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Sprint to start enforcing charging for using "Good for enterprise" in 2015/2016? (Corporate email ala blackberry)


bitslizer

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I just received a snail mail warning me that they would start billing for anyone using Good starting Jan 2015 2016.  They "claimed" previous billing system issue allow certain users to get this "feature" without being charged.

 

Seem this falls under the fine print in the T&C for corporate email access similar to how they charge extra for BlackBerry

 

 

edit*

 

I'm weary the 12/31/2015 (so charge start on 1/1/2016) part maybe a Sprint typo... let's see if i get charge for in on next months bill

 

edit 2*

Added a Sprint forum link on the same issue, it sheds a little more light on the issue with the possibility that the company's license "MAY" cover the access fee already?

 

https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/180119?start=15&tstart=0

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I always thought that Good was an enterprise MDM tool that the employer paid for to ensure secure access to exchange servers, etc.

 

At least, we had to pony up if we wanted to access email/calendars/etc on our Android and iOS devices. That's why we're now on an enterprise MDM solution (Airwatch) and rolled everyone off of Good.

 

(As an aside, Good is an awful name for that app. It was awful!)

 

 

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Employer paid good to license their service

 

on top of that 

 

Sprint charges users a "toll" fee as the rationale is this is for business use and not personal use, where the T&C only allows for personal use.  

 

I think this is just a result of all the discount and promotions being implemented lately, they have to make up for the revenue loss somewhere why not just nickel and dime us some more especially if they are just enforcing an existing T&C clause.

 

My employer uses Good, I don't have any say in that matter, best I can do is try to get them to approve for compensation/expense for it.

 

The bad part is this may be only for Andriod users.... as I heard/read on the web that for ATT/VZW, iPhone users are somehow exempted either due to agreement with Apple or the carrier can't decipher the Good traffic when used on an iPhone to know who is using Good or not.  Take either explanation with a grain of salt

 

I always thought that Good was an enterprise MDM tool that the employer paid for to ensure secure access to exchange servers, etc.

At least, we had to pony up if we wanted to access email/calendars/etc on our Android and iOS devices. That's why we're now on an enterprise MDM solution (Airwatch) and rolled everyone off of Good.

(As an aside, Good is an awful name for that app. It was awful!)


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Employer paid good to license their service

 

on top of that 

 

Sprint charges users a "toll" fee as the rationale is this is for business use and not personal use, where the T&C only allows for personal use.  

 

I think this is just a result of all the discount and promotions being implemented lately, they have to make up for the revenue loss somewhere why not just nickel and dime us some more especially if they are just enforcing an existing T&C clause.

 

My employer uses Good, I don't have any say in that matter, best I can do is try to get them to approve for compensation/expense for it.

 

The bad part is this may be only for Andriod users.... as I heard/read on the web that for ATT/VZW, iPhone users are somehow exempted either due to agreement with Apple or the carrier can't decipher the Good traffic when used on an iPhone to know who is using Good or not.  Take either explanation with a grain of salt

 

Yeah, we use 'Good' too, but luckily we have a new nifty execs in IT and InfoSec that are exploring moving to a more 'native' like experience. Thank God, Google is recognizing the MDM/EMM movement.

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What possible justification is there for this charge when you can also connect to Exchange server through the built in email app on a phone too? Sprint CSR is wording this as they are charging for a service. What service are they providing other than the data connection I already pay for?

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My company issues associates $14 /mo stipend if you use the Good app to access our email servers on your mobile device. Either that or they give you a Blackberry. I guess we can't really complain too much even with an added charge.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 on the Now Network

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What possible justification is there for this charge when you can also connect to Exchange server through the built in email app on a phone too? Sprint CSR is wording this as they are charging for a service. What service are they providing other than the data connection I already pay for?

 

its pretty much nickle and diming the users.... 

 

T&C stated data is for personal use only, Good/BlackBerry is corporate/enterprise, so they charge another fee for this enterprise access  :td:

 

 

attached the letter to the first post, the only edit is to remove personal information

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Another user here whose employer uses "Good." My company ditched issuing corporate owned cell phones and switched to a stipend model several years back. They just lowered everyone's stipends a few months ago and I bet the stipend will barely cover this charge alone! 

 

 

 

attached the letter to the first post, the only edit is to remove personal information

 

It looks like the letter says December 31, 2015. I can't believe they've given over a years notice for this.

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The letter didn't mention how much they would be charging now that they have fixed their billing glitch. Per my company's intranet site, the charges per carrier are: Sprint $20, AT&T $0, Verizon $15, Tmo $0.

