In a move that is not unexpected, Sprint (the third largest mobile company in America) has ended the all you can eat buffet of its 4G mobile plans for tablets, netbooks, USB cards, connection cards and its Mobile Hotspot service. Originally, customers had a 3G data cap of 3GB, 5GB, or 10GB respectfully, and if you had Sprint 4G in your area it was unlimited. Sprint has now combined the two technologies under the same restriction, whether it is 4G or 3G, they both count towards your data cap.

Sprint is the newest carrier in the US to offer the Apple iPhone (4 and 4S). This is nothing new though, as AT&T and Verizon had introduced data caps after the release of an Apple iPhone. What makes this news very interesting is that Sprint continues to offer unlimited data for its phones (3G and 4G). Although, I believe this marks the beginning of Sprint’s march to implement data caps on all its data plans.

The Apple iPhones Sprint carries are not 4G capable, but when Apple does release a 4G enabled phone (probably the iPhone 5), the data caps will come. It is my hope that Sprint will offer larger data caps compared to AT&T and Verizon to keep a competitive edge to its larger rivals.