Sprint-Nextel has revamped a customer loyalty program for small and mid sized businesses that provides special services and gifts to thank corporate users.

The "Business Premier" program announced this week was initially a Nextel program called Premiere Club that debuted in 1999. Customers are given gift cards on subscription anniversary milestones and offered special phone discounts, network coverage updates and a specific support team trained to help SMBs with business connectivity issues.

"It's our way of thanking customers for years of service and our way to engage our customers," a Sprint Nextel spokeswoman told InternetNews.com

Niche customer marketing is gaining popularity within the wireless carrier market given the competitive race to grab and retain subscribers. While current rate plan discounting by carriers is aimed at luring subscribers, loyalty programs are focused on keeping users.

"Loyalty programs are a long standing tactics for many different types of business," Forrester senior analyst Lisa Bradner told InternetNews.com. "The [Sprint] program allows the company to recognize and reward customers who give them good business."

Sprint's SMB program has three tiers, Silver, Gold or Platinum, which are tied to monthly billing amounts.

"This gives the carrier a great opportunity to reward their most profitable customers in a unique way," added Bradner.

The nation's third largest carrier, which has nearly 53 million customers, said it has several million SMB users enrolled in the program.

"The goal is to reward our customers for their loyalty and we even send them a specific newsletter to engage them on services and products that are a good fit for them," stated the Sprint spokesperson.

Earlier this year AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile ignited a pricing battle when they announced unlimited calling plans for $99.99.

Sprint Nextel shortly followed their lead with unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Web access, GPS service, as well as Sprint TV, Sprint Music, and Direct Connect and Group Connect options in one plan for the same price.

This week Virgin Mobile jumped on the bandwagon offering up a $79.99 monthly flat-rate plan.

"The carriers have been bashed for offering their best prices and best offers to customers only when those customers threaten to leave," said Bradner. "By sweetening the pot and giving people rewards for staying they’re recognizing that long-term loyalty has benefits for the business that should be recognized."

AT&T has had a SMB loyalty program since last summer.

"It's a way for us to give big business benefits to small business," an AT&T spokesman told InternetNews.com.

The carrier's "Exclusively Business" program offers a dedicated sales account team, monthly discounts to small companies with five or more users, and eliminates the activation fee that accompanies contractual agreements.

"This is recognition that the SMB customer is just like the much larger customer in our eyes," said AT&T, which declined to specify SMB user base.

AT&T recently ran an "Exclusively Business" sweepstakes with the winner awarded free private jet travel. Approximately 5,400 small businesses entered the contest, said the carrier.

"A loyalty program can't make up for bad service, or uncompetitive rates," said Bradner. "Our research shows that trust, prior experience and reliable service underlie loyalty to carriers. While you can layer on marketing programs and rewards the customer experience is the number one thing that matters."

Juxaposition is such a cool word isn't it?

And I came up with a great definition this week: writing about how some devices now let users send text messages while also talking on a mobile device, yet having to go outside my own house to make a call on my own cell phone.

What got me thinking about this was an item today about the mobile device battery. You know, the thing that dies when you need to make a call to the boss.

It seems someone's come up with a human-energy propelled charger. A mobile device user dances, and the energy created is captured with some snazzy armband that converts it into storage power on the device.

Hello? Nintendo?

Am I the only one who may see this as the perfect companion gadget for Dance, Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero and even Wii's fitness game console?

It's got green and its got the whole health thing going. You can use it anywhere you can dance that is.

Now too bad we can't dance ourselves into always-on clear crisp mobile connectivity.

I don't "iPhone," and right about now, I'm feeling as if I never will.

I'm not part of the in crowd or the smart crowd, or the living crowd. All those crowds following the hype this weekend as the second generation Apple phone comes to market.

It's embarrassing to admit, and it's no reflection on Apple's savvy mobile device, but I just have no yearning to see it, touch it, play with it.

Heck if I didn't see the word iPhone again for a year I wouldn't miss it.

Am I suffering mobile device malaise? Or mobile device dysfunction? Or maybe just plain dysfunction?

The thing is I love mobile innovation. New technology stokes me.

So why doesn't the iPhone give me a thrill? I mean I'm a huge Macintosh person. If I was a huge music person I'd like be a Pod person.

Maybe it's the electromagnetic rays from the nearby cell tower doing brain damage.

Oh wait, I don't have any tower near me. Maybe it's standing in the rain talking on a cell phone that is causing my iPhone dysfunction.

The one thing I have enjoyed these past weeks have been those blog-fueled conspiracy theories about iPhone deliveries, or lack of deliveries, and sightings of Apple crates on loading docks around the whole issue on the dearth of the device in the past weeks.

That tweaks my twitch.

Is Apple hoarding first generation devices? Did they 'really' sell out or just pumping the market?

Will the first generation of iPhones disintegrate in users' hands instantly come Monday when the second generation goes live?

But then again conspiracy always intrigue me.

I mean really, who doesn't like a good conspiracy now and then.

I'm not saying those theories, or the supposed thought behind them, hold water. I'm just sick of the 'what will the next iPhone have' conversation.

A bigger screen? A smaller display? A bigger keyboard? A smaller keyboard?

Unless it has some 'beam me up Scotty' function that takes Steve Jobs to Mars right from his presentation stage, I can't get excited about it for some reason.

And no, before any Apple people come calling, I'm not wishing Steve an unexpected trip anywhere ok.

But come on. It's a phone. I like phones. I love innovation.

But yikes, the media overload on the iPhone arrival is more intense than CNN coverage on the change in smoke when a new Pope is named.

And who's to blame? Well, yes, the media. More likely the blogsphere.

I know what you're thinking. Stop reading about it. Right. I try.

But thanks to email alerts, RSS feeds and every other push-to-me technology it just keeps coming in waves.

I think I'll just take the Family Guy strategy.

I'll just sleep in very late Monday. By noon it will all be over.

Think wireless and we likely think about cellphones, checking email away from the office, browsing to find the movie playing at the local theatre.

But as a new report from the CTIA indicates, wireless is having a huge impact on our lives and on the US economy.

The report projects the total value of wireless broadband and mobile voice services to exceed $427B by the year 2016 -- as the report notes:

To put this information into context, consider that by 2016, the value of the combined mobile wireless voice and broadband productivity gains to the US economy - $427 billion per year - will exceed today's motor vehicle manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries combined.

But just as amazing is the impact wireless technology is having on our productivity levels.

Big winners are enterprises in the healthcare and SMB sector.

Just three years ago productivity improvements tied to mobile broadband solutions across the U.S. health care industry were valued at almost $6.9B.

Tht number will triple to $27.2B come 2016.

Here is another interesting stat:

In 2005, 68.8 million US enterprise users had mobile wireless services, with 25% using a mobile wireless broadband solution.

By 2016, the US will have 81.9 million mobile enterprise users, with 83% using wireless broadband.

The study also examined the annual productivity gains and cost saving for the five largest U.S. states --California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Illinois.

The combined yearly cost savings for these five alone, due to implementation and use of wireless broadband, will increase from $10.1B in 2005 to more than $47B in 2016.