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Tampilkan postingan dengan label Sprint’s. Tampilkan semua postingan

Selasa, 15 April 2014

HTC One (M8) gets an update on Sprint’s network, gets Extreme Power Saving Mode

htc one m8 outdoors (8 of 17)

When the HTC One (M8) was officially unveiled last month, we learned that the M8 was bringing a whole lot more than just refined looks and improved hardware. Pulling the entire experience together was Sense 6.0, which included a laundry list of improvements over Sense 5.5. One of these promised features was an Extreme Power Saving Mode, though unfortunately the feature wasn’t ready for prime-time at the handset’s launch.

HTC promised the power saving mode would arrive a bit later through a carrier update, and for Sprint customers that day is today. For those that aren’t sure exactly what the Extreme Power Saving Mode is all about, basically it is designed for situations where you are very low on power but still need your device on for emergency calling and other purposes.

The power saving mode turns off your ‘smart’ functionality, giving you a basic homescreen with a phone dialer, text messaging, calculator, calendar and HTC email. The impressive thing about this mode, however, is that HTC claims it can yield 15 hours of use on just 5 percent battery.

Anything else new in today’s Sprint update? Not much from the sounds of it, with the change-log simply saying that the update offers “stability and call performance improvements”. Still, it’s great to see HTC working quickly to rollout the promised Power Saving Mode, and here’s to hoping other major U.S. carriers follow in short order.

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Jumat, 11 April 2014

Sprint’s roaming alliance is another push to merge with T-Mobile

t-mobile sprint

Sprint continues it’s public assault against AT&T and Verizon by now telling rural wireless companies to “fight back” against a “duopoly [that] is taking over our country, America.”

On Thursday, Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son told members of the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) on a roaming alliance that would effectively expand the cellular coverage of both Sprint and CCA’s 100-odd members across the United States. Effectively, Sprint would help pay for the smaller carriers’ rollout of LTE and provide them with LTE-capable devices they can sell to customers.

Even with this overture, it seems that Sprint is simply turning on the public relations charm in an attempt to convince regulators to allow the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile. The Federal Communications Commission though continues telling Sprint that they prefer four national wireless carriers, rather than three carriers.

The elimination a competitor simply means that we have less competition in the United States. With less competition, it’s likely that a combined T-Mobile and Sprint would start acting more like AT&T and Verizon, not less. Sprint already had a tendency to follow AT&T and Verizon’s lead on pricing and consumer friendly (or unfriendly) policies in recent years.

It should be noted that when AT&T and T-Mobile were trying to merge, Sprint had the following to say: “The wireless industry has sparked unprecedented levels of competition, innovation, job creation and investment for the American economy, all of which could be undone by this transaction.”

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Jumat, 21 Maret 2014

Sprint’s new mobile plan not helping struggling image

sprint logo

TheDarkThing

Last October at a meeting with executives, S0ftbank (Sprint’s Japanese corporate owner) boss Masayoshi Son lost his temper and slammed his fist on a table. Son was irate at the mobile carrier’s advertising and told the room that they were not doing enough to lure new customers due to their “loser” mentality. Soon thereafter, Sprint finished dead last in the Consumer Reports rankings for U.S. wireless service providers due to “dismal marks” for value, voice, text and 4G reliability.

Sadly, Sprint still does not seem to be in any hurry to change their image towards potential customers. Whether it is because of a terrible new mobile plan or their significant job cuts across the country, Sprint continues to struggle with changing their image as an over-priced and under-performing mobile company. Last week, Sprint cut 200 jobs in Kansas City, 240 jobs in Sacramento and 450 jobs in Fort Worth.

Additionally, Sprint is being criticized for their recently announced prepaid option named the “Smart” plan. According to a Sprint announcement, the Smart plan costs $45 per month and includes unlimited voice and text. Oh, and no data whatsoever. Therefore, all data consumption must be done over Wi-Fi.

Sprint says it is targeting people who are looking for savings but it is hard to see where anyone would save under this plan. As such, reaction to the plan has been incredibly poor. The Wall Street Journal deemed the plan to be the “Worst Deal Ever.”

There are a multitude of reasons why customers should stay away from this plan.

First, Sprint seems to be confused about the direction in which people are using their cellphones. While mobile data traffic increased 81% in 2013, voice minutes have been in steady decline since 2008. Therefore, it is a mystery why Sprint would introduce a plan that goes in the opposite direction of this trend. Customers are looking for plans that give them more data. Period.

Sprint seems to be confused about the direction in which people are using their cellphones

Second, Sprint seems to have made the Smart plan the most expensive of its kind. Virgin Mobile USA, a subsidiary of Sprint itself, has a plan that includes 300 minutes of talk time and unlimited mobile data with a price tag of just $35. Republic Wireless has a plan with unlimited voice and texts and no data for $10 a month. That’s the exact same deal as Sprint’s Smart plan on the exact same network for $35 less a month.

Third, Sprint also announced a Smart Plus option, which includes unlimited data for $60 a month. That is more than the $40 a month plan that another Sprint subsidiary, Boost Mobile, charges for its own unlimited voice, text and data plan (this price reflects a reward for on-time payments).

Fourth, if you want to buy this over-priced plan, do not expect to be using a phone released in the last few months. As the Wall Street Journal points out, customers who want the Sprint Prepaid plan must be happy using older model phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, the Samsung Galaxy S3, and a used Apple iPhone 4s.

Sprint had only one goal with this announcement and that was to introduce a prepaid option into its retail stores. Therefore, customers should stay as far away from this plan as possible.

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