Does anyone know if that is correct? If so, I don't think it's wise for Sprint to be the leader in this category.

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The letter didn't mention how much they would be charging now that they have fixed their billing glitch. Per my company's intranet site, the charges per carrier are: Sprint $20, AT&T $0, Verizon $15, Tmo $0.

Does anyone know if that is correct? If so, I don't think it's wise for Sprint to be the leader in this category.

 

Looks like SprintCare has said it will be $15 per line. There's some good info (and rightfully angry people) at the Sprint forums in the following thread: http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/180119

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a.k.a: how alienate your existing customer base. I support what Sprint has been doing recently to become more competitive but the decision to send these letters (and the amateur change communication content) leave a lot to be desired. Hopefully someone in Kansas City will see the light soon -it's not too late to fix this.

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News of this stinks...I use "Good"...(Not really) for our company...Haven't had such letter come through though...

 

I retract this...I got the letter in the mail....:-/

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Guys, maybe you can enlighten me.  I have never heard of Good before.  But it sounds like BlackBerry Internet Service.  That requires back end hardware/software support from the wireless operator.  If so, that warrants a monthly charge.

 

I come from a university/corporate hybrid environment, which has long since adopted Exchange and/or Gmail platforms.  Why have your organizations not done likewise?  Why mess around with this Good stuff -- no pun intended?

 

AJ

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I work for the government (see signature) and the only ways to get at internal e-mail while outside are to sign in with an RSA token on a computer, or use Good for Enterprise, access to which is provided by said government.  I can't imagine what Sprint would need to do to enable it, because it works just fine over wi-fi both in and out of the building.

 

I have yet to receive this letter, but I will join the ranks of the unhappy if I do.

 

- Trip

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Could it be that Sprint (or any carrier) is being charged by Good for the direct connections made between the carrier network and Good's servers?  Didn't that happen with shortcode SMS alert services like sports scores and weather updates many years ago?  Are Good servers the path to our corporate server connection?

 

This issue has caught the attention of Good's CEO on Twitter but no sign that Marcelo is in tune with it yet.  Good's CEO Christy Wyatt said "BYOD users can opt out. Good services will not be impacted."  As an individual employee with nothing to do with IT, I have NO idea what that means and Sprint doesn't either.

 

I'd encourage everyone here to tweet Christy Wyatt and Marcelo professionally and ask them to provide specific information to explain what is going on.

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Guys, maybe you can enlighten me.  I have never heard of Good before.  But it sounds like BlackBerry Internet Service.  That requires back end hardware/software support from the wireless operator.  If so, that warrants a monthly charge.

 

I come from a university/corporate hybrid environment, which has long since adopted Exchange and/or Gmail platforms.  Why have your organizations not done likewise?  Why mess around with this Good stuff -- no pun intended?

 

AJ

 

Hey AJ,

 

We use good in our IT environment. We're in the Financial Services industry so we use it for compliance purposes to be able to delete all traces of messages off of user devices when an employee is terminated. AFAIK, There is no hardware/software needed at the Sprint level. The GOOD app authenticates with servers hosted at GOOD corporate. The only thing that is used between the two is the data pipe. We have a good server here that communicates with Good corporate and from there, that is where the phones talk to. So don't know why they are treating differently....

 

As an aside....isn't this a "Net Neutrality" issue? 

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Guys, maybe you can enlighten me.  I have never heard of Good before.  But it sounds like BlackBerry Internet Service.  That requires back end hardware/software support from the wireless operator.  If so, that warrants a monthly charge.

 

I come from a university/corporate hybrid environment, which has long since adopted Exchange and/or Gmail platforms.  Why have your organizations not done likewise?  Why mess around with this Good stuff -- no pun intended?

 

AJ

 

 

Hey AJ,

 

We use good in our IT environment. We're in the Financial Services industry so we use it for compliance purposes to be able to delete all traces of messages off of user devices when an employee is terminated. AFAIK, There is no hardware/software needed at the Sprint level. The GOOD app authenticates with servers hosted at GOOD corporate. The only thing that is used between the two is the data pipe. We have a good server here that communicates with Good corporate and from there, that is where the phones talk to. So don't know why they are treating differently....

 

As an aside....isn't this a "Net Neutrality" issue? 

 

To expand on this a bit, my company decided that Active-sync alone didn't sufficiently meet some regulatory requirements we must meet. In our implementation, our Good server interfaces with our Exchange environment within our data center. It has replaced Active-sync for mobile devices. Outside of our data center, I don't know what the Good setup looks like, but from casually talking with a couple of my colleagues, I feel it does work similar to the way KD8JBF has described.

