We are a few weeks away from the launch of the Sprint HTC Hero and we still do not have confirmation from Sprint as to whether the legacy SERO plans ($30/$50) will be compatible.  The Palm Pre and Samsung Instinct were Sprint exclusive devices and subsequently required a Simply Everything Plan of $69.99 or higher in order to activate the device.  The entire Sprint community was really hoping that the HTC Hero would not fall into this category.

A glimmer of hope
Earlier today Engadget noticed that a small regional carrier, Cellular South, had launched a landing page for their own Sprint-style HTC Hero.  While the carrier is not a national carrier like Sprint, it does pose the possibility that the HTC Hero will be coming to other carriers, dismissing the idea that the device would be a Sprint exclusive.

A brighter light at the end of the tunnel
To add more fuel to the fire of possibility, a leaked rebate form was posted over on sprintusers which shows the HTC Hero is in the $100 Mail-in Rebate Smartphone category.  The category heading says “requires voice plan with data or data plan of $25 or higher”.  The Palm Pre, Samsung Instinct, Instinct s30 and Instinct HD all say “requires activation on select voice plans with data” which suggests that the HTC Hero does not require a special plan to activate. Read More →