In 2 Years, Mobile Bills Will be Based on Data, Not Voice Buckets

Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Dan Hesse said that in about two years, monthly mobile phone bills will focus on the amount of data used and move away from the number of available voice minutes.

Of course they will. The entire global telecom business is migrating from a voice revenues model to a broadband revenue model. Along the way, some voice services or applications will be offered at no incremental cost, or very-small amounts of money. In other cases access to voice services will simply be bundled with other features and services, much as one today can buy, for one flat price, unlimited mobile Web access, text messaging and voice.

That doesn't mean data usage will billed as electricity, water or natural gas are. It does mean retail packaging will shift, over time, to methods that emphasize "access" to a network and many services, rather than a simple metered approach.

Observers rightly note that most U.S. consumers do not like strictly-metered usage for the simple reason that it creates billing variability. Consumers prefer the predictability of fixed monthly charges, which accounts for some of the popularity of "buckets of usage." But that doesn't necessarily mean people object to some broad correlation between intensity of usage and the size of monthly bills.

Hesse's comments also reflect the simple reality that, for many people, voice is less important compared to texting, instant messaging and other things that can be done with a mobile device. Hesse is only saying that end user value should be related in some rather obvious way to retail pricing.

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24 Carriers, 3 Handset Vendors Launch 3 Billion User App Initiative

A new consortium already including 24 global mobile service providers, Sony, Samsung and LG are creating a new applications community, allowing developers to create apps working across networks serving three billion people.

The new "Wholesale Applications Community" is a recognition of the role application stores now playing in fostering new applications and a great deal of the value of mobile broadband services.

América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, Mobilkom Austria Group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, Telia Sonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind, as well as Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are founding members.

Whether directly or indirectly, by design or by default, the new development community will compete with the Apple App Store as well as other app stores being created by Google and other device and application providers.

The real carrot for developers, if the initiative can iron out any number of important details, is access to a potential audience of three billion mobile users. In practice, discrete markets will be smaller, limited by natural language communities, for example. But it is an ambitious initiative showing access providers are not interested in forfeiting their roles in the application ecosystem to other handset or application providers.

60,000 Free Apps Now Available to Sprint Feature and Smartphones

Sprint, in a partnership with GetJar, the world's second-largest app store, now offers a catalog of more than 60,000 free applications, now available to all Sprint customers with feature phones,  RIM BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices.

"We are opening up the world of apps to customers who may not have a smartphone," says Len Barlik, vice president of wireless and wireline services for Sprint.

"Our partnership with GetJar means that all Sprint customers will now have access to thousands of applications ranging from popular apps such as YouTube and Google Maps to more niche applications that address their business needs," Barlik says.

GetJar offers applications ranging from games and entertainment to education and health, plus . Facebook Mobile, Weather Channel Mobile, ShopSavvy and Loopt can be easily downloaded to most Sprint handsets.

Customers can simply click the link in the "downloads" category of the Sprint portal to access GetJar's site and browse the applications.

GetJar is the world's second largest app store with more than 750 million downloads to date. The company provides more than 60,000 mobile applications across all major handsets and platforms to consumers in more than 200 countries.

Sprint and Skiff to Sell E-Reader

Though firm pricing and availability are not yet announced, Sprint will be providing the connectivity services for the new Skiff e-reader, to be sold sometime this year.

The Skiff Reader e-reader uses a metal foil display service, not glass.

Sprint and Skiff will also launch a Skiff Store, where users will be able to find more digital content.

Touted as the “first e-reader optimized for newspaper and magazine content”, as well as the first to use LG Display’s “metal foil” e-paper technology, the Skiff Reader will use Sprint’s 3G network and also can use a Wi-Fi connection.

The Skiff Reader also features Wi-Fi, a 11.5 inch, 1200 x 1600 pixels touchscreen display, built-in speaker, 3.5mm headset jack, and USB 2.0.

Books, magazines, newspapers, personal and work documents, and other types of digital content can be stored on the Skiff Reader thanks to its 4GB internal memory (expandable with a MicroSD card).

The Skiff Reader, the initial dedicated device to integrate the upcoming Skiff e-reading service, is about  a quarter-inch in overall height and clearly is the thinnest e-reader yet produced by any supplier.

The device uses a full touch-screen and weighs just over one pound.

