Any idea if sprint has plans to revise the blackberry data rates?

Wirelessly posted (t-mobile pearl: BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

None that I've heard of.

Nah - Sprint's preferred BlackBerry clientèle are the kind with enough cake to buy islands.

--Kidd

$39.00 a month for unlimited data is hardly overboard.

They are already better then the rates of their competition (vzw) and Sprint includes unlimited EVDO tethering for free. (+$15 with vzw I believe)

The one thing I like about Sprint's plan is it is what it is and you know what you get. When I looked at ATT, what was hard to figure out what was what and to determine if you really got data or not, etc. I am sure that T-M's $9.99 plan is good, but you still need data on top of that, right? Seems like a lot of bait from the other carriers but this time Sprint is pretty clean.

I was under the impression Sprint always charged extra to tether with a laptop? If the price includes BES access and unlimited tethering then it's not all that bad - in fact it would be the same as T-Mobile. With T-Mobile though, they have the BIS only option for $19 with unlimited tethering. That's the sweet spot for me - 50% of the Sprint rate in that case.

If Sprint had international roaming access on every GSM network like T-Mobile, and reliable billing/customer service then I'd be all over paying the $39 for the faster speed though. Don't think either will happen too soon though.

--Kidd

The $39.99 price explicitly includes unlimited tethering. I believe it supports BES access as well, I have not seen a seperate BES plan at any rate.

Tmobile's $20 BIS plan which also includes unlimited tethering is a great value, the extra $20 you pay with Sprint gets you much higher data speed (EVDO vs EDGE/GPRS) and better coverage in rural areas.

Well it does, but not for $39. If you need international data, you can get the 8830 which will do CDMA in the US and GSM abroad. Its double the price though if you want to use that option.

seriously, $39.00 for unlimited from sprint is amazing as long as it is faster than edge. edge is so disgustingly slow, it takes forever to load a page and if some one is callin you, the call wont get through when a page is loading and i cant tell you how many times people have told me they called but i never got the call cuz the page was loading so slowly!

Yep, $69.99 for International data. And while the international plan will work in both the US and overseas, it does NOT include the tethering feature, so you have to add that for an additonal $15/mo.

buy a BB unlocked with sprint, or get it uncloked later with t-mobile or at&t and then get a sim card to get you international low roaming voice and data rates so you don't have to pay international plan with your US carrier (at&t locks you for 12 month with their $67 intl). I found this company call-in-europe.com with their european sim cards compatible data BB and low call rates all over Europe. If you travel there it could lower by a lot your final invoices. I am fed up with my extra $100s on my bill when I come back from my trips.

Your post doesn't make sense. First, you can't get a BB unlocked from Sprint. 2nd, get it unlocked later with t mobile, or ATT. The 8830 WILL NOT work on American GSM networks, so I don't follow you at all. The Sprint 8830 already has its GSM portion of the phone unlocked, so you can get a SIM from an overseas carrier and use it abroad.

and if you need worldwide blackberry email the most economical option is t-mobile's international email plan.

$20 or $30 base monthly cost (BIS or BES) then add $20/month for unlimited email worldwide. Add and remove it at will. It is even pro rated, so if you need if for 2 weeks you can just pay for that. ($10+tax)

Sorry if I was not clear enough as my intent was to mention a new sim card option for intl travelers to be used with any unlocked BB for phone AND data abroad. It is one thing to have cdma/gsm BB but I am locked paying high voice rates to my provider if I want to keep my BB data and don't want to use a sim in a separate phone (and this is the most annoying part). Rare are local foreign sim cards enabled with BB option, especially prepaid. Here I have now 1 potpaid sim in my BB that does both with good intl rates when I travel and no need to buy intl option from my US carrier anymore.

Are you saying that T-Mobile Tethering are enabled on any plans, including the 39.99 one? They do not charge extra for it, am I correct in assuming that?

Tethering is included on all t-mobile blackberry plans except the 9.99 email only plan.

Looks like they are changing.

Sprint set to unleash new $30 BlackBerry data plans | The Boy Genius Report

Looks pretty good if you don't need BES or PAM.

Hello all,

where do you guys see TMO 9.99 and 19.99 rates for BB. I have BIS with no voice and am paying 29.99 a month and now on their website it is 39.99 with no option for for 29.99 anymore let alone 19.99. Thanks!

With no voice plan the old $30 rate you are on is better then te current $4o rate. You should keep it for as long as it suits you. If you add a voice plan you will have access to the $10 and $20 BB plans.

Actually is a great price considering its unlimited and gives you unlimited teathering. You can't beat $39.99.

For someone who use tethering, it might be expensive.

