Earlier this week, Sprint surprised everyone by announcing a new unlimited data plan that would cost subscribers just $20 per month. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, that’s because it is.
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Although the “unlimited” part of Sprint’s Starter Unlimited Data Plan is technically accurate, only the first gigabyte of data will be high-speed data. Once you’ve hit 1GB, your data will slow to 2G speeds, effectively limiting your access to streaming video and other content that requires high-speed data.
So yes, you can get unlimited data for $20 per month, but it’s not the data you want.
For customers who only use around 1GB of data over the course of 30 days, this might not be a bad option. After all, if in the last few days of your billing cycle you happen to go over that 1GB allowance, you won’t have to worry about paying overage fees — you’ll just have to deal with 2G speeds.
It’s just a shame that carriers feel the need to trick customers into thinking they’re getting something they’re not, however. T-Mobile has a similar plan called Simple Choice, and the only real difference between the two is that T-Mobile doesn’t include the word “unlimited” in the name of its plan.
Quit trying to fool us, mobile carriers.