The Skiff Reader's flexibility is based on its construction from a thin, flexible sheet of stainless-steel foil, not glass.

Mobile Terminations Now Exceed Fixed

Mobile subscribers have become a powerful force in the international voice market. In 2008, mobile-originated international traffic grew 19 percent, and accounted for 36 percent of total international traffic, up from 32 percent in 2007, according to TeleGeography.

Mobile terminated traffic grew 18 percent in 2008 and accounted for 48 percent of international traffic terminated in 2008. TeleGeography projects that mobile terminated traffic will exceed traffic terminated on fixed lines in 2009.

If you want to know why Sprint is selling "no incremental cost" calling to any domestic U.S. mobile, that is one of the reasons.

That would be a first. Up to this point, more calls have been terminated on fixed phone lines. To be sure, more calls still are originated on fixed lines than mobiles, but even that gap is narrowing.

Mobile phone subscriptions overtook fixed lines in 2002, TeleGeography notes.  By 2008, there were four billion
active mobile accounts globally, accounting for 77 percent of global phone lines. In recent years, growth has shifted to developing countries. Mobile subscriber growth in Africa has led the world in recent years, growing 35 percent in 2008 after having increased 39 percent in 2007.

While growth rates in Africa are tremendous, the subscriber base remains very small—mobile penetration in Africa is still only 39 percent.

Still, India gained 112 million new mobile subscribers in 2008, a net increase that exceeds the total number of mobile subscribers in Germany, says TeleGeography.

China gained 89 million mobile subscribers in 2008, and Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam all gained more than 30 million mobile subscribers. Conversely, mobile subscription growth in more mature markets has slowed.

Big Churn Potential in Wireless Business?

Despite the fact that AT&T and Verizon have low churn rates, while Sprint and T-Mobile have churn higher than they would like, the potential for huge share shifts remains latent, if consumer satisfaction bears any meaningful relationship to actual churn behavior.

Nearly half of readers surveyed by Consumer Reports are unhappy with their cell phone service. Nearly two thirds had at least one major complaint about their cell phone carrier, with about 20 percent naming price as the chief irritant.

But here's the caveat. Most surveys taken over the last couple of decades suggested there was high dissatisfaction with cable TV service, for example. And, to be sure, consumers began to churn away as first satellite and now telco video alternatives are available. Until satellite became a viable option, though, high dissatisfaction was not accompanied by high churn.

The U.S. mobile industry, though, is among the most competitive in the world, so consumers do have lots of choices. So one wonders why more do not act as theory suggests they will, which is that unhappiness will lead them to try another provider. Maybe they are churning, and maybe their continued unhappiness means the new carriers aren't demonstrably and clear better than the carriers they left.

Apparently, neither better coverage nor new smartphones have been enough to change consumer satisfaction all that much, the report suggests, with the salient exception of the Apple iPhone. So will the latent unhappiness translate into higher churn? It's harder to decipher than one might initially think.

If consumers believe all the carriers have some gaps in coverage, have roughly similar or somewhat distinct retail offers, have adequate bandwidth and availability, and all of them will experience congestion during rush hour, consumers might not be extremely motivated to change providers, even if they are unhappy to some degree. The bad news for service providers might be that network quality and reputation have some effect, but not overwhelming effect on churn behavior.

But handsets are a huge motivator of change, it appears. About 38 percent of consumers who switched phones in the past two years did so to get the phone they wanted.

More than 27 percent went shopping with a specific phone in mind, in fact. About 98 percent of iPhone users said they would purchase the phone again. To point out the obvious, some people might be really happy about their handsets, and simply put up with their service providers.

But there is another way to look at matters. If half of consumers are unahppy to some degree, and that leads them to churn, what would one expect to see? At churn rates about 1.5 percent a month,. one would expect roughly 18 percent annual churn. That would roughly equate to 100 percent churn about every five years or so.

If one assumes only half of consumers are motivated to churn, existing churn rates easily could amount to churn of half the entire customer base about every two and a half years.

So maybe those unhappy consumers are in fact deserting their current providers. The reason they remain unhappy? One explanation could be that none of the providers they are trying are demonstrably better than the carriers they left. One often encounters consumers who say "we've tried them all, and all of them have some problems."

