Though Legere and T-Mobile haven’t said explicitly which Apple device or devices the carrier would sell, the timing would put T-Mobile in line to retail the current-generation iPhone 5 a good four to five months before the smartphone is likely to be refreshed this fall. There’s also the off chance that T-Mobile might be a candidate for the rumored “cheap iPhone” Apple is supposedly developing.

Neville Ray, CTO, T-Mobile (c) 2012 Pinar Ozger pinar@pinarozger.com

What’s more, T-Mobile probably wouldn’t have to sell the iPhone as a mere 3G device as many international operators and smaller U.S. carriers are forced to do. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray revealed at T-Mo’s big CES event that he would have a good portion of his LTE network online by mid-2013. Couple that with Ray’s rapidly accelerating HSPA+ network upgrade around the country, and T-Mobile will be able to support all of the iPhone 5’s connectivity capabilities in many of its markets at launch. Not bad for a carrier that couldn’t get anything more than a 2G signal to the iPhone just six months ago.

T-Mobile originally planned to launch LTE in the second half of this year, making it the last U.S. operator to deploy the latest generation mobile broadband technology. T-Mobile is still behind its primary competitors, but management has apparent lit a fire under Ray’s engineering team. At CES, Ray said T-Mo’s first LTE systems would go online in Las Vegas in the next few weeks, which would put him five months ahead of schedule.

The iPhone won’t be the only device benefiting from T-Mobile’s accelerated LTE plans. The Verge is reporting that T-Mobile will soon offer an LTE version of the Samsung’s popular Galaxy S III smartphone. Though The Verge didn’t name a launch date, the device could hit shelves well in advance of the actual LTE launch since T-Mobile could activate its LTE radios at any time with a simple over-the-air software update.

T-Mobile had a big CES. In addition to the LTE and iPhone revelations, T-Mobile made multiple updates to its technology and service plans.

• My colleague Kevin Tofel wrote about T-Mobile’s plans to take unlimited smartphone plans contract-free, answering one of T-Mobile customers’ biggest gripes. T-Mobile is moving to an unsubsidized model, meaning customers will either pay full freight for their devices, bring their own phones or buy them in installments. Since contracts are supposed to cover carriers’ upfront subsidy costs, enforcing contracts with no subsidy makes little sense. It will be interesting to see if T-Mobile moves away from contracts completely as it phases out subsidies this year.
• T-Mobile revealed its network is now high-definition-voice compatible, which means it can support a much higher call quality than current cellular voice systems. Three current devices – the Galaxy S III, the HTC One S and the Nokia Astound phone – will support the HD features, but there are also some big limitations to its initial appeal. As PC Mag’s Sascha Segan explains, HD calls will only work between T-Mobile devices that both have the HD client, and so far T-Mo’s technology is incompatible with any of the HD codecs other carriers are working on.
• In order to encourage devices other than smartphones onto is network, T-Mobile is offering 200 MB of free data each month for two years on select Windows 8 laptops. Called 4G Connect, the program could get really interesting if T-Mobile expands it tablets, providing a big incentive for consumers to buy 4G versions of the iPad and other slates.
• T-Mobile has upgraded its HSPA+ network to support iPhone frequencies in four more markets: Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego and Virginia Beach, Va. The network refarming is now complete in 46 cities covering 126 million people. The reconfiguration is key to T-Mobile supporting the iPhone’s data capabilities, and at its current pace should be largely complete at the iPhone’s launch.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile 2012 and beyond
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE

Sprint’s acquisition of Nextel two years earlier was a heavy albatross around its neck. Its customer service had gone down the tubes, employee morale was low, and the company culture fractured; worst of all, Sprint’s once loyal subscribers were fleeing in droves. Hesse knew he was taking over a struggling company, but in an interview with GigaOM he admitted that even he didn’t realize the magnitude of Sprint’s troubles until he arrived. “When I took over the assignment the problems were more severe than I anticipated,” he said.

Hesse staring in one of many Sprint “Simply Everything” commercials

Fast forward five years, and it’s plain to see Sprint has turned several corners. Its net subscribers totals are increasing rather than shrinking, helped along by the iPhone. Its improved financials have sent Sprint’s stock skyrocketing, its share price more than doubling in value in the last year. Its customer service is now consistently scoring the highest marks in surveys conducted by J.D. Power and other agencies.

