A Change in the Game Plan: Sprint Abruptly Ends Unlimited 4G Data for Mobile Hotspots

 Now that the Era of Unlimited Mobile Broadband Data Has Ended – What does this Mean for Mobile Hotspot Owners and Buyers?

On the week of October 15, 2011 a somewhat low key press release went out to the media from Sprint that basically announced it will be ending the policy of  unlimited 4G data subscription plans as of November 1, 2011 for both existing and newly incoming subscribers for all Sprint mobile broadband data plans, including mobile hotspots, that Sprint offers. Interestingly, Sprint went on to explain that smart phones (ie. their newly on sale Sprint iPhone 4S) would still be still to allow unlimited 4G upload and download over it’s 4G WiMAX network.

Out of all the mobile technology related devices that have been impacted from this announcement, mobile hotspots are clearly the most profoundly affected.  What this means is that there are no longer any options available from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint for UNLIMITED 3G or 4G data.

We assume that a large percentage of Sprint’s mobile hotspot customers over the past 2 years were enticed to sign up with Sprint 4G, primarily due to their (formerly) unlimited 4G policy. Why else would users willingly lock themselves into 2 year Sprint contracts, when  Sprint’s relatively “outdated” and slower-than-its-competition 4G WiMAX network is up against the cutthroat competition of Verizon and AT&T, who’s 4G networks are significantly better performing, as well as less expensive? Perhaps it was in exchange for the not having the worry of exceeding data download limits. What do Sprint mobile hotspot and data modem users do now?

Up until this announcement, Sprint has extensively marketed and used the unlimited 4G data plan as a way to carve its niche, especially the 4G market for mobile hotspot and data modem users. With this new, “capped” monthly download limit, customers are now severely restricted in their offerings for high-capacity, yet reasonably priced  4G service by way of a service contract, again, this holds especially true for mobile hotspots, which by nature allow up to five people to share one single data plan.

Sprint iPhone 4S: Did it Have Impact on Decision to Terminate Unlimited 4G Data Offerings?....Duh!!

Perhaps, the very recent and sudden addition of the Sprint iPhone 4S to Sprint’s bandwidth capacity may have put the network stress issues to the forefront.  Would the iPhone 4S send their WiMAX 4G  network over the edge with the (hoped for) mass influx of new iPhone subscribers flooding Sprint cell towers?  - OR - perhaps it is a desperate move by Sprint to soak their mobile broadband users (while they still can) with nasty data overage charges to help pay for the $20 billion worth of iPhone's they essentially pre-purchased from Apple not too long ago?

Who knows, but in either case, Sprint’s decision has altered the wireless broadband ecosystem in ways not seen before, at least in the post-3G era. In our opinion, this now puts Sprint at a severe disadvantage compared to the other national mobile providers when it comes to mobile broadband offerings, especially wireless 4G, as the core benefits and disadvantages of their data subscriptions are now radically altered. These are the facts that worry us:

a)  Sprint’s data plans are actually more expensive than just about all of the other competing provider plans “bit for bit” – especially when data overage charges are assessed. Today’s mobile broadband consumers, to a large part, have welcomed a mobile broadband rate tier of “50 Bucks for 5 Gig's on 4G”. Sprint offers 5GB of combined 4G/3G for a higher rate of $60 per month.

b) Sprint no longer has the unique selling proposition of being the only provider to offer unlimited data to entice prospective customers, along with the hopes that “unlimited 4G data” would take the spotlight attention off the relatively lackluster speeds seen on their WiMAX 4G networks across the country, especially when compared to Verizon LTE, and lastly.

c) Sprint seems to have sold its soul for the chance to grab a few million iPhone smart phone monthly subscribers, and seems to have abandoned its roots of offering quality, unlimited high speed mobile access to it’s mobile broadband and mobile hotspot customers.