Verizon Ranked First in Consumer Reports’ "Best Wireless" Service Survey

In a survey of more than 50,000 readers spanning 26 U.S. cities, Consumer Reports found Verizon had the highest consumer satisfaction scores, while AT&T had the lowest customer-satisfaction rating in 19 cities surveyed. In fairness, the rankings are fairly close for three of the four service providers ranked.

Verizon received an overall score of 75, while T-Mobile USA got 70, Sprint got a score of 67 and AT&T got a score of 66. Consumer Reports itself says that differences of less than three points are not meaningful, so Sprint and AT&T essentially got the same score. And just three points separate T-Mobile from both Sprint and AT&T.

Another way of looking at matters is that while Verizon got scores noticeably different from the other three providers, and while T-Mobile USA was a clear number two, Sprint and AT&T were fairly close.

Verizon Droid Launches Today

Verizon Wireless has launched two Android-powered smartphones Nov. 6, 2009. At the top, the much-anticipated Droid retails at $199.99 and is the first Android smartphone to feature the version 2.0 platform.

But Verizon also launched a second Droid-branded device, called Eris and manufactured by HTC. Eris will retail at $99.99.

A successful launch is regarded by many as critical to Motorola's future success, as the company attempts to regain market share.

Verizon also launched a number of other handsets, including the new BlackBerry Curve 8530 (already offered by Sprint), a new LG Chocolate device, and Samsung's Push-To-Talk Convoy.

Droid will the most-important launch, for several reasons. The success of its Android phones is crucial for Motorola if it is to climb back into the top ranks of handset manufacturers. It would be fair at this point to say Android is a "do or die" move for Motorola.

For HTC, the device is less important than the fact that HTC now is trying to build its own brand name, growing beyond its contract manufacturing roots.

Wirefly’s Top 10 Most-Anticipated Cell Phones

In a major change, the top-two "most anticipated" new mobile devices are made by Motorola. That hasn't happened for quite some time, and will be a huge test of Motorola's decision to rely on Android as its ticket back into the top ranks of manufacturers of "hot" devices.

The launches are equally important for mobile service providers, who have found devices to be primary ways of differentiating their services. We'll have to see, but it is possible, perhaps likely, that a key new feature of the top-two Android devices will be their methods of integrating contact information and status updates across applications. That's an angle on "unified communications" we have not seen so much in the mobile arena.

Here's Wirefly's ranking and commentary.

1. Motorola Droid (Verizon Wireless) - The most anticipated cell phone launch of the season is just days away, but the hype for this the Motorola Droid smartphone has been building for quite some time.  Verizon Wireless has invested heavily in a national “teaser” marketing campaign, while keeping the details about this Android-based device close to the vest.  The Droid is the first commercial phone released with the new Android 2.0 platform, and has been dubbed the “iPhone killer” by many a technology-writer.  Verizon Wireless is stoking the fire with a campaign that touts all the things the Droid does that the iPhone doesn’t – from running multiple apps, to a full slide-out keyboard, to changeable batteries and memory to a 5.0 megapixel camera that takes photos in the dark.

2. Motorola CLIQ MB200 (T-Mobile) - The highly-anticipated Motorola CLIQ is the new king of the T-Mobile Android smartphone lineup, and the first since the original G-1 to have a full slide-out keyboard.    What really makes it buzz-worthy, though, is that it utilizes the new MotoBlur user interface that syncs your social media, contacts, and e-mail in real time, providing instant access to the latest happenings and messages from friends.  (The Cliq is currently available to existing T-Mobile customers, however, new customers will not be able to purchase the device until November 2nd, and therefore, it still garners a spot on our top picks.)

3. Samsung Moment (Sprint) - Sprint’s second Android device, the Samsung Moment, mark’s Samsung’s entry into the Android smartphone market with a full slide-out keyboard and a first-of-its-kind AMOLED touch screen, providing unprecedented brightness that’s also kind to your battery life.

4. LG Chocolate Touch (Verizon Wireless) – The LG Chocolate is an iconic Verizon Wireless phone, and this new touch version should be even sweeter than its predecessors.

5. Samsung Behold II (T-Mobile) – The Behold II is the sequel to the very successful Samsung Behold but with one MAJOR difference - the latest version runs on the Android smartphone operating system.  The Behold II also features a "cube menu" that provides quick access to six multimedia features at the flick of a finger: music, photos, videos, the Web, YouTube, and Amazon MP3.