Sprint hasn’t fully recovered from the dark days of the last decade. Seven years after the merger it’s still dealing with the fallout of Nextel, it still has more work to do to repair its brand, and during the several years Sprint was healing its wounds, its biggest competitors AT&T and Verizon Wireless took advantage of Sprint’s problems to become bigger and more formidable.

But it’s fair to say there’s a lot more upside than downside to Sprint these days. Japan’s Softbank certainly thinks so. It’s investing $20.1 billion to take control of the country’s third largest carrier.

A few days before his fifth anniversary at Sprint, Hesse sat down with GigaOM to discuss his tenure as CEO and the five years of trials and tribulations Sprint has endured on its path to recovery.

Why AT&T is to thank for Sprint’s new identity

We asked Hesse what the most significant moment of his tenure was, and we were surprised by the answer: AT&T-Mo.

“The most important decision that has been made in the five years I’ve been here was the decision to fight the acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T,” Hesse said. “It fundamentally defined the industry, which in turn defined Sprint in terms of who we are is and what our role in the industry is.”

Echoing thoughts he gave in an interview with GigaOM last year, Hesse said that the AT&T’s failed attempt to consolidate two of the Big 4 made him realize that there was no longer such a thing as the Big 4. The industry had bifurcated into the Big 2 and everybody else.

“Through a combination of acquisitions of spectrum and acquisitions of other companies, as well as organic growth, AT&T and Verizon together became a much larger percentage of the overall wireless market,” Hesse said. “Five years ago I wouldn’t have called them a duopoly. Today they’re darn close. If AT&T had been allowed to acquire T-Mobile than we would have clearly had a duopoly.”

Sprint can’t take credit for killing AT&T-Mo, though its vociferous opposition to the deal likely influenced the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice’s decisions to quash it. More significantly, the deal helped shape Sprint’s identity. Hesse said it made Sprint realize that many of its interests were now more closely aligned with smaller competitive carriers rather than the Big 2.

Sprint began defining much of its strategy by focusing on services and policies the market was demanding but AT&T and Verizon weren’t delivering. Ma Bell and Big Red killed unlimited plans. Sprint embraced them. They concentrated on contract plans. Sprint dived whole-hog into prepaid. While Verizon and AT&T are still keeping mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), Sprint has become a hero to the virtual operator. Sprint had started down that path before AT&T-Mo ever happened, but Hesse said the attempted merger reinforced the notion Sprint was on the right track.

While AT&T-Mo’s approval would have stifled competition, it’s failure had the opposite effect. The government has made its position clear: it wants to see strong third-and fourth-place operators to keep the Big 2 in check, and that has spurred new interest in the likes of Sprint and T-Mobile.

“Investment into the U.S. wireless industry would dry up if you had a government sanctioned wireless duopoly,” Hesse said. “Softbank has said publicly it wouldn’t have invested a thousand dollars in the U.S. if that merger had gone through.”

The Nextel problem

The biggest problems Hesse has been forced to fix were not of his own making. When he took over in late 2007, his predecessors had made two significant decisions that still haunt the company to this day: the acquisition of Nextel and the embrace of WiMAX as Sprint’s future 4G technology.

“With 20/20 hindsight, the Nextel merger was a mistake,” Hesse said. “The synergies, if you will, that we had hoped for and planned for didn’t materialize.”

In fact, Hesse may be just a few months away from shedding that Nextel albatross for good. June 30 is the date he’s set for shutting down Nextel’s iDEN network, at which point Sprint will start refarming its airwaves for LTE. It will be a painful six months. There are still 3.1 million Nextel and Boost Mobile subscribers on iDEN, many of them clinging to the Direct Connect push-to-talk service that originally made Nextel so popular. So far, Sprint has been able to convert a fair amount of iDEN customers into CDMA customers, though, and has managed to attract 1 million subscribers to its new CDMA version of Direct Connect.

As for WiMAX, Hesse isn’t quite ready to call it a failure, even though the rest of the wireless industry has dismissed it. Hesse isn’t blind. He knows LTE is the future — and Sprint is in the early stages of a nationwide LTE rollout — but Hesse also maintained that Sprint got more out of WiMAX than the industry gives it credit.

