Sprint's "Simply Everything" plans appear to gain edge over AT&T

[larry]

Sprint's "Simply Everything" plans appear to gain edge over AT&T

If the aim is to win the hearts, minds -- and most importantly business -- of consumers, obviously it's a big help to win over the front line troops.

In this, Sprint Nextel seems to be making important progress, according to a new report issued today by an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co.

Considering the barbs tossed Sprint's way last week by its friends at Radio Shack, it is noted with a wee bit of irony that the electronics retailer is the source of this morning's positive news.

Radio Shack sells both Sprint and AT&T wireless service. The Baird team makes a point of regularly checking in with the clerks at the Shack to get an indication of the latest trends affecting the No. 1 -- AT&T -- and No. 3 -- Sprint -- wireless companies.

Maybe Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is on to something after all with all this "Now Network" and "Simply Everything" unlimited calling stuff.

Sprint is managing to stand out with its $99 plan, which includes unlimited voice calls, Internet surfing and other data services. AT&T has a $99 unlimited voice minutes plan.

"Reps previously viewed the difference between the two carriers primarily as a choice between rollover minutes and earlier nights and weekends; however, with Sprint's Simply Everything plan, Sprint appears to have become the cost leader at the high end at RadioShack stores," Baird's William Power wrote. "Generally, reps seem to perceive Sprint as having the better data network and AT&T as having broader coverage. Overall, 54% of reps who recommended one carrier over the other recommended Sprint, largely because of the
perceived greater data value."

Sprint's "Simply Everything" plans appear to gain edge over AT&T | Sprint Connection | News and views on Sprint Nextel

[Mobile Mike]

I wonder if this news will bear out in Sprint's quarterly numbers?

[larry]

The general consensus is that they can't do any worse than the past 2 or 3 quarters. It can only get better from here.

[Mobile Mike]

Originally Posted by larry

The general consensus is that they can't do any worse than the past 2 or 3 quarters. It can only get better from here.

For Sprint's sake, I hope you're right.

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by larry

The general consensus is that they can't do any worse than the past 2 or 3 quarters. It can only get better from here.

LOL! That better be true. I really wish the 3rd Q comes out with no net loss in subs for Sprint. At least a modest gain.

[Ddeere2]

Yeah, but I'm not to sure, with a lot of people complaining about how were in a recession.But on the other hand it might, because finally consumer confidence is picking up, so Sprint might have lower numbers of loss than before.

[bobolito]

Sprint numbers in this coming report, whatever they may be, will really underline the failure of the Nextel merger. One of the main reasons for them to merge with Nextel was to be not so far behind Verizon and AT&T, but if you look at the totals, they're just as far behind as they were before they bought Nextel, some 20+ million customers. Once again, a distant third. And after Verizon finishes up its merger with Alltel, the difference will be even more pronounced.

Makes me wonder, if they hadn't bought Nextel, maybe they would've had the same number of customers as they do today, but that growth would've been real growth, not purchased growth, plus they wouldn't have wasted all those billions on Nextel.

[larry]

Regardless of what people think about the Nextel merger I'm still very glad it happened. It has been a huge benefit to us CDMA customers who got MUCH better coverage and call reliability out of the merger. Coverage that we would have never had for the most part otherwise. Unfortunately most customers don't realize this and have just taken it for granted.

[Simon5282]

Originally Posted by Mobile Mike

For Sprint's sake, I hope you're right.

For the industries sake, I hope you are right.

[bobolito]

Why you say "never", Larry? Networks are under constant improvement so I can't see any operator stopping coverage expansion of their network anywhere. Why was it necessary to buy Nextel to expand coverage? Couldn't Sprint do the same on their own? They were pretty good fighting NIMBYs in California, aren't they?

Granted those improvements you speak about happened sooner as a result of the Nextel merger, but I wouldn't say they would've never happened absent the merger. I believe if they would've funneled those $35 billion in network improvements rather than the Nextel merger you would probably have an even better network today. Just think about it.

[larry]

Originally Posted by bobolito

Why you say "never", Larry? Networks are under constant improvement so I can't see any operator stopping coverage expansion of their network anywhere. Why was it necessary to buy Nextel to expand coverage? Couldn't Sprint do the same on their own? They were pretty good fighting NIMBYs in California, aren't they?

Granted those improvements you speak about happened sooner as a result of the Nextel merger, but I wouldn't say they would've never happened absent the merger. I believe if they would've funneled those $35 billion in network improvements rather than the Nextel merger you would probably have an even better network today. Just think about it.

I've talked about the reasons for this plenty of times before and don't really feel like re-hashing all of it again. In theory yes they could have used the Nextel money to make large scale improvements but it just wouldn't have happened for a variety of reasons. Without the Nextel purchase they would have only kept up their normal pace of improvements which would have been much smaller on scale and taken longer to do.