"Whether the 'half off' plan translates into a lot of net additional customers is questionable once those customers get a load of all the terms and conditions - gotta buy a phone from Sprint, no trade-in value for their old phone, gotta move all the lines from a family plan to qualify," said Bill Menezes, an analyst at Gartner. While halving the monthly service costs sounds attractive, some of the conditions may be troubling to consumers. Only one phone on a Verizon or AT&T account must be presented at set-up, but all other phones must be turned in by mail within 30 days or a $200 charge per line will be applied. The new Sprint phones can be leased, paid for under installment or purchased at full retail price. There's also no trade-in value for the old phones. Switching customers also must turn in all the phones they use on either Verizon or AT&T "in good working order." In exchange, they will receive new Sprint phones, although Sprint said it can't guarantee all features of the new replacement phones will be available. Verizon and AT&T customers must provide a copy of their current bill, which they can upload to the Sprint website starting Friday, or provide a copy of that latest bill at a Sprint store. The half-off discount applies only to the customer's base monthly service and does not include taxes and fees.Īs an example, a Verizon customer paying $140 a month for four lines plus 10GB of data can get four lines (with the same phone numbers) plus 10 GB of data on Sprint for $70 a month.įor a limited time, Sprint will also waive the activation fee of $36 per line and will buy out a customer's contract for up to $350 per line. Sprint posted details online for how new customers can take advantage of the half-rate plan. Sprint also will match the customer's data allowance with the previous carrier but at half the cost, as indicated on a monthly bill. Sprint's half-off plan allows new customers switching from Verizon or AT&T to get unlimited talk and text in the U.S. Hopefully, Sprint's network will be "much better in six months," Entner added, as upgrades catch up with coverage needs. Holes in wireless coverage have appeared even where there weren't holes before." Entner blamed the problems on the method Sprint used to provision LTE in the last 18 months - by "ripping old things out and without getting network activation permits fast enough. There have been reports of spotty Sprint network coverage in cities across the country. Sprint's fast 4G LTE network is rolling out in cities across the country, Entner added, "but the question is whether it's getting fast enough for to stay." Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure is "under pressure to do something about losing subscribers and I doubt the last value offers they made worked as much as they hoped for." They have their boxing gloves on and will use them whenever they have to." But this is also a sign that the new management at Sprint will not sit idly by while other carriers steal away their subscribers. "Sprint is assuring a very low margin for those new customers they sign at half off. "Sprint's 'cut your wireless bill in half event' smacks of a desperation move," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Those conditions could be enough to make prospective customers balk. Also, new customers would have to surrender their old phones on Verizon or AT&T for zero cash on trade-in and must purchase or lease a new one from Sprint. New customers, meanwhile, may not find Sprint's network as reliable as they'd like and could regret switching carriers.
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