“One of the big decisions I had to make early on whether to mothball and shut down the WiMAX business and take a big write off,” Hesse said. At the time Sprint simply didn’t have any money to invest more in a new network strategy, Hesse said. Its choices were making its fateful deal to merge WiMAX operations with Clearwire — or do nothing at all. The Clearwire deal did give Sprint the country’s first 4G network, though lack of funds prevented Clearwire from completing more two-thirds of its network, and Verizon Wireless quickly caught up with LTE.

“Time will tell,” Hesse said. “It’s too early to say whether [WiMAX] was a good call or a not so good call.”

A lot of history’s judgment will probably be based on the eventual fate of Clearwire. A day after our interview with Hesse, Sprint made a bid to buy out Clearwire completely. (Update: Sprint and Clearwire revealed on Monday that the Clearwire board has agreed to a $2.2. billion takeover deal.)

Becoming the carrier that isn’t hated

If Hesse wants Sprint to be perceived as one thing, it’s as “the good guy” in the U.S. wireless industry. While AT&T and Verizon Wireless increasingly make moves that go against the desires of their customers and trends in technology, Hesse said, Sprint will try to become the most pro-consumer and open carrier out there.

Hesse (third from left) and the CEOs of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile at CTIA Wireless

There are the big ticket items, such as pricing structures like its unlimited data Simply Everything plans. But there are small moves as well, such as opting to use Google Wallet as a mobile payments solution, rather than inject itself forcibly into the NFC commerce chain. It’s also tried to claim the mantle as the country’s greenest operator.

Still, Sprint is having a hard time explaining its new role to consumers. Hesse said that its current customers know the new Sprint and like what they see, as indicated by its stellar rise in the consumer survey rankings. But for customers who have never owned a Sprint phone or left angrily during its rebuilding period, the name Sprint still has plenty of negative connotations.

“A brand can be tarnished very quickly, but it takes a long time to rebuild it,” Hesse said. “That’s the issue we had. The company had let the customer service and customer experience deteriorate, and we really have to work hard to change that perception. … We have changed the perception of Sprint customers very quickly because they have noticed how much we’ve improved. It’s more difficult to change the perceptions of non-customers.”

Sprint logo photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Susan Law Cain

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE

Telcel América, however, will be very different from Telcel Mexico. In fact Telcel’s U.S. incarnation will look an awful like Straight Talk Wireless, another MVNO run by TracFone. For $45 a month a customer gets unlimited voice, SMS and supposedly unlimited data, though I suspect as with Straight Talk, Telcel will probably cut you off if you regularly go over 2 GB a month.

But for $60 month, Telcel will tack on unlimited calling to set international destinations, including both landlines and wireless numbers in Mexico. BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk explains why that’s a big deal:

In Mexico, the 99 million mobile customers dwarfs the shrinking 15 million landlines in that market and those mobile phone customers do not pay for inbound calls. Telcel America will be differentiated by offering Unlimited calling to both mobile and landline. Sprint’s Boost Unlimited and MetroPCS charge $55/month for their “Mexico Unlimited” rate plans which [are] unlimited only to landline numbers but not the more prevalent mobile numbers.  MetroPCS and Leap charge $0.30/minute extra for calls to Mexican cellular lines while Boost Unlimited’s rates vary from $0.20 – $0.28 per minute.

Typically a U.S. carrier has to pay its mobile counterpart in Mexico to connect those international calls, but in this case América Móvil is that counterpart. It has a 70 percent market share in the Mexican mobile market, so the vast majority of these calls would be considered “in network”.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• A look back at mobile in the third quarter
• Mobile 2012 and beyond

According to Republic, it’s the first device fully integrated with its proprietary hybrid cellular-Wi-Fi connection management software. Republic isn’t just reselling off-the-shelf devices. It’s delving deep into the Android stack to change the way the phone connects the network, prioritizing wireless LAN connections over cellular and transforming circuit-switched mobile calls to VoIP-over-Wi-Fi whenever possible.

The savings from shunting all of that traffic to Wi-Fi – rather than pay wholesale voice and data partner Sprint for network airtime – allow Republic to keep its prices low and maintain that endangered species of mobile services, the unlimited and unthrottled data plan. Republic not only leverages its customers’ home and office Wi-Fi networks, but it has signed a deal with Devicescape to access a “virtual” hotspot network of 7.8 million open access points. In the U.S., where Devicescape’s network is the densest, the Wi-Fi aggregator has seen traffic offload rates as high as 40 percent among its customers, according to Devicescape CEO Dave Fraser.