Sprint.com message boards are reportedly bombarded with messages of users complaining about their difficulties in canceling their mobile hotspot data plans without early termination penalty (ETP) – some subscribers have enrolled for several years, others only as short as a few days. 

After reviewing Sprint contract terms closely, mobilehotspot.com attests that all Sprint mobile broadband customers have the right to ETP-free cancellations of their mobile broadband plans, should they desire,  as the removal of unlimited data options is clearly a "material contract change" (one of the clauses that allow a penalty free escape clause) .

It is truly one of the most puzzling corporate strategies we have seen, effectively lopping off a corporations only clear and unique selling proposition (unlimited 4G data), when all of your competitors have faster networks, denser coverage, more advanced 4G technology, and better financial prospects for future network investments.

Sprint 3G and 4G Data Overage Fees

As for current and prospective Sprint mobile broadband data subscribers, we want to point out the egregiously priced Sprint 4G and 3G data “overage charges” for its data plans that Sprint mobile hotspot subscribers MUST be on-guard from, this point onward.

As mentioned, mobile hotspots are likely the most severely affected by potential data overuse, simply by their intended use and nature.  Without a close and watchful eye, Sprint mobile hotspots can run past the 5 GB monthly data limit, especially now that Sprint 3G and 4G use is bundled as one single total for the “combined” monthly use.  This can lead to shocking high monthly bills.

We are guessing that many mobile hotspot data plan shoppers  may glance at the Sprint overage rates of a nickel per megabyte as "not too bad", but add this up BIG TIME in the real world, were mobile hotspot owners typically deal with “giga” bytes, not “mega” bytes.  Sprint’s actual data overage rate is an Unbelievable $50 bucks per gigabyte of overage!  Although Sprint will alert the user that the rate has been exceeded, unlike T-Mobile, Sprint does not throttle the bandwidth when it breaches the overage point. This sounds well and good, but it’s probably much easier than it should be to rack up an additional gigabyte here and there, if you’re not on the lookout.

With so many ways to forget that  the “water is slowly running in the bathroom sink”  when it comes to high speed downloads that have substantial data volumes – think Netflix  HD streaming, Pandora and BitTorrent for examples -  with careless oversight, that small flow of water soon enough could  rack up a $400 monthly bill  (Talk about a  virtual “4 foot flood  in the basement” !!)

What Now for Sprint Mobile Broadband?

In all fairness to Sprint, they have shareholders to answer to at the end of the day – and they are not in business simply to make life of 4G broadband data-hogs easy and cheap. There is a tremendous need to preserve the integrity of their networks for the balance of ALL of their customers in aggregate, or so to speak “the needs of the many outweigh wants of the few”.  We assume Sprint figures that there are relatively few mobile hotspot and other data plan users who legitimately need high-volume 4G bandwidth, and perhaps does not approve of the idea of “4G as a replacement to wired broadband”, but there is a true and real need of users in rural area that have been under-served with wired broadband, and who have been using Sprint 4G in a responsible manner as their primary gateway to the internet, Video-on-Demand and VOIP solutions for a while -  concept that for the last two years has been almost solely dependent on Sprint’s own introduction of Unlimited WiMAX mobile broadband.

The bottom line is, mobilehotspot.com editorial staff is in a bit of a quandary in terms of how to help its readers choose whether or not a Sprint mobile hotspot will be an appropriate value for them and a worthy investment for up to the next two years, when they sign a Sprint service contract. Due to the recent cancelation  of the Sprint unlimited data options, at this time mobilehotspot.com cannot recommend mobile hotspots with Sprint 4G WiMAX data plans in situations where Verizon LTE or AT&T HPSA+ 4G are similarly available. This sadly affects the MiFi 4082, an otherwise fantastic piece of hardware in of itself.

