[dishe]

Ok, I'm going to jump right in here and point out something fundamental some of you seem to be missing.

Look at AT&T for a moment, and look at what their network was before the iPhone. They used to be a pretty decent carrier, with a strong data network and happy customers. Now, their network is literally crumbling, calls dropping, data speeds not maintaining their highs, etc...
iPhone users are complaining left and right, and everyone appears to be counting down for the iphone to hit "a better network, you know, like Verizon".
What many people are failing to realize is that this would likely happen to ANY network the iPhone launched on, even VZ. Why is that? One could argue that the iPhone doesn't use any more data than the Windows Mobile phones that have existed on AT&T for ages. Why all of the sudden does the iPhone crumble their network?

Simple. It brought heavy-usage to the public. Once upon a time it was just a percentage of geeks and power users (the kind who read this site, for example) who really knew how to make the most of the mobile web.
The iPhone suddenly made the mobile web accessible to everyone and their grandma (who doesn't even own a computer). Everyone's digging this new fangled wireless internet thing, and it caught on like fad.

Now, lets jump back to Sprint. Sprint's data network is arguably one of the best (PCWorld rated it as the most reliable us 3G network after all), and part of the reason is that they are the opposite of post-iPhone ATT. To be more specific, they had plenty of bandwidth to spare and not so many people really pushing the network to its limits. The SERO plan was a great offer and in their calculations they could still turn a profit since most people wouldn't reach the capacity of the network.
Yes, there are many of us on PPCGeeks and XDA who know how to abuse the network. Some of us have run bit torrents or tethering, racking up obscene amount of data, and Sprint didn't stop us. It was worth it for them, because thankfully not everyone on SERO was a power user like us. My wife, for example, has a Sero line like mine, but uses less than 10% of the data monthly that I do. She just checks her email on her lotus, and occasionally checks facebook with opera mini. Phones like my TP2 intimidate her, meanwhile I'm streaming netflix to my laptop with WMwifirouter while we travel. Sprint can handle people like me because they also had people like her.

But what happens when the "power users" are no longer just the geeks? That's what the Android and the WebOS devices did. They took the power of high end smart phones and made them available to the general public in a way that they never did before.
The end result? My mom had a Treo Pro, and hated it. Barely used it for anything beyond calls and texting. But she tried a Hero in the store, and was sold on it. Suddenly she wants to download apps, stream video, customize widgets, all the things she wasn't interested in doing before.

THIS is why Sprint had to change the rules. Because certain devices changed the way people use the networks limited resources. Its got nothing to do with you and how YOU use your phone. I mean, most of us have been using crazy amounts of data since day 1. That makes it very hard to understand why we suddenly have to pay more for the same services we had and the same usage we were getting from the beginning.
But the mistake we're making is in assuming everyone is like us. The plan restrictions were not put into effect because of people like us, but rather because of the balance between us and rest of SERO users wasn't playing nicely anymore.
Sure, to you and me, we're probably using the same amount of data as we were on WM for Android or WebOS, so it seems unfair. But we're not the standard. Windows Mobile is allowed on the old SERO because its not a mass market friendly device, and therefore not everyone who uses it knows how to use it like we do. Some people will use it alot, others for the bare basics. Therefore, it balances out somewhere. But if everyone on these new devices are using it like Power users, forcing Sprint to add capacity, then yeah- they need to charge more.

I don't like it, I don't think its necessarily "fair", but it makes sense. Its not unique to Sprint, either... Look at what the iPhone did to AT&T's data pricing. Devices that bring features to the mass market end up screwing up the bottom line on any carrier. I liked it better when it was just a handful of us "geeks" that knew how cool this stuff was. It was much more fun being in our own exclusive club. Ah well, Viva progress!