Republic has actually been using Devicescape’s technology in a limited fashion for months, loading its connection management client into the first wave of LG Optimus smartphones it shipped. But by combining Devicescape’s technology with its own hybrid calling software, Republic says can now fully realize its Wi-Fi-first strategy and is thus ready to open the flood gates to new users.

The company is still is in beta, but according to a spokesman the company’s waiting list is now more than 100,000 prospective customers long, and Republic is now letting those people onto the network “in waves.” Republic hasn’t revealed how many people it allowed into the first beta round, but it said it is now ready to scale its business. Here’s what Republic GM Brian Dally had to say in the carrier’s blog:

Members of republic are better equipped than ever before to take advantage of Wi-Fi’s fullest potential, helping to make smartphones affordable for millions more in the process. That’s important at a time when Big Cell is busy making more money at higher prices, with more restrictions and continued confusing business practices.

Republic will be the first operator to carry the water-resistant Moto Defy XT, which sports a 3.7-inch Gorilla Glass display, 1 GHz apps processor and 5 MP camera. Republic is also encouraging its existing customers to upgrade to the new device, offering Optimus users a $100 discount if they buy the Moto smartphone.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Mobile 2012 and beyond
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

T-Mobile this week revealed just how much that typical smartphone user on its network consumes: 760 MB per month. What’s more subscribers that have its 42 Mbps dual-carrier HSPA+ phones such as the new HTC One S gobble up an astonishing 1.3 GB a month, which proves the obvious: faster networks mean more data used. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray revealed these details at the NGNM conference in San Francisco during a slide presentation (pdf) that was first reported by the eagle-eyed folks at FierceWireless.

Those figures may not seem huge to GigaOM readers, whom I’m betting tend to be power users. But let’s put those numbers in perspective. Cisco Systems’ Visual Networking Index calculated the average U.S. smartphone in 2011 consumed only 201 MB per month. Globally, Ericsson’s Traffic and Market Report found that in the first quarter iPhones and Android devices consumed roughly 350 MB per month. T-Mobile’s typical user either doubles or triples those numbers depending on which report you go by, and its power users break the bank completely.

It’s possible that Sprint’s average smartphone usage exceeds T-Mobile, but I doubt it. Sprint does still offer unlimited plans, but a large portion of its smartphones are on its CDMA network, not its soon-to-be-retired WiMAX service. Just as faster speeds increase data consumption, slower speeds limit overall data use. Plus Sprint doesn’t extend free mobile hotspot capabilities to its customers, meaning subscribers are limited to the data they can access directly from their phone screens.

We won’t know, though, until the carriers release information on their average usage rates, which they are loathe to do (in fact, I’m surprised T-Mobile did so). Carriers typically keep that data confidential because if it were it public, it would be glaringly obvious how much we’re getting ripped off. While it’s hard to argue with Sprint’s unlimited policies, AT&T and Verizon both have historically priced their data tiers in ways that nowhere near reflect how the typical smartphone behaves.

According to Chetan Sharma Consulting, only 30 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers exceed 1 GB each month, yet their most common tiers are 2 GB and 3 GB plans. American consumers are paying for a lot of data that they couldn’t possibly consume. Verizon is rectifying that situation, in part, with new shared data plans that scale down to 1 GB a month, but it’s making up the difference by charging customers for required unlimited voice and SMS plans – arguably robbing Peter to pay Paul.

So why is T-Mobile releasing its numbers all of sudden? Well, for one, it has a lot less to be embarrassed about. Though its customers are still well below their caps, T-Mobile customers pay a lot less for data are consuming much more of the allotment they pay for. Also, T-Mobile is trying to convince regulators to nix Verizon’s proposed acquisition of the cable operators’ spectrum. Its key argument is that Verizon is a lousy steward of the public airwaves. By showing just how much its subscribers consume over the limited spectrum resources it owns, T-Mobile is betting it can shame Verizon in front of the Federal Communications Commission.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile 2012 and beyond
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012

For those unfamiliar, an MVNO is a sans-network operator that resells the data and voice services of a major carrier. What will set GSM Nation apart from the growing hordes of MVNOs popping up on AT&T’s and T-Mobiles’ networks is its own already highly developed retail business. It’s not quite Amazon or Best Buy, but it sells more than 200 different models of unlocked smartphones and tablets on its website, all of which are sourced directly from manufacturers or global distributors. It buys its iPhones from a reseller in Korea and imports Samsung Galaxy phones from Latin America.