6. HTC Desire 6200 (Verizon Wireless) – Verizon Wireless is making headlines with the Droid, but is expected to follow quickly with a second Android-powered smartphone dubbed the Desire.  The Desire will not have a keyboard, and will boast HTC’s touch screen “Sense” interface that has won rave reviews on the HTC Hero.  

7. Sprint Palm Pixi (Sprint) – The Sprint Palm Pixi is being touted as a tiny, sleek webOS-based handset that offers many of the same features and functionality as the Pre without the hefty price tag.

8 . BlackBerry Storm 2 (Verizon Wireless) – This next generation of the touch screen BlackBerry Storm looks similar to the original model on the outside, but boasts notable improvements on the inside such as a Wi-Fi radio, sleeker design, and an improved SurePress typing system.

9. BlackBerry Bold 9700 (AT&T & T-Mobile) –This smartphone is an updated version of the high-end Blackberry Bold that hit the market last year.  It is thinner and lighter with a faster Web browser than its predecessor and replaces the original Bold's track ball with an optical track pad.

10. LG Shine 2 (AT&T) – The successor to the immensely popular Shine; but as its name indicates, it promises to be twice as sleek and sexy.

T-Mobile USA Launches Unlimited Prepaid Offer

Given the relative strength of prepaid wireless, and a renewed spate of competition in the segment, it might not be too surprising that T-Mobile USA has launched a new unlimited mobile plan available to customers who do not like contracts.

What might have been disruptive is an extension of such plans to all postpaid customers as well, a move that might have sparked yet another round of price cuts in the postpaid business. But it was a move T-Mobile USA chose not to take.

The new plan offers unlimited talk, text and Web surfing for $79.99 a month to customers who do not want to sign up for a long-term contract, which typically lasts two years.

It will also offer a $50 per month unlimited service for non-contract customers that only want access to voice calls, not text messaging or Web access.

By some measures, the new deal represents a 20 percent discount on T-Mobile's standard unlimited monthly fee for contract customers.

Nobody knows what might have happened had T-Mobile USA launched a $50 per month unlimited voice and data service plan for all customers, but an immediate price war is one likely outcome.

As matters stand, that is unlikely to happen. On its third quarter earnings call, Verizon said Verizon Wireless was unlikely to respond to T-Mobile USA's new offer with a similar one of its own.

That is unsurprising given Verizon's general stance on prepaid, which is that it remains a niche tough to square with Verizon's historic focus on higher-end postpaid customers.

Prepaid accounted for 80 percent of U.S. subscriber growth in the first quarter of 2009, though growth has moderated since then.

Sprint subsidiary Boost Mobile launched a $50 monthly plan in January 2009 and has been matched by the other leading prepaid providers.

Kindle Connections Now Go to AT&T

In a business with true scale and scope economies, ownership of a global network can be a key advantage. Consider network support for the Amazon Kindle book readers, which now are sold internationally.

The U.S. version of the Kindle 2 has used the Sprint 3G network. But both international and U.S. versions will henceforth use the AT&T network globally. Existing U.S. Kindle owners will continue to use Sprint, but all new devices will be powered by the AT&T network.

Of course, there are other ebook readers. Barnes & Nobles sells the Nook, Sony sells the Daily Edition and Plastic Logic sells the Que. All of those readers use AT&T's network.

Verizon will provide service for the upcoming iRex e-reader.

The financial impact to Sprint might be a relatively minor issue. Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett estimates the Kindle will drive one million Kindle users a year to AT&T that Sprint would otherwise have gotten.

Moffett estimates that Sprint makes about $5 for each subscriber addition and $2 per every e-book downloaded onto Kindle over its networks, according to Business Week writer Olga Kharif.

The real issue is whether other upcoming devices and services have enough of a global angle, and enough sales volume, that providers such as Sprint are unable to compete in those new lines of business as well.

Sprint Proximity Marketing Campaign Launched

Sprint is supporting a proximity marketing campaign at Kansas City's Sprint Center.

http://billboard.prweb.com/releases/2009/03/prweb2269584.htm

Sprint Upgrades Cable Digital Voice

Sprint has added new features such as Caller ID to the TV, Caller ID to the PC, and new voicemail features that include a home voicemail alert sent to a customer's mobile phone, and voicemail to email, for its cable operator customers. Sprint provides wholesale cable VoIP services to 14 leading cable companies and supports more than 4.5 million cable VoIP/digital phone subscribers, covering more than 31 million cable households-passed.