All’s not lost the Sprint however -  In mobilehotspot.com’s goal to recommend useful products and services that mobile hotspots by shoppers are looking for, Sprint is one of the most prolific companies when it comes to wholesaling their 3G data services. What this means is Sprint will sell or lease large swaths of 3G broadband bandwidth to external independent companies, Virgin mobile USA being one of the biggest. In turn these 3G mobile hotspot resellers package some really great prepaid, or pay-as-you-go mobile hotspot offerings. One of our favorite the Virgin mobile MiFi 2200 3G Broadband2go . Sprint’s 3G network is tried and true, and as robust as any other nationwide provider. In other words, while mobilehotspot.com cannot recommend the  MiFi 4082 4G WiMAX mobile hotspot to the same buyers  as before the end of unlimited data, we can point you in the direction of some excellent 3G mobile hotspots, which operate on Sprints 3G networks.

So might be wondering “what now?”

If you've been on the fence about selecting the best mobile hotspot, the good news is there's plenty of awesome choices out there, a multitude data plans to suit virtually all budgets, and even one "unlimited" (with a caveat) mobile hotspot data plan from T-Mobile, the ZTE MF61 that does technically offer unlimited monthly usage, but significantly throttles downloads of 4G speeds all the way down to 2G when the monthly  cap is reached -  clearly not  the most tasty choice for speed, but still connectivity nonetheless with no additional overage fees.

In light of the recent contract term change from the Sprint on their mobile broadband data plans, we had to carefully reassess our top five list of 4G mobile hotspots, starting with our number one pick.

After all data plans, hardware, pricing, usability, and performance factors were considered, MobileHotspot.com choose the Samsung SCH-LC11 Mobile Hotspot on Verizon 4G LTE as MobileHotspot.com Editors Choice for 4G mobile hotspots.

MobileHotspot.com Editors Choice for Overall Best 4G Mobile Hotspot:

The Samsung SCH-LC11 on Verizon LTE 4G.

MobileHptspot.com’s number one pick that we can comfortably and confidently recommend to one the widest segments of potential mobile hotspot buyers is the Samsung SCH-LC 11, powered by Verizon's 4G LTE network. The LC11 hotspot is the Dodge Viper of Mobile Hotspots- absolutely incredible when it comes to speeds and performance, but pretty stripped-down to a fairly “bare-bones” level when it comes to onboard hardware features. With the LC11 you get pretty much just the basics: the ability to get online, administer and manage the hotspot through a web based interface, but since there is no visual display panel on the device, device management is done through a web browser. Also absent from the device by the ability to set up USB tethering, as well as a Micro-SD based on board memory slot and external antenna.

While it might sound incongruent that the Samsung SCH-LC11 is the Mobile Hotspot.com choice for Overall Best 4G Mobile Hotspot in light of the absent features that are standard on most other mobile hotspots, we are still enthusiastically  confident that you will absolutely love the Verizon SCH-LC11 4G mobile hotspot, simply for the fact that it does what a great mobile hotspot is supposed to do -  to get online quickly and easily, while efficiently sharing a single 4G subscription with up to five devices at one… with one of the most incredibly fast web downloads and uploads that has ever been seen on mobile broadband device, is just icing on the cake.

The 150 foot Wi-Fi radius of the SCH-LC11 is significantly larger than other portable hotspots in the same class we’ve tested. Battery life is not spectacular, averaging about 2 1/2 hours per full-charge, but keep in mind with speeds that are near or exceeding wired home broadband, you probably don't need to be online in a connected state (where the battery is being drawn from) nearly as much as you would with slower devices, so the somewhat shorter battery life is a wash, especially if you're dealing with the transfer of large files.

Additionally, we are quite pleased with Verizon's 4G LTE data plan offerings. To make matters simple, Verizon offers just two 4G data plans $50 per month for 5 GB or $85 per month for 10 GB. Overages are assessed at $10 per gigabyte, which is not too bad. Verizon was the only company that foresaw the need for LTE deployments in such a robust fashion, and started building out their nationwide LTE 4G networks in over 100 metro areas with roughly half the US population, now within LTE coverage areas.

