Today, a new series of tiered offerings for prepaid cellular plans were
announced by Sprint. Inspired by the changing needs of wireless consumers and the need to be competitive against AT&T and Verizon,
Sprint is offering plans in a different way than was announce earlier in the year. Plans have been simplified to three different
base plans, giving consumers the amount of data they need.
After Sprint changed its prepaid system earlier in the year, the company decided that it wanted to take things in a new direction. Given the recent shake-up and changing face of the company, it doesn't come as a shock that the company wants to change its image further to align its contract free, prepaid voice, text and data plans with its subsidiaries Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile.
The new Sprint plans retain the contract free status, and states that all fees are charged upfront with no activation or hidden fees. No billing dates are set in stone, allowing consumers to be flexible and pay for services as needed. Where the previous plans were structured from $35 to $60 depending on the amount of data needed and type of devices, the new system only offers three plans that are independent of device quantifiers.
All of the monthly plans include unlimited talk and text, but they differ in the amount of data that they come with. At the $35 level, plans include 1GB of data. For $10 more a month, consumers get 3GB in data, but jumping up to $65 a month grants 6GB of data. There is a catch, as Sprint says video streaming for the prepaid plans may be limited to 3G. High-speed data also ends "at each plan's applicable monthly data threshold."
So far only a select number of phones are available for the prepaid plans, giving users smartphone and flip phone options. Six phones are offered in total, with the Kyocera Kona being the only flip phone. Other models include a pre-owned iPhone 4s, the Samsung Galaxy SIII, Motorola Moto G, Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and Kyocera Event. Under the prepaid plans, no credit check is required.