day.

I come from a long military satellite communications background and we had equipment from the 70's, and I remember swapping out equipment cards in amplifiers, antennas, up/down converters etc... and they cost anywhere from $500 to easily $10,000 and all the way up to $100,000 each, albeit a lot of it was crypto and highly sensetive, but that doesn't change the fact that you have to fund infrastructure, employees, pentions, gas for maint vehicles, electricity, corporate stores, leases to hardware and phone/data lines, increased fiber lines to cell cites for data connections, training, and on and on and on.... its not cheap... so to add $10 and still pay less than any other service for the features we get, get over it.. go get an iPhone 3g and pay easily over $120 for less features and worse coverage

In other words.. stop bitching... take what you get.. and if you don't want to pay the $10, stop acting like you're entitled to 4g service and go find another service... or just pay it.. still get a better deal.. and get over it :)
[/rant]
 
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I still dont get how people think that these companies dont care about profits.
I dont know for sure how much is spent putting up the 4g towers and all the things needed to make it work.
It its stupid to think that they will give that for free with how much money they spent.
They are not google they dont run on advertisement giving us faster internet does not directly benefit them other then having more people wanting to get it. And i am sorry but i dont think that alone will pay the bills and also put out a profit.

Yes, Sprint reps have confirmed that it is a mandatory charge whether you're in 4G or not.
 
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Funny thing is geeks and gadget-hounds all tend to be anti-corporate anti-business and anti-profit... yet the "profit motive" (aside from war and space travel (which were both also extreme forms of competition)) has spurred every major technological innovation in the last couple hundred years .. and if we were to remove business and allow the government to take over.. we'd be stuck in the 1700's and instead of EVO's we'd be talking about the latest milk churner...
Let me just stop you right there...

It was only after the government stepped in and broke up AT&T's very profitable monopoly that we started getting innovations in the telecom industry.

We went for over 100 years with basically no advancement whatsoever in that industry. As soon as the government broke up the AT&T monopoly, we had much better phones, fax machines, dial up modems, broadband modems, caller ID, and cell phones. And these are all common devices with average citizens owning most or even all of them. And this all happened within 10 or 20 years (if even that) of the government intervention.

AT&T had plenty of profit incentive. The innovation came as a result of competition (which there is less and less competition in the American Wireless industry- see the FCC's recent report citing that over 60% of all the customers and money are split between 2 companies, AT&T and Verizon- and both are growing every year).
 
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Let me just stop you right there...

It was only after the government stepped in and broke up AT&T's very profitable monopoly that we started getting innovations in the telecom industry.

We went for over 100 years with basically no advancement whatsoever in that industry. As soon as the government broke up the AT&T monopoly, we had much better phones, fax machines, dial up modems, broadband modems, caller ID, and cell phones. And these are all common devices with average citizens owning most or even all of them. And this all happened within 10 or 20 years (if even that) of the government intervention.

AT&T had plenty of profit incentive. The innovation came as a result of competition (which there is less and less competition in the American Wireless industry- see the FCC's recent report citing that over 60% of all the customers and money are split between 2 companies, AT&T and Verizon- and both are growing every year).

Thanks for making my point for me.. If you remember Ma' Bell was heavily subsidized by the government and also a government imposed monopoly... AT&T was also a government imposed monopoly for long distance... so anti-trust laws come in and break up a private business to .. wait for it... spur competition in the *PRIVATE* marketplace..

if you read my post... my point was that competition in the marketplace (remember deregulation of cable and phone services?) is good and that government OWNED AND RAN business are bad (since there's no profit motive and therefore no investors to please and therefore again no motive to innovate and make efficient) ... since the government doesn't fear bankruptcy and can just tax citizens and print money if they are failing (GM) there's no need for competition.. only competition in the government are against other governments (ie war such as the start of the internet with DARPA and space flight)...

so again.. you made my point for me.. thanks
 
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At first I was kinda pissed about the $10, but look at the alternatives on other carriers. It's still cheaper, faster and you can more than likely get the fee waived if you QQ enough, especially if you're a new customer within the first 30 day window.

I love that about Sprint.. if you talk to enough people eventually they will help you out... for my time with pacbell/cingular/at&t it was like pulling teeth to get any customer service..

not that sprint has always been that good.. up until about 2005 all customer service was outsourced to india and you couldn't understand them let alone get "mike smith" with a heavy indian accept to go outside of their script and give you some support... but after about 2005-2006 their customer service improved immensely. On top of that a quick email to Gary Forsee (back in the day) or Dan Hesse now always gets results :)
 
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Haven't you heard, we're not paying for 4G, we're paying for the "Premium Data" that the EVO uses.

Sprint could have done much better to advertise/showcase the $10 charge instead of leaving it open with such a vague and subjective description.

At this point, I'd rather hear Hesse say "Oh, my bad, lol, I said 4G was free, but then I realized it would cost money to roll it out for everybody!"
 
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it's not a full media experience unless it includes the sprint premium tv channels and free hotspot.

And what makes you entitled to this service? Its essentially a $60 data plan, for half that. So what makes you so special you deserve it? As someone stated, quit whining and pony up for the best phone in the wprld, or, don't get it. Simple.
 
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I've already said my peace over this issue. I'll come try the Evo for 30 days. If I like it, I keep it. If I don't, I'm bringing it back and go back to T-Mo for 59.99 a month for 500 minutes (I don't even use half of that), unlimited text, unlimited web, free weekends and nights.

Like I said before, it's not just about how much of a bargain the plan is, but will the $30 dollars more than T-Mo be justifiable for how I use the device? If I get more use of my phone because of 4G then great, I keep it, if not I'm back at T-Mo.

No more bitching for me, I'm just going in and test the waters for now.
 
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