The biggest issue is the lack of transparency and candor. Limited “unlimited” is a recipe for disaster. 99% of the time, it doesn't cause a problem. But that 1%, which you were caught in, can undo all the other things Sprint is doing to regain its competitive footing.

What's sad here is that old phone company defaults (e.g. creating arbitrary limits and charging for overages) are returning to Sprint at a time in history when all mobile companies have an enormous opportunity to take the lead as internet service providers — and Sprint already had a small but significant lead, as the only company with a legitimate “unlimited” claim.

Sprint made a dumb move when it compromised its “unlimited” plans with a data-cap just like everybody else. It was a huge value-subtract for some of its most enthusiastic and important customers. We're not talking about gamers or file-sharers hogging the cable plant here. We're talking about professionals who shell out big bux so they can connect and do urgent business anywhere — and who meet and talk with plenty of others like them. These are customers you want, not customers you blow off. Saying “The use of voice and data roaming by a small minority of customers is generating a disproportionately large level of operating expense for the company” is narrow, dumb thinking. Punishing those users is lame in the extreme. That all the phone companies do it makes it even more lame, not less.

I travel a lot and depend often on my Sprint card. But I can also live without it. And right now that's what I plan to do.