Reviewing Phone Carriers
With the new line of Samsung 7 series out in the market and the Apple September event happening just days away, I have been spending some time thinking about which phone carrier I want to go with.
The features that matter to me most are unlimited data, free international data and a competitive pricing. This quickly narrowed it down to two major players on the field: T-Mobile and Sprint. I am very familiar with both; in fact, Sprint is my current phone carrier. I’d continue to renew with Sprint, had it not been for the news that Sprint is moving away from 2 year contracts at retail stores.
This news is giving me some pause. It seems like you cannot get the two-year contracts at the stores, though it still may be possible to get that option online. However, it’s barely on its last leg if Sprint is phasing out two-years contracts altogether.
Why I am sad that two years contracts are going away
Believe it or not, I want to get locked in to a 2-year Sprint contract. I have a competitively priced unlimited data family plan and I get consistent LTE service. Sprint offers free international data plans, much like T-Mobile. Best of all, I can upgrade to a new device every two years. Since I am not bothered by the commitment, there is no reason why I wouldn’t want it in exchange for new subsidized phones. I crunched the numbers for the 5 phones on my family plan, and I still come out ahead.
This is not to say I don’t see the appeal of leased (or other “upgrade anytime”) plans. I get that not having a contract give customers the flexibility to change plans anytime. It’s an empowering option compared to the days when a contract is the “standard”. However, I think the benefit of that flexibility can sometimes be overstated. The average customer isn’t going to hop between carriers once they find a plan that works for them. There is little or no incentive to “switch” if things are working fine.
Ironically, Sprint would be leveling the playing field if they got rid of the two year contracts (and not in their favor). I would actually be inclined to get an unlocked GSM phone if I am going to be paying full price for a phone, and that means looking at carriers other than Sprint or Verizon.
Monitoring changes
I will be actively monitoring to see if I can get into a two-year contract with Sprint for the last time. If the two-year contracts are going away, I expect that I won’t be upgrading as often as I used to. While I understand that many people are not fond of getting locked into a two-year contracts, I, for one, am sad to see the 2-year contracts and subsidized phones go away.
Do you have a two year contract? Have you moved onto a leased version, and if so, do you find saving more in terms of costs? With the upgrade anytime options, do you find yourself upgrading more or less often?
Related Follow-up Posts:
How We Fared on T-Mobile’s Promotion, Sprint’s Offer, and a new Trade-In Offer
How We Fared on T-Mobile’s Promotion, Sprint’s Offer, and a new Trade-In Offer
I have been with sprint for over 10 years. I am saddened that sprint no longer has the 2 year contracts. I like that fact that i could pay around 350 and be locked on a contract. Now my bill will be more than i want to spend every month. Just to have the latest phone. I do not want to pay 850, lease or even pay monthly on a phone. Looks like I will have to wait until the price drops on a phone I want. Then pay a lower price and not be locked to sprint. Just to keep a low monthly bill. Sad but true. I have been looking at other carriers. might just switch to gsm carrier. Then it is Bye bye sprint.
If you are not in a hurry, you could also wait until the the next “new phone” event comes out. Typically, most carriers offer some sort of promotion at that time. I finally traded in my Sprint’s iPhones during the T-Mobile’s iPhone trade-in promotion last year (though obviously, there aren’t any guarantees that the trade-in offer will come back again).
I have been a customer of sprint for 12 years and locked into an old unlimited everything plan. I have 5 lines and pay $220 a month (taxes and other charges included). When a new iPhone comes out I buy all 5 of them on the 24 month contract which cost $1000. Leasing ONE phone will cost $700 over the same 24 months. If they get rid of the 2 year contract I will just buy cheaper phones since no one else is doing that program anymore. I refuse to pay $700 a phone! That’s just insane. I think a lot of people may start to do the same thing.
Agreed! It IS difficult to justify paying $700 per phone (and leasing makes even less sense to me). Without the subsidized deals with the 2-year contracts, I think people will just delay upgrading until their phones break, switch to a cheaper phone, or switch to a different carrier if a better promotion comes along.
The net effect is that Sprint has blatantly and substantially increased the cost of their plans. We can’t have a phone plan without a phone so we have to look at the total cost of using Sprint, plan and phone. Until recently, everyone understood that the phones were “subsidized’ but not really; a portion of our monthly plan fee went towards amortizing the discount provided by Sprint. It was simply a bundled fee. So we’ve been paying full boat all along. Now Sprint wants to eliminate the “discount” that we’ve been paying off over 24 months but then NOT reducing the monthly cost of our plan? Do they think we are stupid? We should drop Sprint simply for insulting us.