Also I dunno if they are still doing it, but theres an attachable feature to the blackberry plan which gives you unlimited text messaging for an extra $5/mo. So thats $44.99/mo fo unlimtied data, tethering and text messaging!

For me, I got t-mobile and i'm playing $20/mo for BIS and unlimited text $15/mo. But looks like that new sprint plan has me beat.

I happened to stumble upon this article today, called Sprint, they have no knowledge as of yet, but the guy I talked to was a moron who barely spoke English.

Sprint Coming Out With New BlackBerry Data Plans | RIMarkable | The official, unofficial BlackBerry Weblog

CS reps are mindless drones who know nothing, except what is written on their scripts. Since this plan is not available yet, it would be doubtful any of these mindless morons would have any knowledge of it. And this is true of most CS, not just Sprint.

At first, I took offense, as I work for Customer Assistance at American Tv and Appliance in Wisconsin. Then I realized your right, and that I am the manager in control of the mindless drones. HAHA!

It's a better deal only if you don't need tethering or BES. The new Sprint $30 plan doesn't include BES.

--Kidd

Kind of the whole point of the new plan. To bring BB services to the consumer who doesn't need those services. For those that do, that older plans will still work fine at a reasonable price.

I don't really like that they force you to pay for the SMS though. T-Mobile allows has the same setup for only $20, plus they don't freak if you tether your laptop. Tethering is far more important than SMS to me, so I just go with the $20 BB Data and $5 400 message SMS pack on T-Mobile - comes out to less and gives me everything I need.

--Kidd

Pardom the dumb question from a newbie, but I did some google searches and found that tethering allows you to use your phone as a modem. What's the big advantage of this? Wouldn't you prefer and don't most people have DSL and cable modems already installed in their house that I'm sure will give a much better and faster connection? What's the major advantage of tethering? Thanks.

Having internet access on the road. You can plug your laptop into your BB and have access. Sure you can surf on your BB, but a full size screen beats the tiny and limited BB. Its more of a business user feature and it makes perfect sense to drop it from the consumer oriented plan that Sprint is going to introduce.

Again, its a consumer plan. Non business consumers, for the most part, don't use tethering, but do use SMS and a lot of it along with Sprint TV and access to the music store. The standard BB plan has tethering and doesn't have SMS or all the other consumer goodies. I can't understand what the big deal is. 2 plans for 2 different types of users.

Supposedly the other plan is targetting businesses - well that's fine and well. I'm just saying that the T-Mobile plan at $20 is 33% cheaper than Sprint and also allows tethering for business customers which means that business customers who don't need a BES server can easily get by with the BIS plan on T-Mobile for half the price of Sprint with tethering included.

--Kidd

I got this email from a friend, check it out guys. I am trying to see if this will take place aswell for current BB users, not just new subscribers.

This is true. I work at radio shack and we sell sprint and we just got the new sprint brochures in for the holidays starting the 4th of November. It was in there 30.00 and it showed everything it came with.

I tether everyday from home, since my broadband connection thru Comcast is currently on hiatus. Even with cable modem, i found it kind of redundant to be paying for it and the BB unlimited data plan. The speed while tethering is slower, but I don't do a lot of downloading, so I really don't notice it. If there is in fact a new Sprint data BB plan, I will pay the $30 and add the $15 to tether. This is only $5 more than the current Sprint data plan, and since I pay about $5 for only 300 SMS messages anyway, my bill will not be affected at all.

For people who use internet everyday, but not for computer industry purposes, or for up/downloading pics, video, music, etc., tethering as a regular connection may not be a bad idea. I'm mostly on for news and info, and might download text files and articles, so speed is no issue. If you're into tech stuff you already have broadband anyway. Either way, $30-$40 for unlimited data at sprint is cheap in my book.

Yes there are planning to change the rate. There are dropping it down to 30 and that will include unlimited text messaging as well. The only thing that you would have to pay more for if you use your business email another then that its a great deal. I work for sprint guys so if you have any questions just hit me up.

I signed up for it yesterday. $30/mo sure beats what I was paying before. And you can add tethering for another $15.

Only complaint so far is the Sprint Navigation...it is not working. It keeps asking me to pay for 24 hrs or by the month.

Keep us updated on if you get that fixed or not

Fixed!

I'm actually kind of depressed that someone would say this. i currently work customer service for sprint and i'm truly offended. i take time outside of my job to do research and read magazines and forums and blogs to stay on top of my game to make sure i'm giving people the most current and up-to-date info i possibly can. if you've had bad cs before i'm sorry but don't generalize one or two experiences for a whole company or for that matter, csr's as a whole.

I sorta agree with jvm. I have worked in CS before (airline...another industry loved like wireless providers) and often it is not the reps that are at fault, it is the company for spending as little as possible to train and update the training of their employees.