Sprint’s Not-So Secret Weapon: iPhone Unlimited Data Streaming

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Sprint is already behind AT&T and Verizon when it comes to getting the iPhone into the hands of its wireless customers, but when it finally begins selling a new version of the device in October – supposedly the iPhone 5 -, it will reportedly offer something that neither competitor can boast: unlimited data.

According to Bloomberg, the long-awaited arrival of the iPhone on Sprint, the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier, will be accompanied by an unlimited data plan at a flat fee, allowing customers to browse the web, download apps and watch streaming videos with abandon.

It’s not yet known how much the fee will be, but Sprint currently offers voice and unlimited data plans for Android and Blackberry smartphones at $99.99 a month.

Sprint is hoping the move can reverse the decline of its wireless business: The company has recorded 15 consecutive quarters of losses, but its unlimited data plans for the other phones have actually been a tremendous boon, attracting 1.1 million new subscribers in the second quarter.

Selling an unlimited data plan for the iPhone is likely to exert pressure on rivals AT&T and Verizon, which are currently the only two major U.S. carriers that offer the device, to consider re-adopting unlimited data plans of their own.

Such data intensive operations place a tremendous load on a wireless network’s overall capacity, which is why AT&T, which originally offered unlimited data plans for $30 a month when it became the first carrier in the world to sell the iPhone in 2007, eliminated the offer in June 2010. The company replaced it with a tiered data plan that offered customers a choice of paying $15 for using 200 MB of data a month, or $25 for 2 GB a month. Customers who exceed those amounts of data are charged additional fees.

In January, it quietly relaxed those rules, allowing customers who had previously enjoyed unlimited data to switch back and begin paying $30 a month again, but it currently doesn’t offer the service to new customers.

Some speculated that AT&T initiated the switchback at that time because it was feeling the heat from Verizon’s impending sale of the iPhone beginning in February.

When the iPhone hit Verizon, the nation’s largest wireless carrier, it too initially offered a $30-a-month unlimited data plan (though unlike AT&T’s iPhone, Verizon customers couldn’t – and still can’t – carry on telephone calls while browsing the Internet).

Like AT&T, Verizon soon gave up on the idea in July, replacing it with its own tiered system, wherein customers could pay either $30 for 2 GB a month, $50 for 5 GB and $80 for 10 GB. Existing unlimited data users were allowed to keep their plans.

We’ve reached out to AT&T and Verizon to see if they have any plans to re-introduce unlimited data plans to all customers and will update when we receive a response.

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