Today, Sprint announced a new phone plan called "All-In": $80 a month (plus tax and surcharges) gets you unlimited talk, text, and high-speed data[FOOTNOTE GOES HERE]. As you can probably see in the title of this post, this new new plan is terrible, dumb, and you shouldn't support it, because it's complete bullshit that Sprint is even allowed to do this. In fact, it's not clear they're allowed to do it at all. (I honestly don't know how this doesn't run afoul of the FCC's new rules - Sprint will call it network management, but I call it discriminatory throttling of the most obvious kind.)

Here's how it works. $60 a month buys you into Sprint's new All-In unlimited plan. $20 more a month gets you a leased phone (as in, a phone you have to give back in 24 months). So, for $80 (plus taxes!) a month, you get unlimited talk, text, and high speed data.

Except you don't, because Sprint is full of shit.

In the fine print of Sprint's new unlimited plans is one hell of a footnote:

To improve data experience for the majority of users, throughput may be limited, varied or reduced on the network. Streaming video speeds will be limited to 600Kbps at all times, which may impact quality. [emphasis ours]

So yes, it's unlimited high speed data. As long as your definition of that is fundamentally at odds with what those words mean in plain English. This footnote even applies if you buy your phone outright ($60 a month for service), as well as on 2-year pricing ($85 a month for service).

I can only hope the FCC and FTC will have a field day with stupidity of this magnitude, because it really does boggle the mind.

If you don't want capped video speeds on Sprint, be sure to sign up for one of their non-unlimited data bucket plans. In fact, if you can avoid it, don't sign up for Sprint at all, because it's clear they have little in mind aside from screwing you out of every possible thing they can get away with before someone tells them otherwise.

For what it's worth, it does not appear these restrictions will impact existing unlimited users, though Sprint users have long reported throttling on the network.