Sprint prepaid brand Boost Mobile offering switchers 50% discount on family plans
Sprint continues to throw 50% discount offers at the market, with the latest offering up to half off for customers selecting multiple lines of service from its prepaid-focused Boost Mobile brand.
The carrier said through April 5, customers switching from T-Mobile US, AT&T Mobility or Verizon Wireless to a Boost Mobile family plan will receive 10 gigabytes of unthrottled data per line to go along with unlimited domestic voice calling and text messaging. Pricing is at $60 per month for two lines of service, $85 per month for three lines or $110 per month for the maximum of four lines of service.
The move would seem to be a counter to T-Mobile US’ launch in late January of a “50% discount” for its MetroPCS prepaid brand targeting Sprint, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile.
Boost continues to offer its Family Plan, which was rolled out in late January and provides two lines of service with unlimited voice calling, text messaging and 5 GB of unthrottled data per line for $70 per month. Customers can add up to two additional lines for $25 each.
Sprint said it lost 491,000 direct prepaid customers during the final three months of last year, which in turn dragged down what would have been a strong quarter of growth for the beleaguered carrier. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure excused the dip by stating the carrier was not interested in chasing lower profit customers, which look to have found refuge in the arms of T-Mobile US and AT&T Mobility, both of which reported an identical 469,000 net prepaid additions during the fourth quarter of last year.
“Prepaid has been fiercely competitive,” Claure said. “We had to decide where we wanted to compete and that was more focus on postpaid. We have a good value proposition in prepaid, but are not going to fight for unprofitable customers. Not adding customers for the sake of adding customers.”
However, Claure did say Sprint was looking to reposition its prepaid efforts, with a short-term focus on the Boost Mobile brand while it planned to go in a new direction for its Virgin Mobile USA brand.
Sprint last month rolled out a trio of new “unlimited” plans for Virgin Mobile, packed with data and the carrier’s recently launched music streaming service. The new plans begin at $30 per month for unlimited domestic calling, messaging and 500 megabytes of unthrottled data; move to $40 per month for 4 GB of data; and top out at $50 per month for 6 GB of data. The plans replace previous offerings that for $35 per month offered 1 GB of data; for $45 per month offered 3 GB of data; and for $55 per month offered 8 GB of data.
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