Which will be the last telecom standing? We may know sooner than you think.
Yesterday, at the CTIA trade show, Sprint Nextel's
As if the timing matters. With this change, Sprint is pretty much admitting that traditional telephony is dead.
Credit Hesse for recognizing the obvious, even if he's doing so long after at least one of his peers. Last year, AT&T
But there are implications to taking dynamite to the pay-for-minutes model that has sustained wireless providers such as Sprint, AT&T, Verizon
Hesse, for his part, seems to be characterizing this as an evolutionary move that aligns his company more closely with partner Clearwire
And it may be. Trouble is, once today's opaque wireless pricing schemes go away, replaced by one-size fits all data plans, differentiators disappear. Cost becomes king, and a race to the bottom is all that's left. That's why I'm staying short in all the telcos in my Motley Fool CAPS portfolio.
Is Sprint right to switch to per-gigabyte pricing? Discuss in the comments box below.