PonyPotato

I will be asking this question of my friend who works for Sprint, but here goes:

Since I've taken it on a few flights to Ohio and back, my Sierra 595U has had issues. The battery is swollen, causing it to easily disconnect and render the air card useless (usually in the middle of a connection). Thus far I have kept the battery connected by a) taping around the plastic battery cover to keep it closed and b) adding more tape as the first layer stopped helping c) adding a rubber band on top of both layers of tape to keep the connection tight.

Is the battery's swelling likely caused by high altitude? Is it something I can continue to just deal with via various layers of tape and rubber bands, or do I need to get the air card replaced? I didn't pay for equipment protection for the air card (it was free and $7 a month sounded ridiculous when I'm already paying that for my Centro) so I'm not sure what, if anything, Sprint can do for me.

Any ideas? I'd rather not have to go get an upgrade because they'll want me to re-sign my contract and therefore forfeit my unlimited usage plan (they now cap data plans at 5 GB per month).

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