Sprint unveils new family share plans

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Sprint unveils new family share plans
In the first of three major initiatives that Sprint’s new CEO wants to implement, new rate plans are on the table from what is currently the United States’ third largest carrier.

Dubbing the occasion as a “new day for data for American consumers,” Sprint has a new shared data scheme designed to attract families, offering up to 20GB of shared data for $100 per month. The plans will be available beginning August 22nd.  The 20GB for $100 is a promotional price, and will be available until September 30th. 

The structure of the plans are pretty much a clone of the rates offered by AT&T and Verizon, but the data buckets are much larger. There is also a promotion that will be in place that adds even more data to the scheme.

First, the basics. The new plans are called Sprint Family Share Pack. The standard pricing set-up offers unlimited talk and text along with a monthly allotment of data. Each phone attached to the plan then has a tiered access price which changes based on whether or not the device is on-contract or not, as well as how much data is being bought.

Data amounts start at 600MB for $20, and go up to 60GB for $225. Each smartphone will cost $25 per-month, on plans with 16GB of data or less. At 20GB of data and up, the line access drops to $15 per-month. Those line access fees are for “non-discounted” phones, meaning either buying the phone at full retail or paying via an installment plan. Tablets are $10 per-month, and mobile broadband devices (Mi-Fi units) are $20 per-month.

If you buy your phone on a subsidized two-year agreement, the monthly access per phone is $40 per-month. In terms of the amount of data you get for the money, Sprint is certainly being a lot more aggressive than AT&T and Verizon. That the new plans being introduced are aimed directly at those that have more than one line. The Sprint Family Share Pack will accommodate up to 10 lines.

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For those enticed by the pricing, Sprint has a limited-time promotion for you. Sprint will pay your early termination fees, up to $350 via a Prepaid Visa Card. Also, those that make the switch will get extra data. For those that buy the $100-20GB plan, each line on the account will get an extra 2GB per line. That means a 4-line account could have access to a total of 28GB of data, and a 10-line account will have 40GB. That bonus data will be on tap through 2015. The promotion also includes waiving the handset access charges for a limited time too, so you could conceivably have up to 10 devices on the 20GB and higher plans, and pay only for the data.  That is a pretty good deal.  To take advantage of the promotion, all the devices on the plan need to be purchased using Sprint Easy Pay (the installment plan).

For those that are individuals, do not feel left out. Sprint has promised another announcement later this week on new plans for individual accounts. “We want customers to think twice before choosing another wireless carrier,” Marcelo Claure, Sprint CEO.

source: Sprint

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