Perhaps the development to note is that the innovations are "both practical and fun." "Fun" and "playfulness" and "personalization" are among elements that have made the mobile end user experience so popular. Wired phone service has always been useful, but not as much "fun."

The new features are ways cable operators will try to change the wired voice experience, beyond simply offering tradtional value at a lower price.

Samsung Instinct Available in June

Sprint Nextel will roll out the new Samsung Instinct, a full touch-screen device running on the Rev. A network, in June. Sprint will have exclusive right to sell the device, initially.

Samsung Instinct will be seen as a competitor to the Apple iPhone, of course.

It is designed for fast Web browsing, email access, commercial-free radio and Sprint Navigation, powered by Telenav, with GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings.

Live Search for Sprint, powered by Microsoft, provides easy access to directory information on-the-go, GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click to call access

Sprint TV offers live and on-demand programming.
Sprint Exclusive Entertainment offers made-for-mobile sports and entertainment video.

Sprint Music Store allows users to browse and wirelessly download full-length songs directly to their phone for 99 cents each.

Pocket Express offers up-to-date information on sports, weather, news, movie showtimes and other options customized to the user's zip code.

Three dedicated keys on the lower portion of the handset make operation of the device very straightforward and easy to navigate, the company says. The phone key always takes the user back to essential voice calling and features including speed dial, visual voicemail, contacts and the dial pad. The back key is a consistent way to take a step back in the operation.

The home key on the Samsung Instinct provides quick access to the four menus of functionality:

"Favorites" provides one-touch access to the things a user does most, making customization and personalization extremely simple. Web sites, TV channels, text messaging friends and much more can be saved in the Favorites menu so the items used most are always at the user's fingertips.

"Main" includes applications such as Messaging, Voicemail, GPS Navigation and more.

The "Fun" menu brings up music, TV, photos and games.

"Web" takes a user straight to Web site options.

Samsung Instinct features Visual Voicemail, allowing users to listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a simple tap of the screen.

Both corporate and consumer (POP3) email accounts are supported.

Multitasking capabilities allow the user to play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games,.

Pricing for Samsung Instinct has not yet been announced. In order for customers to experience the full capabilities of the device, Samsung Instinct requires activation on a Sprint Everything pricing plan offering unlimited data starting at just $69.99 per month.

TA 96, Digital One Rate: Which was More Important?

Though the subscriber stats don't paint the picture quite so clearly, wireless minutes of use exploded after 1998, when AT&T Wireless Services introduced "Digital One Rate," a new plan that eliminated the difference between local and long distance services, and used a "bucket" of minutes packaging approach.

U.S. competitive local exchange carrier lines in service, on the other other hand, ramped up through about 2004, and then began to decline, even as more telephone and cable companies themselves became "CLECs" for purposes of providing services outside their historic service territories.

In 1998, when Digital One Rate was introduced, mobile subscribers numbered about 69 million. By the middle of 2007, mobile subscribers numbered more than 243 million. At this point, the time is long past when wired lines exceeded wireless lines. These days, wireless accounts far outnumber wired accounts.

In many respects, and without belittling the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Digital One Rate has had far more impact than anything that has happened on the wired side of the business.

What if Sprint "Goes Nuclear"?

There now is speculation Sprint Nextel is considering an unlimited calling plan costing as little as $60 a month. Aside from disrupting nearly all pricing plans in the U.S. mobile business, one has to wonder what that does for wireless substitution and consumer VoIP as well.

If one can get unlimited calling for that sort of price point, most people who use mobiles and also live in single person, or households of unrelated people, are going to have huge incentives just to go "wireless only."

To the extent that consumer VoIP is mostly about cheap calling, mobile is going to be hugely competitive in a new way, in the event of "nuclear" conflict.

Mobile Price War Impact?

Though the impact might be quite overblown, at least some investment analysts think the recent adoption of unlimited calling plans by three of the four largest U.S. mobile providers is going to hammer their revenues.

Credit Suisse telecom analyst Christopher Larsen, for example, has reduced his rating on at&t, Verizon, Qwest and Sprint Nextel.

He worries that unlimited calling plans will trigger “a wireless price war.”

UBS telecom analyst John Hodulik thinks the potential impact will affect Verizon and at&t, at least at this point.

