Excerpted from the Wall Street Journal, “Sprint Prepay Plan Pressures Cell Rivals”, by Roger Cheng, January 16, 2009
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Sprint Nextel’s Boost Mobile plans to offer an unlimited nationwide calling plan for $50 a month, a bid by the youth-oriented wireless service to severely undercut rivals.
With the cheaper plan, which is half the cost of the $99 unlimited plans offered by the major carriers and $10 cheaper than similar unlimited plans offered by local competitors, Boost is hoping to go after budget-conscious consumers. It represents an aggressive move by Sprint to attract customers even as its own core wireless service continues to lose subscribers.
In addition to unlimited calling, customers will get unlimited text messages, mobile Web surfing, and a walkie-talkie feature. Customers aren’t locked into a contract, and can leave at any time.
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Industry watchers speculate whether the move could spark a price war in the cut-throat wireless industry.
The major carriers offer unlimited calling for $99, but those plans typically require a one or two year contract.
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People looking to join Boost Mobile will have to switch to the Nextel network which means buying a new phone not compatible with other. Phones run between $20 and $100, and there are a limited number of choices, all from Motorola. Because there are no contracts, there are no subsidies for the handsets.
Edit by DAF
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Note: It is not mentioned in this article, but Sprint’s Boost network is an older network, significantly slower than Sprint’s current network, and does not allow for any of the new 3G features like GPS navigation. For a customer concerned only with making/receiving calls and even texting, though, though, this could be an interesting proposition.
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Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123199251112984943.html
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