Sprint, the fourth biggest wireless company in the US, has decided to follow in its competitors footsteps and announced it would abandon two-year contracts on smartphones as well as subsidizing devices. By the year;s end, the company said, Sprint customers will either be charged full price for their phones or avail of the new leasing scheme which was introduced back in 2014. In a report in nbcnews.com, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said the company hopes the move of unbundling device and service will save customers money.
In the same post by nbcnews.com, it was reported that two of Sprint's biggest competitions, T-Mobile and Verizon have already ditched the same 2-year contract plans that's been the norm for several years in the telecom business. T-Mobile was the first one to do it while Verizon just announced the same action last week. AT&T is now the lone carrier that still offers phone subsidies although it has options for customers to buy units outright in cash or installments.
Along with the announcement to remove 2-year plans, Sprint also made news of its new iPhone Forever plan. In a post in arstechnica.com, Sprint top honcho Claure said customers has now the option to lease a 16 GB iPhone 6 for only $22 a month and be able to upgrade to a newer model for as long they keep paying the monthly fee. "Every single time there's a new iPhone you just go to the store, drop off your old iPhone and pick up a new one and that's included in your rate plan of $22 a month," he said. Comparing this new scheme with the old one show customers will be paying more for the phone this time but at a reduced rate for data and phone services. In addition, Sprint wants to address the issue of having new phone models released every year that customers complain they can't avail of due to the 2 year contracts.
