Sprint announced on Friday a temporary offer that seems to blast competitors like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. For just $90, you can sign up to five mobile lines with unlimited data, talk time, and texts.
As with most offers by mobile carriers in the United States, there is a catch: the deal is only valid for a year, and Sprint will, presumably, apply the same data caps that are in place for its Unlimited Freedom subscribers.
Sprint’s new deal halves the price of their competitors, but the company is betting on rising prices this year. That would keep them as the cheapest carrier in the country even after the $90 promotion ends.
How to sign up for Sprint’s unlimited plan
Customers who want to take advantage of this limited opportunity need to sign up for unlimited data, talk, and text via Sprint’s AutoPay.
AutoPay is a proprietary system that automatically cancels your monthly fees by linking your bill to a checking account or credit card of your preference.
Users will pay $50 for a single line, $30 for two lines, and all other additions up to five will be free.
What you should know about Sprint’s promotion
This $90/month offer for a family or group of five will be valid until March 31, 2018. It gives early adopters a little over a year of savings if they sign up now.
However, there are also some caveats to Sprint’s services. Open Signal ranked Sprint in the last place among the ‘Big Four’ U.S. carriers in its latest State of Mobile Networks report.
Sprint offers the worst national signal coverage and provides the most limited support of mobile data cells in comparison with Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T.
The company at least acknowledges they have some drawbacks, clearly stating in the fine print of the ad for their unlimited plans that video streaming tops at 480p, music at 500 kbps, and games at 2 Mbps.
Sprint is also known for “deprioritizing” data for demanding consumers, otherwise known as throttling. There is also a limit to the “unlimitedness” of data you can consume freely.
Switching to Sprint may turn out either way
Sprint hopes to rank higher among national carriers with this $90/month offer, but its infrastructure and service represent a major obstacle.
The company is gambling with mobile plan prices, as they are expected to go up at least once this year. Moreover, under the Trump administration, the FCC most surely will lift bans to carriers that would allow them to conduct business as they please.
However, these new regulations that try to inspire a more competitive environment in the industry could also drive companies to lower prices and offer more incentives that leave Sprint behind once again.
Source: Sprint
