Sprint iPhone 4G watch: nevermind about that “better pricing” thing

Ask a Sprint iPhone holdout why they’d rather remain with Sprint than go get themselves an iPhone 4 from another carrier, and they’ll have an answer or two ready. Some will name-check Sprint’s 4G network, although that only exists where it exists and, depending on whom you ask, is only debatably “4G” anyway (hence Verizon’s recent use of the term “4G LTE” as if to say “no, this is the real 4G over here). Others will point to Sprint’s superior pricing plans, which the company’s CEO has spent plenty of time on television promoting as being inexpensive and all-inclusive. Except, oops, the price of poker just went up. Again. And this time there’s no way around it.

Sprint has announced that while it had previously only been charging customers a $10 monthly fee if they actually wanted to have access to 4G (funny how that part never gets mentioned in the commercials), BetaNews now says that all new Sprint customers will have to begin paying the extra $10 a month for 4G whether they use it or not. The good news for Sprint customers: the data is still unlimited, and even with the new fee tacked on, using a Sprint smartphone is still less expensive than using an iPhone on either Verizon or AT&T. The catch: Sprint still doesn’t have the iPhone. In other words, unless you’re an Android geek, the price you’re paying to remain with Sprint isn’t so much a monetary one as it is in terms of spending who knows how much longer glaring at the iPhone in the hands of AT&T and now Verizon customers, wondering what if, when, and why not. Here’s more on a Sprint iPhone.