“No other MVNO has these types of relationships,” Khattak said. Typically an MVNO will source a handful of new or refurbished smartphones from manufacturers or resellers, but for high-end devices like the iPhone it only supplies SIM cards and relies on customers to bring their own handset, he added. “We will be the first MVNO to sell high-end unlocked handsets straight from the manufacturer,” Khattak said.

Lots of data and a modicum of voice

GSM Nation has decided to partner with T-Mobile, tapping into the operator’s high-bandwidth HSPA+ networks and possibly even its future LTE network. Those data speeds are of particular importance to the company because it plans to target more-sophisticated users who live for their data services and spend relatively little time talking on their phones.

Khattak said GSM Nation’s cheapest plan will run about $33 and will include roughly 250 voice minutes and 2 GB of data. Customers will be able to buy bigger buckets of data and even a truly unlimited plan in higher-tier plans. They can purchase more minutes, as well, but Khattak believes those voice-centric customers will be the minority. “Smartphone users are already migrating their voice use to Skype and other VoIP services,” he said. “I doubt there will be that much demand.”

The approach is the opposite of the one taken by Verizon. The new shared plans it unveiled this week give customers an unlimited amount of services consumers are using less, voice and messages, while giving them relatively less of the service they’re consuming more, data. GSM Nation will reveal more specifics on its plan pricing as it gets closer to its planned launch in four to five months, Khattak said. It has the paperwork with T-Mobile in order and its backend infrastructure. It only has to bring its customer service — which is now focused on selling devices, not service plans — up to par.

Why go MVNO?

GSM Nation is a small operation. It brought in about $35 million in revenues last year, primarily from business customers, Khattak said. But the costs of creating an MVNO aren’t huge. GSM Nation is funding its new venture from the profits of its retail business and $700,000 in seed funding, $200,000 of which came from Khattak’s dentist.

It may not be a big company, but its ambitions are. Khattak said he and co-founder Junaid Shams created the company with the idea of replicating in the U.S. the mobile retail model of Europe, where most customers don’t buy their phones from their carriers. Khattak finds the idea of phone subsidies abhorrent, not only because they lock customers into long-term contracts but also because they come part and parcel with higher plan rates, which ultimately cost customers far more than they save on the initial phone discount.

“In five to six years we’re going to be in the same place Europe is in,” Khattak said. “We’ll be buying our phones and SIM cards separately.”

One of the key features of the GSM Nation retail portal is a savings calculator that shows customers just how much they would be saving in plan fees if they switched to a contract-free prepaid plan. It refers its customers to the cheapest carriers for any given voice and data plan, and in the case of MVNOs Red Pocket and Simple Mobile resell their SIM cards.

With the MVNO’s launch, GSM Nation will, of course, prioritize its own mobile plans over its competitors, but Khattak said it will keep some separation between the MVNO and retail businesses. Customers can buy an unlocked smartphone and leave, taking their device to whatever carrier they choose. GSM Nation will also sell straight-up SIM cards to any customer bringing her own device. In fact, Khattak hopes to see a lot of former AT&T customers bring their newly unlocked iPhones to his company.

For now GSM Nation will continue sending business to AT&T MVNOs like Red Pocket and H2O Wireless, for the simple reason that it has to. T-Mobile is in the middle of a large-scale network conversion, which, once complete, will plant its HSPA+ network firmly in the PCS band. The transition is gradual, starting with an initial upgrade of 2,500 cell sites in July, but by the time GSM Nation launches this fall, a good deal of T-Mobile’s 3G network will still be off-limits to most smartphones — including the iPhone.

