American telecom service provider Sprint today announced Sprint Prepaid targeting customers who don’t want to go through a credit check or has hit other spending or line limits.
Sprint offer is in response to a slew of tariff changes announced by its rivals including T-Mobile US, AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
But Sprint, which had around 55 million mobile subscribers in 2013, is not making any changes in wireless tariffs with this new branded offer.
“Our goal is to respond to customers’ shifting demands by featuring a variety of wireless plans that meet different needs,” said Jeff Hallock, chief marketing officer of Sprint.
Yesterday, AT&T said it will bring cost effective plans with the new Cricket brand.
This new Sprint Prepaid offer allows Sprint to play more competitively in the monthly prepaid space.
With a prepaid plan, the customer pays in advance for the device and for each month of service and does not receive a monthly bill.
Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint said it is expanding its As You Go no-contract plan introduced last year with new pricing, including smartphone plans for $45 per month.
It will offer Sprint Spark-enabled Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, 4G LTE-capable Samsung Galaxy S3, 3G Moto G and Apple iPhone 4s Pre-owned as part of the new mobile scheme.
Sprint Prepaid customers can participate in Sprint Buyback program which allows them to trade in an eligible device to earn account credits.
Sprint users can select Smart priced at $45 for unlimited talk and text, Wi-Fi enabled data and Smart Plus priced at $60 for unlimited talk, text and data.
On 11 February, TBR in its research note said that Sprint will continue to trail the Tier 1 competition in 2014 despite returning to revenue and postpaid subscriber growth in Q4 2013.
Sprint returned to positive postpaid and total subscriber net additions in Q4 2013, yet continued to trail far behind the other Tier 1 operator’s postpaid net additions. To maintain postpaid growth, Sprint will need to develop an innovative strategy that will have a similar effect in the wireless market to T-Mobile’s Un-Carrier strategy to drive future postpaid growth.
Sprint is on the path to recovery, yet it will be a long competitive road and it will need to stay innovative to come back from consistent operating and net losses. Network Vision will result in cost savings and improved margins in 1H14, yet Sprint will continue to lag behind the Tier 1 competition in 2014.
Sprint’s short term future revolves around its core strategies of completing the investment phase of Network Vision and retaining postpaid subscribers. Network Vision will provide the company with increased data revenue growth from new LTE customer adoptions, along with cost savings.
