• May 14, 2008

While disclosing its considerable financial woes in the first quarter, Sprint Nextel on Monday offered few details on the status of its heavily-promoted $99.99 "Simply Everything" plan providing unlimited voice and data service.

"It's too early to make any definitive statements about the success of Simply Everything but so far," said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse in an analyst conference call. "It's doing better than we had expected not only for new acquisitions but especially for customer retention."

Sprint launched the fixed-rate program earlier this year in response to $99.99 unlimited calling plans introduced by rivals including AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless. Those carriers reported increases in mobile data subscribers during the last quarter.

While Sprint's average revenue per user (ARPU) has continued to fall because of an exodus of subscribers, Hesse said the Simply Everything offering would help the company hold on to customers "at the high end."

--Mark Walsh