Sprint to offer 50% discount for customer porting from rivals
Sprint is bringing back a promotion from the past, announcing today that customers coming to the carrier from Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility or T-Mobile US will be offered a comparable rate plan at half the price they are currently paying.
The promotion, which begins Nov. 20 and runs through Jan. 7, requires customers to port their number from one of the carrier’s nationwide rivals with the promise of a 50% savings on their monthly bill. Sprint notes the offer is valid for “most plans” with the discounted plan available through Jan. 8, 2018. The 50% discount also applies to per-device access fees on data buckets.
For Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility customers looking to make the switch, Sprint is willing to slash prices on plans with data buckets up to 25 gigabytes. T-Mobile US customers with “unlimited” data plans are also not eligible for Sprint’s promotion. Also, any service outside of voice calling, text messaging and traditional data usage like rollover data, streaming content or cloud services are not included.
Customers taking advantage of the offer can garner up to $650 per line in switching fees to cover any potential early termination fee or payment on an equipment installment plan. Sprint also said it would provide a limited number of free tablets in the form of an Alcatel OneTouch Pixi 7 device and one year of free service, which the carrier valued at up to $360.
Sprint is also touting its most recent enhancements with a 28-day free trial of its service. Sprint CTO John Saw this week took to Sprint’s blog in announcing the expansion of the carrier’s now-branded LTE Plus network, which is said to now be available in 77 markets.
Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, in talking about the latest pricing move, noted the carrier needed to get past “skepticism” from consumers regarding the reliability and performance of Sprint’s network.
Sprint last December announced its “Cut Your Bill in Half Event,” which offered just what it claimed to customers porting their numbers over from Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility. Those customers received unlimited voice calling, text messaging and a match of their current data allotment for half the price they were paying at either rival.
The promotion required customers to upload a copy of their bill to a special website and take a copy of their latest bill and all of the phones they planned on turning in for the switch to a Sprint retail outlet. Then, a Sprint employee selected a rate plan with a data bucket most closely in line with the customer’s current plan, and the customer’s were required to either pay for their new device in full or sign up for Sprint’s device financing option.
Financial impact
In announcing the new promotion, Claure explained the carrier had taken into consideration potential cost concerns with the lower monthly average revenue per user by stating the potentially larger customer base would help offset those costs. Sprint recently announced plans to slash $2.5 billion from operations, which is also expected to include job cuts.
Investors did not initially appear to be convinced on the cost offset of the new promotion, with Sprint’s stock (S) trading down more than 7% on Wednesday despite the overall New York Stock Exchange trading up nearly 1%.
Bored? Why not follow me on Twitter
