Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sprint Drops Two-Year Contracts

Posted by Soulskill on from the promises-to-find-other-ways-to-fool-you-into-thinking-they're-cheap dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Following the recent news that Verizon has ended smartphone subsidies, now Sprint has announced it is ending two-year contracts as well. This leaves AT&T as the last of the major carriers to offer such a plan. Most consumers will now have to get used to paying full price for their phones, though Sprint is also running a phone-leasing plan that lets people pay an additional $22/month for an 16GB iPhone, with yearly upgrades.

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Why do this? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I must be missing something, but why do this? Offer monthly BYO plans and offer 2 year subsidised phone plans. These are two different market segments and I would have thought locking someone in on a 2 year contract would have been a good thing.

    1. Re:Why do this? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I get that if you are the customer you would want this, but why are Sprint doing it?

    2. Re:Why do this? by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There has been too many competitors offering to pay out the contract in order to switch to their plan.
      So what happened is that they lose customers in the long run. As people switch plans to adjust to what they want.

      Getting rid of the contract will allow people to change their plans in the same company, vs losing a customer.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re: Why do this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The biggest change is that there's no ETF fees. They'll charge for the remaining part of the phone when you cancel, but no further charges. Which is actually pretty fair.

  2. No, not at all by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    T-Mobile's plan is $50/month to get unlimited talk, text, 1GB of high speed data, and the ability to have 1 phone. Back when Verizon was doing contracts it was about $90/month from them for the same. Now, if you get an expensive phone from T-Mobile and take the 24 month finance, the plan ends up being around $90/month with the payment and taxes.

    Here they thing though: You pay off the phone, your rate drops down to $55ish/month (base plus taxes). It'll then stay at that rate as long as you keep your phone. Also, the rate is less if you get a less expensive phone. Get a cheaper phone, either used or less features, and you pay less because it cost less.

    You save money so long as you are willing to keep older hardware, or buy cheaper hardware. It costs about the same only if you buy expensive hardware. Even then it is cheaper, because whereas T-Mobile wants about $90/month with an expensive phone, Verizon wanted that plus $200 up front.

    Looking at Verizon now, it looks the same. $50/month (they divide it as $30/month for the plan, $20/month for the phone) gets you unlimited/unlimited/1GB. If you buy a phone up front, that's your rate. Finance it, and it depends on the phone price. That's much lower than when it was subsidized.