Sprint Still May Go To Tiered Pricing

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Mobile carriers have constantly been struggling with increased data traffic on their networks. AT&T has jumped to a tiered data plan with monthly limits, and Verizon is expected to do something similar with their 4G LTE data plans. Sprint is also offering 4G data, but it’s unlimited right now, sans for a $10 premium data fee on some phones. That doesn’t mean Sprint hasn’t been thinking about a tiered data plan, though.

At a recent investor conference, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse (you may have seen his TV commercials) said that Sprint is “watching very closely” the other carriers and their plans for tiered pricing. But, Hesse says that “customers really do value simplicity.” But, Hesse isn’t ruling it out completely.

“We’re not ruling out metered pricing. Tiered pricing is something we look at,” he said, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal. According to Hesse, with unlimited data plans they lose money on the highest data consumers, but overall, unlimited data plans are currently making money for Sprint. Sprint has struggled in recent memory, but the introduction of the popular HTC EVO 4G and the Samsung Epic 4G have turned the company’s fortune around.

Remember, back in June, a concerned Sprint customer e-mailed Hesse’s direct e-mail address and asked him if Sprint had plans to go to a capped monthly data plan. Hesse wrote:

Matthew,

One can never say “never”, but we have no current plans to change our pricing.

Dan.

And while it doesn’t look like Sprint is currently going away from their unlimited plans, it looks like they’ve certainly been keeping tabs on the possibility.