Confused yet? Allow me to translate: Sprint's smartphone data plans are going up by ten bucks a month.

Sprint announced the change via a press release this morning. The move isn't that big of a deal, necessarily -- Sprint will still offer unlimited data and continue to than its competitors, in certain scenarios -- but if you ask me, the way the company's approaching the change is more than a little shifty.

Sprint's new smartphone surcharge appears to stem from a couple of conflicting interests: Sprint wants to be able to tout its low-cost smartphone plans (pay $69.99 a month and get 450 minutes, unlimited data, and unlimited texts!). But Sprint also wants to charge its smartphone subscribers more for the data they're using -- something many carriers are starting to do.

So how do you accomplish both those goals without compromising? It's simple: You tack on a "premium data add-on" and leave the sticker price the same. You get to keep advertising those nice low rates while actually raising customers' bills by about 14 percent (in the case of users with that aforementioned $69.99 plan).