Sprint will sell a $12 wireless plan that connects only to Facebook. +$10 for Twitter

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Gowans

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Sprint Will Sell a $12 Wireless Plan that Only Connects to Facebook or Twitter

For about $12, Sprint will soon let subscribers buy a wireless plan that only connects to Facebook.

For that same price, they could choose instead to connect only with Twitter , Instagram or Pinterest—or for $10 more, enjoy unlimited use of all four. Another $5 gets them unlimited streaming of a music app of their choice.

The plan, offered under the company’s Virgin Mobile brand of prepaid service, comes as wireless carriers are experimenting with ways to make wireless Internet access more affordable for the poorest consumers by offering special deals on slices of the Web.

In the process, however, they are testing the long-held principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally by creating strong incentives for subscribers to use already dominant services.

In June, T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS -0.03% said it would allow customers unlimited use of mobile streaming music that doesn’t count against their data plans when they use services like Pandora and Spotify. Earlier this year, AT&T Inc. created a program allowing companies to foot the bill for data used by their customers on mobile apps.

Sprint said the plan—called Virgin Mobile Custom—was aimed at giving consumers more choices.

“This is really just part of a broader effort toward customization,” said Dow Draper, president of prepaid at Sprint. Instead of buying a bucket of data, customers can now pay less for just the app they use the most, he said.

Other apps might be added in the future, he said. For now, customers can only choose between those four apps, and they’d need a data plan in order to access anything else. The apps were chosen by Sprint because they’re the most heavily used.

Sprint isn’t being paid by any of the apps, but Mr. Draper didn’t rule it out in the future. “It’s definitely possible,” he said. “But we have not gone down that path yet.”

The new plan is only available at Wal-Mart and the base offering covers just 20 minutes of talk time and 20 texts. Subscribers can customize the plan by buying up to unlimited talk or text or both, and by choosing among data packages.

Each line starts at $6.98 a month. Unlimited service on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest costs another $5, or another $15 for all four.

The service also includes a feature that allows parents to restrict which apps children can use on the phones.
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Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/07/30/sprint-tries-a-facebook-only-wireless-plan/
 
I get the concept but come on Data is Data.

This trend of categorising Data that is happening is US providers is something to watch closely.
 
So you'll spend half your time on the Facebook and Twitter timeliness looking at Blue links you're unable to view?

Lovely
 
net-neutrality-thumb-550x1224-27419.jpg
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Mmmm hmmm. We're on the way!
 
These companies should turn it around and block these Sprint connections. Gonna lose a whole lot more income if they let this progress.
 
If that service includes the Facebook messenger app, then it's not a confusing proposition since you can text and make phone calls with it as long as the other party has that app installed.

That's interesting since most people just have smartphones to use Facebook.

GAF is going to hate it since we can't browse this website.
 
They already offer $35 a month with open data (throttled after a certain point, but at a point a "normal" user is unlikely to hit.) This isn't malicious, they're doing exactly what they're saying- trying to reach low-income markets.
 
HUELEN10 said:
They can't, that would also be against a free and open internet.
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Hm? Why wouldn't they be able to? If Sprint can, then it should definitely be possible for them to do it. This Sprint thing is way more out there than a website blocking a range of IP's (without monetary demands that is).
 
Net Neutrality is dead. Time to find another past time if this starts happening all over the spectrum.

This is why we can't have nice things....this right here.
 
kirblar said:
They already offer $35 a month with open data (throttled after a certain point, but at a point a "normal" user is unlikely to hit.) This isn't malicious, they're doing exactly what they're saying- trying to reach low-income markets.
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Not really. This should definitely be illegal, they're selling products as if they're their own. They are also blocking everything else, extremely anti-competitive. If this goes on any further, things like Netflix paying for faster speeds will be nothing, they will demand money for access.
 
Mr. Sandman said:
Net Neutrality is dead. Time to find another past time if this starts happening all over the spectrum.

This is why we can't have nice things....this right here.
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I feel that we finally reached a point where piracy isn't even necessary because of all the great options out there, and now that is all being taken away.

Fucking data caps and pay 4 packages.
 
Meanwhile, in some developing countries you can buy a phone without a proper data plan *yet* you still get access to Facebook for free.

gg
 
Jesus fucking christ. People are going to eat this shit up. You guys would be baffled at the amount of people out there that have absolutely zero idea how data/any of this works beyond being a candy crush/facebook/some other bullshit machine. Consumers are just too fucking stupid.

The conversations I've had with customers about data overage though, hilarious.
 
Pack it up boys, it's over.

Shit that sucks about this is that fucking idiots will eat this up.

EDIT: also wtf is the point? The whole point of social media is to share shit. As in, other things on the internet that aren't on FB/Twitter, etc.
 
I'd like to whine about this but there's obviously a market for this nonsense and that'll further enable these companies to keep on moving in that direction.
 
Big picture, this is a short term solution to a long term problem.

Sure, Facebook or a social network will be able to allow easy communication in rural areas, but to solve these problems, the carriers have to commit to building infrastructure and they won't.
 
msv said:
Not really. This should definitely be illegal, they're selling products as if they're their own. They are also blocking everything else, extremely anti-competitive. If this goes on any further, things like Netflix paying for faster speeds will be nothing, they will demand money for access.
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And they're starting the plan at 7 bucks a month.
 
I don't think I need to point out how this sort of things defeat the whole purpose of the internet.
A repository for all human knowledge reduced to facebook-only utility.
 
msv said:
I don't understand?
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Different price tiers. If you're comparing a $7 plan to a $40-$50 one and are getting mad why the $7 plan doesn't offer the same services as a higher paid one, then I don't know what to say.

Seems like the plan is a loose extension of republic wireless's philosophy with the customer paying money towards Facebook data access as opposed to everything which costs more.
 
kirblar said:
They currently have a full-access plan at $35.

This is not for those customers.

They are charging less for less in order to try and reach low-income markets.
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They don't have to limit it to certain websites in order to do that, just lower the speeds or connections or number of requests per minute etc. It costs Sprint the same amount of money to deliver all or a few.
 
goodcow said:
Wouldn't Facebook try to block this, as it would render ads useless if users can't click thru?
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I have a feeling Facebook know ads are useless (especially targeted advertising., you don't engage with more people, you just end up with people who click like on everything). There is still sponsored posts though...that will work just fine.
 
lush said:
Jesus fucking christ. People are going to eat this shit up. You guys would be baffled at the amount of people out there that have absolutely zero idea how data/any of this works beyond being a candy crush/facebook/some other bullshit machine. Consumers are just too fucking stupid.

The conversations I've had with customers about data overage though, hilarious.
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I know folks that pretty much only use twitter and instagram. That's it.
 
msv said:
They don't have to limit it to certain websites in order to do that, just lower the speeds or connections or number of requests per minute etc. It costs Sprint the same amount of money to deliver all or a few.
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They're almost certainly limited to the app.
 
Canadian cellphone carriers used to offer something like this. A data plan that only covered social media and BBM for Blackberries.
 
I would legitimately be interested in this. 99.999% of my communication with friends is done through Facebook.
 
I never get why when a company offers some optional plan that people get so up in arms about it. If it doesn't work for you, then don't buy it. They won't force you to get it.

But this sounds more like something parents might buy for their teens or something to get people onto Sprint and then upsell them later once they realize only connecting to FB is useless.
 
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