GSM Nation plans to solve that problem in part by focusing initially on its stock of pentaband phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus that can work on any GSM operator’s 3G network as well as the smaller set of T-Mobile optimized quad-band phones such as the HTC One S. For customers who buy an iPhone or any other smartphone that doesn’t support T-Mobile’s Advanced Wireless services airwaves, GSM Nation will advise them in which markets they will be able to receive a 3G signal, steering them toward an AT&T MVNO if they are outside coverage. The process may be a bit awkward, but it will only be temporary. T-Mobile will likely complete the PCS conversion long before it launches its new LTE network in 2013.

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock user Reno Martin; Image courtesy of Flickr user mroach

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• What to watch in mobile in 2013
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Carrier IQ and the continued erosion of operator trust

When Verizon first unveiled Viewdini last week, I speculated that Verizon might make the app the first to implement ‘toll-free’ data policies, meaning that content providers would pay the network carriage charges instead of their customers. That turns out not to be the case.

Viewdini is subject to the same data metering as any other app (or throttling restrictions in the case of Verizon’s grandfathered unlimited customers). It also just so happens that Verizon is ending its double data LTE promotion next week, which means new customers will have to settle for its normal, and rather pricey, mobile data tiers.

It’s easy to see how customers can run up some hefty data bills using the service – full-length TV shows and movies can consume enormous amounts of bandwidth. The service itself, though, seems pretty innovative as it aggregates content that would normally be trapped behind specific apps. Viewdini lets you view video from the services to which you subscribe and allows you to buy or rent other content.

You can check out The Verge’s review here, which while generally positive found the absence of major streaming sources such as Vudu and HBO Go disappointing. Verizon has said it’s still in negotiations with other content providers and plans to add more video sources, including its own FiOS TV, in the future.

As for data restrictions, I wouldn’t be surprised if Verizon is still in discussions with these content providers about revenue-sharing deals that could offset the cost of delivering their video. It would be quite a compelling service if all or part of the content was off the meter and certainly a differentiator for the content providers that agreed to it. I’m not quite sure if Netflix and Hulu are ready to open up that Pandora’s Box though. For now Netflix seems more interested in helping its customers get around data caps by avoiding cellular entirely.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• Connected consumer third-quarter 2012

For this post, I’m just tackling the Big 4, exploring the price-per-gygabyte differences between their most common mid-tier smartphone and tablet/modem plans. I should point out there are several other regional carriers, like MetroPCS, and innovative new virtual operators, such as Republic Wireless, that are overturning the norms of mobile data pricing. But I’ll get to them a separate post. Like it or not, Verizon(vod), AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are the operators the overwhelming majority of us look to for mobile services.

Smartphones

All of the operators offer a myriad of data plans at different price points and megabyte allotments, but for the purposes of this post we identified each of the carrier’s $30 plans (which in some cases required ferreting out the data portion of their bundles). The idea here is to show who offers the most bang for your buck in what we consider a reasonable mid-tier plan. Keep in mind, though, that some of the big bucket plans are only a deal if you really use them. If you’re like most U.S. smartphone users you probably consume less than 1 GB a month.

• Sprint Unlimited (The name says it all): Sprint is the last major operator to offer truly unlimited smartphone access without throttling to its 3G EV-DO and 4G WiMAX network (where it’s available). Also, you can’t use your phone as a hotspot unless you sign up for an additional $30 upgrade, which caps tethered data at 5 GB ($6/GB).
• T-Mobile Classic 5 GB ($6/GB): T-Mobile calls all its plans unlimited, but it throttles back speeds once you hit your monthly cap on its HSPA+ network. That doesn’t mean it’s not the next biggest bargain after Sprint (though Classic plan prices are set to increase). But T-Mo is also on oddball since it has separate pricing structures depending on whether you opt for a subsidized device. If you bring you own device or buy your phone upfront, you can take advantage of a T-Mobile Value plan and save $5 off the normally $30 plan price, which adds up to $5/GB. All of T-Mobile’s upper tier plans also allow you to use your phone as a hotspot at no extra charge, so if you tether your phone you stand a pretty good chance of actually using up your 5 gigs.
• AT&T DataPro 3GB ($10/GB): AT&T recently hiked prices for new customers on its HSPA and LTE networks, but in the process it drove down the cost it charges for a megabyte. The end result is new customers pay a $5 premium over the old $25 plan, but they get an extra gig. That works out to be a savings of $2.50/GB. AT&T is still much pricier than Sprint and T-Mobile, and it doesn’t allow you to use personal hotspot features unless you upgrade to the $50 tier.
• Verizon Data for Smartphones: 2 GB ($15/GB): Verizon Wireless is by far the most expensive mobile data provider, though when you get into the elevated tiers it does cut you some slack.. If you’re willing to commit to 10 GBs a month, you pay $8/GB, and it charges for overages at $10/GB. To use your phone as a hotspot you need to buy an additional 2 GB for $20. Verizon has always taken a get-what-you-pay-for attitude. It may be expensive, but it has both the most extensive 3G and LTE networks.