To recap the reasons why mobilehotspot.com recommends the Samsung SCH-LC11 4G mobile hotspot for Verizon LTE:

• Reasonable prices and tiers on 4G LTE data plans, not “great”, but also not materially higher than the competition. At $50 per month for 5GB and $85 per month for 10GB, this works out to a penny or less per megabyte. Pretty reasonable when you break it down that way.
• Fair and equitable overage fees – simply priced at 10 bucks per gigabyte. Granted, one gigabyte billing increments may not sound all that fair when you  compare Sprint’s policy of billing overuse in increment of megabytes (1/1000^th of a gigabyte), but the 1 cent per megabyte price is FAR less than Sprint’s 5 cents per megabyte overage (which works out for $50 per gigabyte for Sprint!)
• NO other wireless network approaches the mind blowing, raw performance of Verizon 4G LTE’s download, upload and network ping speeds. With realistic and verifiable download speeds between 6 Mbps and 15+ Mbps, Verizon 4G LTE is LITERALLY 2 to 5 times faster than ANY other competitor – regardless of network technology.

One of the reasons MobileHotspot.com is so enthusiastic with its recommendation as Editors Choice for 4G mobile hotspots, is largely due to the strength of the Verizon’s part of the Verizon/Samsung partnership. Verizon’s 4G LTE network is incredibly well suited for mobile hotspots in general. No recommendation can be complete without honestly disclosing all the substantial negatives of the “mobile hotspot” – after all, for all practical purposes, a  mobile hotspot more than just a piece of hardware, but rather a pairing of service and product that makes a mobile hotspot standout from the crowd. 

Mobilehotspot.com wants to especially make clear that the Samsung SCH-LC11 Mobile Hotspot may NOT be best option or value for folks who:

• Do not live, or typically will use the  SCH-LC11 mobile hotspot in areas where 4G TE is not available, or will not be coming online in the near term. See this link to view the Verizon 4G LTE coverage map.

• Ultra fast speed is simply not your number one priority; other factor more important, such as a mobile hotspot device packed with features (which the SCH-LC11 does not have – see below) or longer battery run times.

• You need a mobile hotspot with meaningful and strongly functioning features. The SCH-LC11 does not have a status display panel to report important info such as signal and battery strength. The SCH-LC11 also does not have an external antenna connection or the on board Micro-SD memory slot for separate file storage, as does the MiFi 4G.  In general, for users who place more value on hardware features over network functions, the SCH-LC11 may not be their best bet.

• You need a mobile hotspot with maximum battery life, typically upward of 4 hours of in-use duration. The Samsung SCH-LC11 battery will have typical “in-use” duration of about 2 ½ hours, and is among the lowest of all 4G mobile hotspot. (Great looking and well engineered replacement batteries exist that the can allow the SCH-LC11 to run up to 8 hours, click here for more info). And lastly, you need 4G speed, BUT you are far from a “heavy user”, and would not come close to eating up 5GB’s inside a month AND you don’t want to spend $50 a month, which is the lowest price offered by Verizon (for 5G of bandwidth per month). T-Mobile has lower tier plans which offer 4G at prices of $30 to $40 per month (allowing between 300MB and 2GB of high speed 4G 

  In conclusion, with the sudden end of “all you can eat” mobile broadband, comes the reflection of “what’s the best 4G mobile hotspot now?”. As usual, it’s impossible to answer such a question in black and white, but with all things considered, we feel the Samsung SCH-LC11 Mobile Hotspot on Verizon 4G LTE currently offers the best mix of mobile 4G broadband service and set of well matched hardware, and ultimately will offer the most satisfactory user experience at a reasonable long-term cost for years to come.

CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST PRICE ON A NEW SAMSUNG SCH-LC11 MOBILE HOTSPOT ON VERIZON 4G LTE

MobileHotspot.com Editorial Staff - Oct 25, 2011