 

We have a high number of Sprint users in my organization due to the fact we used to issue Sprint devices to all mobile eligible employees and Sprint has DAS system's in all of our buildings, making them the only carrier to work consistently across our facilities. Others received the letters and we're all a bit confused at this point as well.

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UPDATE: I just called GOOD Customer Care in reference to the tweet they sent and to clarify, the tweet is misleading. The lady stated to me that anyone using good after 12/30/2014 will be charged $15/mo for good and EVEN IF YOU ARE ONLY USING IT ON WI-FI THEY CAN TELL AND WILL STILL CHARGE YOU! 

 

How this can be is beyond me, but the tweet is misleading. It means that Sprint service won't be impacted if you opt out of it. But you WILL LOOSE good connectivity. 

 

Kris

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KD8JBF, that does not appear to be accurate.  There has been a very senior person at Good reaching out to various people on Twitter today who got the attention of Good's CEO.  Until Sprint provides a similar high-level response that refutes this, this is the most credible information we've seen yet by a long shot.

 

Story: Internally, Sprint is laser focused on capturing revenue.  Sprint did not enforce various vaguely worded T&C's in their plans that could be read to infer that personal plans are only to be used for personal purposes.  These T&C's could give Sprint a way to force customers using their phones for business purposes into an enterprise plan.  All internet traffic for all Sprint customers who work for companies that use Good gets routed through Good's NOC.  Sprint can unquestionably see this large amount of traffic to the specific IP range associated with Good's NOC.  Sprint wants to recoup the cost associated with providing that kind of data pipe to one company.  There is no way to extract that money from Good.  Sprint realized they could enforce the T&Cs of their personal plans.  They have the technology to analyze the individual lines sending traffic to any of the Good NOC's IP addresses.  That is who got the letters.  Good does not tell Sprint who their customers are.

 

The $15/mo surcharge makes up the revenue Sprint would gain by moving a customer to a business plan.  It's that simple. Good is not charging Sprint per customer to access their NOC.  According to the Good contact, mid-level talks with Sprint indicate they don't know what their competitors are doing, thinking they are all doing the same thing.  In fact, Good says that AT&T and TMobile quit doing this last year.  Verizon still has it on some plans but is stopping any surcharges Q1 2015.  Sprint is ADDING this 1/1/2015. We surmised together that this seems out of step with what Marcelo is trying to do and likely the issue hasn't  risen to his attention.

 

Here is the interesting thing.  According to Good - this appears to be only a T&C and billing issue.  It is simply a code that is added to the account.  Good has in their contract with Sprint that Good reserves the right to protect THEIR customers access to all of Good's services.  He doesn't think that Sprint has the technology or resources to shut down individual accounts accessing Good's NOC but that isn't paying the $15/mo.  And if they did have that ability it would be in violation of Good's contract.  He said you can have the service removed from a billing perspective and it has no impact on the use of the Good app whatsoever.  You would be in violation of Sprint's T&C only.

 

I think the only answer here is to get Marcelo's attention to this on Twitter.

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So is the date on the letter (12-31-2015) a typo? It probably isn't, since I think Sprint needs to alert business customers of changes a year in advance (see WiMax). If it is a typo, I'm sure one could use it to get the fee waived.

 

Also, even if Sprint does manage to block access to Good's servers for lines or accounts that aren't paying the new $15 fee, couldn't one just use a VPN whenever they need to use the app?

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It looks like Good has gotten tired of the false information.  They just posted a rather definitive statement online https://community.good.com/docs/DOC-3986 that basically says you can cancel this "service" code with Sprint and it will have no impact on your use of the Good app whatsoever.  This seems to blow holes in much of what Sprint has been stating. That would suggest that this is not a service at all - that Sprint is basically just trying to capture revenue from the use of a particular app.  Sprint CSRs have been saying in the Sprint community forums that this is a charge from Good that Sprint is passing on.  That also appears to be false at this point. This one is getting away from Sprint and so far, not a peep from Marcelo on the issue on Twitter.  Not good.

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The discussion so far is on the up and up.  But do not jump to conclusions.  Let us not assume that what Good is saying is true and what Sprint is saying is false.  The objective truth typically lies somewhere in the middle.

 

Either way, this thread is not going to turn into a place to criticize Sprint for assessing a charge per its Ts and Cs.  And it is not going to be a source for circumventing those Ts and Cs.  That is not the mission of S4GRU.

 

AJ

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