Boost Mobile pulling the plug on CDMA promotion
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 28th 2009 12:48PM
posted Jan 28th 2009 12:48PM
The writing was probably on the wall, but no one's paying close enough attention to what Boost Mobile's doing to even notice. phonescoop has it that the company famous for pushing its services with giant sized humans uttering one liners such as "yo" and "where u at?" is getting set to slowly (but surely) phase CDMA out of its life. According to company spokesperson Tatum Hawkins: "Boost Mobile will still operate, support and service its CDMA-related products, but it will no longer promote them. If customers wish to sign up for CDMA-based services, they may still do so. However, Boost will no longer create new CDMA products and/or services, nor will it add new CDMA phones to its roster of devices." From here, the firm hopes to focus on "building up the strength of its iDEN-based services and devices," so from us to you -- good luck with that Boost Mobile.
Oh ya. This is gonna work.
They may as well just admit defeat today.
Wow, I've heard of steps backwards, but they might just pull a Superman 2 with this one and reverse time.
Because the Iden network has enough bandwidth and only capable at this time for 2g speeds. Boost mobile is targeting a different market. They just released a $50 unlimited plan. If they offered a real nice texting phone I would be all over that.
It's not defeat at all...it's simply Sprint finally realizing that offering CDMA services through the Boost Mobile brand was a monumentally bad idea that cannibalized activations from the parent company. Finally Mr. Hesse pulled the collective head out of it's a** and made a good decision - even if it was almost two years late.
I didn't even know Boost had CDMA services, but I guess it makes sense. Although iDEN isn't exactly the most promising thing either...
That's what they get for ending their slogan in a preposition. Ignorant marketing and ignorant customers.
Sprint: "That CDMA licensing too pricey for ya, eh? Hmm... Well we just so happen to have this iDEN network we're not doing anything with. I'm about to make you a deal you can't refuse..."
Moving from one end-of-life tech to another makes just so much sense...
Don't underestimate the value of Boost's "Walkie-Talkie" PTT service which is also included in the new $50 Unlimited plan, along with voice, text and web. No one else can touch that.
Some interesting comments. The inference re. licensing isn't quite right ;-). Boost does not license spectrum or minutes from Sprint; Boost is not an MVNO. Boost is a wholly owned subsidiary. The note re. unused iDEN spectrum makes a lot of sense. If Sprint is running CDMA a near capacity, they don't want to built out additional capacity for prepaid, when Boost can sell iDEN services to customers who aren't in need of high speed data applications.
That said, iDEN handsets need to get a lot sexier to keep people interested, even those who aren't interested in data services. Note that navigation is still available and quite functional on iDEN, which is probably the most common data app for a lot of people. Also, being limited to Motorola puts Boost at a disadvantage in terms of pricing. All in all, great plan to leverage unused iDEN capacity, but in the long term, I predict it's back to CDMA!
Cheers,
PrepaidWirelessGuy
www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com
I'm sorry for this but..
i have the i776 with Boost new unlimited iden service! I really truely freakin hate it! they market the next generation and text.. bla bla.. unlimted.. but honestly it reaks!
1.) text messages take 5 to 10 mins to reach your phone (on the average)
2.) when text messages do arrive, they have to download! even with the automatic download feature checked! My buddy texted me to confirm our lunch appointment.. he text me the letter "k" for "ok".. that took 5 mins to download!
sometimes they download sometimes they don't need to downloaded!
3.) Boost customer service doesnt' know what they are doing! i called them to help me and they said the towers are down.. and they can't trouble shoot my phone because it will set my service back.. ... really???? i even gave them a fake zipcode and she said "yup, a tower is down in your area"..
4) My friends tell me... "dude, your phone sucks.. it keeps going to voicemail!".. .
my CDMA phones from boost works nice! good texting.. just hate that the krzr phone is slow to react to the touch.. it has a 3 second delay for everything! if it's not one thing it's the other!
i'm going to let my iden Boost phone run out and sell the phone.. i'm keeping the boost cdma ... for now..
So, can you use "Sprint" cdma phones on Boost Mobile service (if it's not flashed)?
I have the i776 and I love it. I just switched to the Boost Unlimited for $50 Flat and I tell you it's one great deal. I love the phone, no it's not an iPhone or anything but it does what I want it to. It's not the fastest phone, but it's reliable and very lightweight and has a great speaker on it for either direct connect or using it as a speakerphone. I had an expesive Samsung phone with T-Mobile and I could barely hear the speaker phone on that. The Motorola has volume to spare and I appreciate that very much.
If you need instant messaging, try a computer = remember this is a phone still! You can't go wrong with this phone really. I use it to surf weather, and sports scores and business news. The screen isn't the biggest, but I get my news that I am looking for. This plan is great and I give kudos to Boost Mobile, I like their appeal to the younger crowd. I am 43 but I think it's cool and it's for me, one of the best plans to come down the road recently. I love it !