eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Sprint is again battling in the more-data-for-less wars with its rivals by adding a new $90 per month, 12GB Sprint Family Share Pack data plan for mobile customers.
In addition to the new 12GB shared pot of monthly data, new customers who port their mobile numbers over to Sprint from another carrier will not pay any monthly device access fees to Sprint for one year, saving $15 per device per month. Customers can have up to 10 lines per month sharing the 12GB data plan, the company said in its Feb. 20 announcement about the new rate.
The 12GB shared data package also includes unlimited talk and text for up to 10 lines.
After the year is up, customers on the plan will then have to pay monthly access fees for each of their devices.
All participating smartphones and tablets under the deal must be purchased through Sprint Easy Pay or through the Sprint iPhone for Life Plan, according to Sprint.
New customers who port their old numbers over to Sprint and activate a data plan larger than 12GB per month on a Sprint Family Share Pack plan will also receive an American Express Reward Card worth up to $350 per line to buy out their old contracts with competing carriers, according to Sprint.
Customers can make the service switches at Sprint stores, Sprint.com and through Sprint Telesales after registering at www.sprint.com/join2015.
The latest Sprint data package deal follows a recent wave of activity among the big four mobile carriers—Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile—to lure new customers with more data and lower monthly service rates.
Earlier in February, Verizon announced a special deal to give a free 1GB monthly data boost to customers who have 1GB to 3GB More Everything mobile plans, or to provide a $10-per-month price drop if they keep their current data package. The special deals are not automatic, however. Instead, existing and new customers have to ask for the free data boosts or for the price discounts by calling Verizon or visiting the company’s Website.
The latest Verizon data plan moves follow recent promotions by AT&T and T-Mobile, which are now offering rollover data features that allow their customers to keep unused data and roll it over for future use. In December, T-Mobile unveiled its “data stash” program, which lets customers keep any unused data in their monthly data plans and roll it over for future use, giving customers more control and fuller potential use of the data allocations that they pay for each month. AT&T is only allowing rollovers into the following month.
Back in January, Verizon confirmed to eWEEK that it had no interest in offering similar data rollover benefits to its customers, despite the moves of its competitors.
The rollover data offers followed a special half-price promotion launched by Sprint back in December to try to lure existing Verizon Wireless and AT&T customers to its own services. Under that deal, Sprint’s “Cut Your Bill in Half Event” cut existing Verizon or AT&T wireless bills in half for customers who move their service over to Sprint’s network. The deal also matched a customer’s data plan caps at half of their existing rates for new customers who make the service transfer. The new offer is not set to expire but will be Sprint’s lure for new customers into the future, the company said.
The offer includes unlimited talk and text to anywhere in the U.S. while on the Sprint network, regardless of a customer’s current plan. Participating customers will have to get new devices through Sprint, but will also get up to $350 in rebates per line to cover early termination fees with their existing carriers.
The Sprint half-price offer has not been extended to T-Mobile customers, which is intriguing because Sprint tried and failed to acquire T-Mobile earlier in 2014.