Hodulik says Sprint is likely to launch an unlimited voice plan in the next few weeks is considering pricing at $60-$80 a month. If Sprint gets traction, that logically would compel Verizon and at&t to reduce their prices to match.

I am not so sure about that. Each of the carriers might see some lost "overage" revenue from heavy users. But each should gain some customers who upgrade from lower-priced plans, as well as some customers upgrading because they are substituting wireless for wireline service.

It is possible higher subscription revenue will compensate for the loss of "overage" revenue.

$100 Unlimited Plans Spread

Wasting no time responding to a major new Verizon Wireless offer, at&t Wireless has unveiled its own $100 ($99.99)a month plan for unlimited mobile calling. The plans will be available to new and existing wireless subscribers Feb. 22. Existing customers can buy the plan without extending their current contracts.

New customers can buy on a month-to-month, 12 month or 24 month contract.

Sprint has been offering unlimited calling plans in four markets at about $119.

Will Sprint Unleash Nukes?

At this point, it is fairly clear to just about anyone that Sprint Nextel has to do something dramatic to reverse its sliding fortunes in the mobile services market. Sprint no longer has the luxury of time for small incremental changes that might change its fortunes "some day."

So the issue is whether Sprint will "go nuclear," unleashing some sort of market-disrupting attack it expects its competitors will not want to match. Its a risky gambit, to be sure. AT&T completely changed the basic way mobile voice minutes of use are packaged when it launched "Digital One Rate."

But the tactic has not had long-term differentiating value because all the other major carriers simply shifted their packaging to match. So Sprint has to find a proposition that is startling and compelling to end users, but not appetizing for the more dominant providers to mimic quickly.

If the attempt is to "drive sales through the roof," nothing short of a disruptive move will work. Some suggest "unlimited calling" is one such tactic. Some smaller wireless providers such as Leap Wireless have prospered by offering unlimited local mobile calling. In so doing Leap and others have carved out a definable niche in the "wireline replacement," value calling and ethnic market segments.

There is some thinking that unlimited calling on at least a continental basis might be the same sort of market-shaking move, eliminating the "what is the right bucket size?" decision every consumer has to make, and transforming what is still a service sold on the basis of "scarcity" into a service whose premise is "abundance."

In some sense, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse actually has to hope that such an assault really would drive call volumes through the roof. Because if Sprint can do so, and its relatively generous spectrum will support the additional traffic, some other key competitors--especially Verizon and at&t--might not be able to quickly turn up additional bandwidth to match the offer.

And that's the other part of the equation. The offer must shake up user perceptions of value compared to price, as did Digital One Rate. But the offer must challenge Sprint's competitors enough that they will not immediately respond.

And at some level this is a nuclear strategy in an operational sense: if Sprint moves to provoke a non-linear increase in voice usage, can it handle the load? More important, can Sprint's competitors handle increases of the same magnitude if they decide to respond to the offer.

Likewise, there is the financial angle. If competitors match Sprint's offer, what is the level of damage they sustain in average revenue per minute of use, or average revenue per user? How does Sprint price and package so a direct competitive response is too painful to contemplate?

If Verizon and at&t can't match the offer without losing more than they gain, they won't match the offer. And if they won't, Sprint gains the distinctive positioning it seeks.

"Going nuclear" is going to be dangerous. But the only thing more dangerous at this point is thinking Sprint somehow can "creep" its way to success. The issue is where "unlimited calling" is, in itself, destabilizing enough to achieve what Sprint wants.

My sense is that it would not. Leap Wireless already offers a plan that is for most users a "national unlimited calling" plan, for about $50 a month. But there are other angles.

Unlimited texting or Web access might be more attractive. If Sprint really wants to disrupt the market, it can do something about texting plans.

More Changes at Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel faces big problems. New CEO Dan Hesse is wasting no time "doing something." First Sprint announced significant headcount reductions (4,000) and closing of a number of retail operations (125 stores and 4,000 retail partners) Now Sprint says CFO Paul Saleh, Chief Marketing Officer Tim Kelly and Mark Angelino, president of sales and distribution, are leaving the company.

The executive changes involve officials most responsible for building the telecom company's brand and customer base, or more accurately, a declining customer base. The earlier set of moves will help Sprint reduce its overall and cost structure. The resignations allow Hesse to bring in a new team to change course. The issue now is what course Sprint Nextel will take.