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Sprint rolled out a new mobile phone plan, called All-In, which gives customers one monthly $80 price for a smartphone as well as unlimited text, talk and high-speed data, all for one fee that includes everything but taxes and fees.
The All-In phone plans are meant to provide clearer pricing for consumers who presently have to price their smartphone payments, data plans and basic monthly mobile service plans individually, which makes it harder to figure total costs in a straight-forward manner, according to Sprint. The new mobile plan is especially notable because it includes unlimited high-speed data, which is hard to find from major carriers nowadays.
“We understand how frustrating and confusing shopping for wireless can be,” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said in a statement. “At Sprint, we are doing things differently. We are telling customers, ‘This is your All-In price.'”
Under the All-In plans, consumers pay $20 a month to lease a smartphones, plus $60 a month for unlimited text, talk and high-speed data while on the Sprint network. Customers also must pay a one-time $36 activation fee for their new phone. Customers can choose from an Apple iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone. Monthly phone payments can vary slightly, depending on the phone that is chosen. A basic 16GB iPhone 6 and the 32GB Samsung Galaxy S6 are $20 per month, while a 64GB iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6 are $25 each per month, which would make the All-In monthly price $85. A 128GB iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6 would be $30 per month, which would make the All-In price $90 per month.
“If you went to a restaurant that advertised a cheeseburger for 99 cents, but when you show up, they said it’s an extra $2 for the bun or $1 for lettuce, you would feel misled,” Claure continued. “Yet, that’s what the industry has been doing with its wireless plans. Why can’t everyone just advertise the full price of both the plan and the smartphone—an All-In plan? That was the idea behind what we’ve created.”
Soccer star and entrepreneur David Beckham is being featured in Sprint’s ads for the new service, which is available immediately in Sprint stores and at Sprint.com.
All phones under the All-In plans are available under Sprint Leases, which provide 24 monthly payments and let users get a new device every 24 months.
Sprint, the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T, often promotes new phone plans as it battles with its competitors to lure new customers with more data and lower monthly service rates.
In February, Sprint unveiled a $90 monthly Family Share Pack with 12GB of shared data for up to 10 lines of service, according to an earlier eWEEK report. That promotion also waived the plan’s $15 monthly mobile access fees for one year for new customers who ported their mobile numbers from another carrier. The 12GB shared data package also included unlimited talk and text for up to 10 lines.
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. Customers had to contact Verizon to ask for the free data boosts, which were not automatic.
AT&T and T-Mobile moved recently to offer 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.
The rollover data offers followed a special half-price promotion launched by Sprint in December 2014. 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 Sprint half-price offer was not extended to T-Mobile customers, which is intriguing because Sprint tried and failed to acquire T-Mobile earlier in 2014.