Sprint today said it was raising the prices of data on all smartphones by $10. The “Premium Data” fee it had previously charged only for 4G phones like the Evo 4G and Epic 4G will now count against 3G smartphones for anyone activating a phone after January 30. It raises the minimum cost of using voice and data with a smartphone on Sprint to $80 per month, making it the most expensive.
Sprint is blocking grandfathering, so a customer will see the rate hike even if they simply switch smartphones.
The company justified it as a necessary tradeoff to both maintain its unlimited plans while upgrading its network to “meet the growing appetite” for Internet access. It noted that smartphone users chew about 10 times more data on average and pointed to AT&T’s capped 2GB plans as justification. A truly serious smartphone user would face overages and pay significantly more on AT&T, Sprint insisted.
