Sprint thinks hotels should let users trade loyalty points for megabytes

Sprint already has a reputation for being the friendliest operator when it comes to helping out virtual mobile carriers. But on Monday it put its recruiting efforts into overdrive, inviting anyone in the hospitality or retail industry to become a part-time mobile data carrier.

In short, Sprint thinks that hotels, rental car agencies, airlines, supermarkets and big box retail stores – pretty much any business with a loyalty card – would make excellent resellers of its 3G and WiMAX data service. Hotels could rent or lend 4G data modems to their out-of-town guests...those data services could be linked directly to any loyalty program.

Access to a key set of company Website functions might be free, but customers would buy access to the Internet at large by the hour, day, week or bucket.