Tablets and mobile broadband

The smartphone rankings practically invert when it comes to tablet and modem pricing. It’s worth noting that with tablets and hotspots, the differences in data buckets really matter to the average users. While it might be hard to eat up multiple gigabytes on a smartphone, it’s actually quite easy on an iPad. We aimed for the $30/month mark here as well, but not every operator has a plan at that price point. So instead we took the closest plan to $30 each offers and calculated the cost per gigabyte.

• AT&T Data Connect for Tablets ($10/GB): AT&T has a bunch of different types of plans for its non-smartphone devices but once you get to the $30 tier they pretty much work out to $10/GB (including overages). The exception is if you buy a subsidized Android tablet on contract, where a 3 GB plans costs $35. Also, if you sign up for a laptop, hotspot or dongle plan, your minimum commitment is $50 for 5 GB.
• Sprint Mobile Broadband ($11.67/GB):  Sprint stopped selling unlimited data plans for everything but smartphones last October, and the data tiers that replaced unlimited aren’t very exciting. It’s closest tier to $30 a month is $35 plan with 3 GB of data for tablet and hotspot plans. What’s more Sprint charges some pretty punitive rates for overages: 5 cents a megabyte, which works out to be an extraordinary $50/GB.
• Verizon Mobile Broadband ($15/GB): If anything Verizon is consistent. It charges the same data rates and overage fees for smartphones, tablets or modems, as well as for contract and prepaid services. The pricing here is for the standard $30/2 GB tablet data pricing plan, but if you opt for a subsidized hotspot of dongle the minimum charge is $50 for 5 GB.
• T-Mobile Mobile Broadband ($20/GB): T-Mobile’s progressive data pricing in smartphones becomes awfully regressive when you get to tablet and modem plans. Its cheapest $40 tier gives you a only 2 GB of unthrottled data. If you go for the unsubsidized device or bring your own tablet,  prices drop by $10 ($15/GB), but that’s still hardly the deal of its smartphone plans.

Sale image courtesy of Flickr User Peter Kaminski

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• Takeaways from mobile’s second quarter

AT&T is appealing the decision, while Spaccarelli is taking his cause to the Internet, joining up with PublikDemand in hopes of creating a viral campaign to force AT&T to stop throttling its remaining unlimited customers, all of whom were grandfathered into their plans when AT&T introduced tiered pricing in 2010. AT&T isn’t too pleased with the unwanted attention, and is seeking to settle the case to keep Spaccarelli quiet, according to the Associated Press. Spaccarelli, however, claims that AT&T’s settlement offer is more a demand and that the carrier has threatened to shut off his mobile service if he doesn’t play ball.

AT&T, however, claims that’s not true. In a letter (available on the PublikDemand site as a pdf), AT&T writes that Spaccarelli is tethering his iPhone to other devices in violation of his contract. “As the result of your tethering, AT&T has the right to terminate your service,” the letter reads. “Nevertheless, and as we discussed, AT&T is interested in hearing any concerns you would like to raise about AT&T, and AT&T wants to discuss with you the concerns it has about your data usage.”

There definitely seems to be an implied threat, though AT&T doesn’t connect the dots completely. We reached out to Ma Bell and were told by a spokesman that AT&T never threatened to shut off Spaccarelli’s service in the letter. AT&T was making the point that Spaccarelli was violating his contract, which would normally be grounds for termination, the spokesman said.

The rest of the letter is boilerplate for AT&T’s non-disclosure agreement, which AT&T would require Spaccarelli to sign if he agreed to settlement talks. In that agreement, AT&T does say it would terminate Spaccarelli’s service if he revealed any information about his negotiations with AT&T. But the spokesman said that would be the case only if Spaccarelli agreed to the legal contract and then violated the terms.

