Sprint has once again reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining the availability of its unlimited data plans — until it eliminates them. Speaking at GigaOm’s Mobilize conference in San Francisco on Monday, Sprint chief technology officer Stephen Bye reiterated the carrier’s stance on unlimited data. Bye stated simply that the company will continue to offer unlimited plans as T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon cap and throttle their offerings, but cost is the biggest variable. “There’s clearly a cost to support unlimited,” Bye told conference attendees, noting that some subscribers use much more data than others. The CTO also noted that maintaining Sprint’s unlimited offerings is a constant challenge. ”Is there pressure? Yeah,” Bye added. “There’s a challenge for all engineers to work on how we get the cost structure down.”
“We’re going to try to keep [unlimited plans] around as long as we can,” Fared Adib, Sprint’s vice president of product development said. “What most people don’t realize is that there is a cost here with us doing this, and we are definitely seeing a trend where people are using more and more data. Like I said we’re not against that, but what happens is that over a certain period of time if people abuse the unlimited data policies — if everyone constantly uses a lot of it — then it becomes more expensive for us to maintain the network. So you do have to look at that and balance that out as a carrier, to make sure you can still generate revenue to offset your costs.”
