Sprint rolling out housecalls, selling against AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US
Sprint really wants your business. The carrier is trying to beat out its closest rival T-Mobile US while gaining ground on AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless with novel rate structures and promotional activity.
Just this week, Sprint announced it would start upgrading aging devices with a housecall, reminiscent of what movies and books suggest doctors did at some point.
The Sprint Direct 2 You service, being piloted in Kansas City, Mo., calls for a “Sprint-trained expert” to bring a device of the customers’ choice to their preferred location, where they will set up the new device, including transferring all content and providing a tutorial on how the device works.
The offer is available to qualified customers eligible for a device upgrade. Those customers will receive an offer via text or e-mail about the upgrade opportunity, and can then call, text or e-mail to set up an appointment time and location.
Sprint touted the service-friendly nature of the offer, but as it’s currently tied to device upgrades it also appears to be a way for the carrier to proactively manage potential churn.
The carrier reported a year-over-year increase in churn for its last fiscal quarter, which on the postpaid side jumped from 2.15% to 2.33%, and on the prepaid side increased from 3.22% to 3.97%. T-Mobile US reported that it had a 2.2 to 1 positive porting ratio with Sprint during the final quarter of 2014, a trend it said continued into the first part of this year.
In terms of taking a run against carrier competitors, Sprint is offering to cut Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility customers’ bills in half.
Basically, if you ditch your Verizon Wireless or AT&T Mobility plan, Sprint will provide a 50% reduction in monthly service charges.
Similarly, Sprint is offering $200 to trade in a T-Mobile US phone and another $350 for breaking a T-Mobile US contract.
Sprint entered 2015 as the nation’s No. 3 operator in terms of the number of connections hosted on its network with a reported 55.9 million. That was fewer than 1 million more than T-Mobile US reported for the end of 2014.
During the past three months, speculation has raged over how legitimate those numbers are, with some published reports indicating up to 1.7 million of Sprint’s connections through wholesale partners had been inactive for at least six months. T-Mobile US CEO John Legere took that situation to bolster his previous forecast that T-Mobile US would be the No. 3 operator by the end of last year, a prediction he was forced to admit may have been a bit off following the numbers released from Sprint.
However, momentum is clearly on T-Mobile US’ side as the carrier has managed to make significant strides in closing the gap, having added more than 8 million net connections in 2014 and routinely beating out all of its larger rivals in terms of net connection additions. Some analysts are predicting T-Mobile US added more than 2 million net connections during the first three months of this year, with Sprint coming in at anywhere between 500,000 and 1 million net connections.