Either way, one of the stipulations of the agreement is that Spaccarelli not reveal its existence, so it’s pretty much void as it stands now. If AT&T really plans to shut off Spaccarelli’s iPhone we’ll find out soon enough. Most likely, AT&T would try to force him to change to a tiered plan or tethered data plan, which it has done with customers in the past.

A public relations and a legal nightmare

It doesn’t seem like Spaccarelli is interested in a settlement in any case. Instead he wants to publicly shame or legally force AT&T to stop its throttling practices. “I need the money, but for me, this case is not about money at all,” Spaccarelli told the The Associated Press after the original court case. “You don’t tell somebody ‘you have unlimited’ and then cut them off.”

The controversy surrounding AT&T’s throttling policies only appears to be growing ever since the initial reports surfaced that AT&T was slowing down speeds on customers after they used as little as 2 GB in their monthly cycles. Two GB might seem like a lot, but not when you consider that AT&T is selling its tiered-plan customers 3 GB for the same price as an unlimited plan. AT&T has since revised its policies so that throttling doesn’t kick in until after 3 GB of usage on HSPA+ and after 5 GB on LTE.

Meanwhile, the Spaccarelli ruling is creating new problems for AT&T. The award was only $850, but it could just be the initial crack in the dam. Here’s what my colleague Jeff Roberts wrote on our sister site PaidContent about the possible implications:

A judge’s decision in small claims court doesn’t create a legal precedent that others must follow. Ordinarily this type of case would lead to a class action suit (allowing everyone to sue at once), but AT&T short-circuited that option by banning these types of lawsuits in its customer contracts. This is a controversial tactic, but a divided Supreme Court agreed it was legal last year.

… AT&T’s “no class action” rule helped to stifle consumer lawsuits, but a wave of small claims filings could open a new can of worms. To stop this, the company will likely go all out to shut down Spaccarelli as a way to deter others. … The bottom line is that new lawsuits are for now likely to be a trickle rather than a flood. This could change if Spaccarelli wins the appeal.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Carrier IQ and the continued erosion of operator trust
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

The BBC noticed something a little off when it investigated the new pricing structure and terms of use for the iPhone deals Orange is about to begin offering on Nov. 10. First, it turns out that far from sparking a price war, Orange has basically adopted the same deal that O2 currently offers, with some minor changes meant to sway customers its way.

Secondly, and this is the real kicker, Orange’s “unlimited” apparently means up to a maximum of 750MB per month, if you look at the fine print. When asked to clarify, Orange stated that the cap was for its 3G network, and that another 750MB cap existed for use at the hotspots of its Wi-Fi partner BT Openzone. Finally, another clause in the Orange Terms and Conditions states that data is…

Not to be used for other activities (e.g., using your handset as a modem, non-Orange Internet-based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, instant messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing, non-Orange Internet-based video). Should such use be detected notice may be given and network protection controls applied to all services which Orange does not believe constitutes mobile browsing.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty certain I do almost all of those things on my iPhone over my carrier’s data connection on at least a daily basis. If true, this clause could block the use of programs like Beejive IM, Facebook, Spotify, and the BBC iPlayer.

By contrast, O2, when asked to clarify its fair use limits, said this:

We reserve the right…to contact customers about their usage if we believe it adversely affects the service of our other customers, e.g., if a customer uses their SIM in another device for which it is not intended.

So what advantage is left to Orange, then? Basically only network coverage and quality. This just goes to show that the iPhone is a cruel mistress no matter which carrier she appears on, and that the end of exclusivity might have less positive ramifications for customers than previously expected.

Data is the key to the iPhone’s success, as it is positioned as one of the few devices on the market that users increasingly use for Internet access first, and phone functionality second. This presents a dilemma (subscription required) for wireless operators, since keeping up with demand can considerably tax network quality and dependability. AT&T in the U.S. is constantly under fire for its 3G network stability, for example.

Orange later said it would be reviewing the cap following the large volume of negative emails it received regarding its use of the word “unlimited.” Hopefully, the company will also look at those ridiculous restrictions regarding data usage, since the real appeal of the iPhone for most users is the ability to do precisely those things which that clause specifically prohibits.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile 2012 and beyond
• AWS Storage Gateway jolts cloud-storage ecosystem
• 4 iPad apps to help wrangle data