Sprint Set To Challenge The Rest In Limbo?

If you can think back to yesterday, all 4 of the U.S. carriers nearly simultaneously announced unlimited rate plans, ranging from voice only to voice, data, and messaging, and in price between $99 and $150/month. I noted that this was a huge deal for the U.S. market, as the carriers have basically relegated themselves into dumb pipes, and that it was only a matter of time for the monthly prices to begin dropping rapidly.

Nothing official has been announced, but analysts from Robert W. Baird, Bear Stearns, and UBS have all chimed in at Reuters, saying they believe that Sprint, who has offered its unlimited plan for some time now, will be hollering “How low can you go?!”, possibly going as low as $60/month.

Personally, I don’t think that the carrier will do anything of the sort. It is already bleeding subscribers without replacing them, according to recent reports, and the 2 U.S. MVNOs that started the unlimited craze. MetroPCS and Helio, both run on Sprint’s CDMA network. Thus, dropping the price would only serve to hurt the MVNOs, which is no doubt a solid source of revenue for the U.S. carrier.