![]() ![]() So this sounds OK, but what's the alternative to the old method of subsidizing? Instead of discounted phones, all the carriers are instead sort of encouraging people to buy their phones in monthly installments. You saved $200 less but the $199 price stayed the same. If you have a smaller plan where the discount per line was only $15, the subsidized phone makes even more sense. For 24 months of paying $25 extra ($600 total), you own that iPhone and can typically trade it in for nearly what it would take to buy a new subsidized phone when you're eligible. Look at the math quickly and you'll see it's not such a terrible deal. By paying more, you get the right to buy a "subsidized" phone once every 2 years, like a $650 iPhone for $199. (T-Mobile is essentially done with that kind of plan). If you want to walk into the store and pay $199 for a new iPhone 6 next month or a spanking new Galaxy S5 right now, you need to be on a $40-per-line style plan with Verizon, AT&T or Sprint. I'm confused about something, I thought it was $40 to add a line and you mentioned $15 and $25? Right, so everyone is confused about this. Those on group or family plans are ideal in this regard. And because it lost customers last quarter (220,000 of them), it needs to do something to secure the kinds of customers who will stick around. Sprint has a lot of spectrum versus its relatively small number of customers, so it can offer more data than competitors for the same - or better - prices. It's pretty unlikely you're using that kind of data now, even if you happen to be one of the few people left on an old-style unlimited plan (yes, I do know people who use much more, but no, there aren't many of them left thanks to carrier policies that limit speeds). So if you sign up 4 lines, that data plan is a 28GB plan with 10 lines it's a whopping 40GB. Not only is that initial bucket 20GB, you get 2GB "bonus data" per line. If you need 8 lines, you'll save $120 per month - close to two grand before the promotion ends.īut I'll end up paying for more data, right? Actually, it's unlikely. Sprint will let you add even more lines (up to 10) and still won't charge you. That's a massive savings over AT&T or Verizon - $960 between now and then. So your $160 plan is literally a $100 plan. Sprint is going to waive those $25 fees for new customers through the end of $25. Five bucks buys a lot in this case.ĭidn't you say there were two reasons? Yes, and here's where it gets really messy. ![]() A $100 plan with 4 lines would be $160 for 20GB. That means if you have an $80 Sprint plan with 3 lines it's $155 per month for 12GB. Like its larger competitors, Sprint normally wants $25 per line if you have a plan below $100. The $15 deal, though, only sets in once you have a $100 plan. Sprint, like AT&T and Verizon, will charge you $15 per line on top of that $100 data bucket fee. In particular, AT&T has a heavy rotation of advertisements for their 4 lines, $160 month offering. First, it's the plan AT&T and Verizon talk the most about. Why talk about such a big plan? There are two really major reasons. These plans look a lot like Verizon's More Everything and AT&T's Mobile Share Value plans and work very similarly. If you go to the Sprint web site, though, it's as if nothing exists below the $100, 20GB plan - which is twice what you get with any of the three major competitors. But there are plans with 8GB ($70), 12GB ($80) and various other selections as well. ![]() What do you get? Sprint's official documentation shows plans as small as $20 a month with a 600MB data bucket to share, which would obviously leave little for each person. So to determine whether switching might make sense, I'm going to break down each of the plans for you in an effort to answer the one question that matters: Should you switch to Sprint? But the specifics are often confusing and some of the best parts of the deals don't last forever. ![]() As a practical matter, that means Sprint's new offerings, the Family Share Pack and Unlimited Plan look a lot like what you can buy from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile - albeit with better prices and more data available. In Sprint's case, that something is basically to pull a 180, abandon the "Framily" plan it's been heavily advertising since the beginning of the year, and try to win folks over with a very traditional strategy: more for less. When there are four major mobile carriers and you're the only one losing customers, you have to do something. ![]()
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