After eight years, Kevin Prodromides is getting cut off.
A long-time Sprint subscriber, Prodromides signed up for the company's wireless Internet access because no one else could provide him with connectivity when he first started looking in 2000. Cable Internet wasn't available, and digital subscriber line, or DSL, service wasn't possible because his neighborhood's copper phone wires weren't built for speed.
So Sprint Broadband Direct, he said, "was our only option."
But last month, Sprint began notifying customers that its wireless service would end by July 31, forcing its customers in Tucson and elsewhere to find replacement connectivity.
In the termination letter to its customers, Sprint said the Federal Communications Commission reallocated the wireless spectrum in which its Internet service had been operating for new, emerging technologies.
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"As the result of a recent FCC action, Sprint will no longer have access to the spectrum," the letter continued.
Sprint said its Mobile Broadband wireless service, which uses cell-phone towers, was a "comparable replacement," although it could be harder to share the connection and usually requires a laptop-specific card.
A Sprint spokesman said there were about 12,500 Broadband Direct customers nationwide at the time it sent out its service-termination notices last month. Sprint discontinued selling the service 2001, although it kept serving those customers until now.
Prodromides began looking elsewhere and came across Simply Bits, a Tucson-based wireless Internet provider. On Thursday, the 8-year-old Sprint equipment came down at his Northwest Side home, and the new antenna went up.
Simply Bits, among other local ISPs, is hoping to pick up Sprint's customer base.
After learning that Sprint was dropping its wireless coverage, Simply Bits launched LifeAfterSprint.com, a way to draw customers to its own wireless service — for a rate similar to what they were paying Sprint.
So far, Simply Bits has signed up more than 100 ex-Sprint customers, said Bradley Feder, a Simply Bits managing partner. Customers who hand over their service-termination letters to Simply Bits get their service locked in with a three-year contract, usually for about $45 month for Simply Bit's 1-megabit download and 384-kilobit upload speeds.
DakotaCom.Net, another Tucson-based ISP that offers DSL Internet access, is also busy signing up former Sprint clients. About 20 Sprint Broadband customers subscribed to DakotaCom.Net services in the past week alone, said Chris Phillips, vice president of sales for DakotaCom.Net.
"A lot of them are qualifying for DSL," said Phillips. He noted that many people signed on with Sprint initially because they couldn't get Qwest Communications' DSL service because of equipment limitations.
DSL offers high-speed Web surfing at prices starting at about $30 a month, plus ISP fees.
DakotaCom.Net also offers a fixed-wireless Internet service starting at about $60 a month, Phillips said.
While Web surfers have more options today for Internet access — cable providers have expanded their high-speed coverage, and DSL technology has improved — there are still some who need a wireless solution because of poor infrastructure or their remote location.
Did you know
Sprint bought "wireless cable" TV provider People's Choice TV in 1999 to launch Sprint Broadband Direct high-speed wireless Internet service in Tucson.