Sprint, if you are monitoring these boards, I am an 18 year family plan customer. I am NOT re-upping unless you reverse this insanity.
I’ve been a Sprint customer for 18 years. I have a 4 phone family plan. As soon as all of my phones are 24 months old I will move my business elsewhere. I am not going to pay $600 for a phone or an extra $30 per month, per phone. My plan costs $212 now; I am not going to pay $120 more per month. I used to buy my phones for reasonable prices ($200 max) at Amazon then Best Buy but that’s been stopped.
Bad decision Sprint. Very bad.
Wow, you’ve definitely been a long time customer of Sprint. It’s the same here; I just can’t justify paying full price for a phone. When my contract ended recently, I ended up taking up T-Mobile’s promotion and moved on from Sprint: https://travelupdate.com/how-we-fared-on-tmobile-promotion/
If you are happy with Sprint, definitely call them up Sprint to ask what they could offer you before you move your business elsewhere. Sprint was too late to offer me an incentive AFTER I switched, but who knows, they may offer you an incentive to offset some of the cost. I imagine they’d put in a much greater effort to try to retain you given that you’ve been a customer for 18 years (!)
No use…I just called yesterday as one of my phones was due for an upgrade (I did not know they did away with the 2 year contracts). I will not pay $600 to $800 for a phone. I have been a customer for 20 years and due to this poor decision I will need to find a new carrier who can hopefully offer me a better phone deal!
It will always be there. Sprint is not all that bad either. Like Jamie Foxx he’d really care, yea right. As long as Verizon, can you hear me now, pays his ass.
He probably has Sprint. Lol
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Sprint is clearly in last place here in Silicon Valley. Although some areas you get a full 5 bars LTE and 45+ Mbps download speed others areas in drop to 3G and barely eek out 1 bar of LTE outdoors. T-Mobile slightly better.
I’ve been on a 2 yrs unlimited contract from 2011. I Checked every other plans or promotions toted by all carries and none of them offered anything close to what I now have with cost. Sadly thou, the day that I have to get off this plan with be my last day with sprint. No sense in supporting them when I can get a good GSM phone to use elsewhere. Mind you, I still find no fault with sprint but I always want value for money.
I’m on the same boat! 2 year contracts are cheaper on a month to month basis vs monthly full retail price phone payments. I pay $328 for 7 lines and if I was to lease it would cost me $480 for the same 8 lines. Not to mention, insurance costs etc….
I have been a Sprint customer for 13 years and only had a contract the first two!! When it works ..why not stick with it!! Dont plan on leaving Sprint..so 2 year or not ..to me does not matter…happy Sprint Customer….
They have 2 year agreement s still available just online over the phone, or in national retailers such as best buy.
+1
Unfortunately, Best Buy is of no help for Employee Referral Plans or SERO users….which is about as Competitive as Unlimited Data Pricing gets while still retaining 2yr Subsidy. (I wish they were, but I’m okay with On-line and telesales)
I’m on SERO P with waived $10 Premium data fee : so only $40 a month plus tax…. probably won’t end this line even if they totally remove upgrade option as it is still cheaper than what is offered elsewhere.
I do wish Sprint would have been forward thinking when rebuilding the Network from the ground up and gone LTE only when they were doing Network Vision.
Instead they rebuilt entire network and are going to need rebuild the network again once they decide to go LTE only and repurpose the current CDMA spectrum for LTE.
At least once LTE-only (Or LTE + Wifi) is a reality for Sprint or Verizon….then it will be easier to obtain a device that just works with all LTE bands rather than CDMA vs GSM in addition to matching LTE Bands.
I am on sprint’s SERO as well and on a grandfathered plan that no longer exists. When I “test shop” on sprint’s website, it is attempting to switch me to the new sprint unlimited plan (which is way more expensive). I’ll check out the third party options once my contract expires but I have to make sure they don’t swap me out of my plan. Like you, I may not end the line (at least not yet) until I figure out a better option.
I am in total agreement with the comment that Sprint should have been forward thinking when buIlding the network. On the plus side, Sprint used to have a bad reputation on the reliability of their networks (my biggest worry when I first switched over), but they’ve been catching up. Baby steps.
Target was the last 3rd party place I could upgrade while on SERO
I Recently used my upgrade for the Note 7, I was given a discount so it was $299 instead of $349 after mail -in rebate. Which is a little weird becaus if I pay the $350 ETF it would make it cheaper than having purchased the device outright. (But SERO plan pricing is hard to beat especially when I can use 40gb a month with no penalty)
If your looking on-line to test shop, be aware they have changed 2yr to the full 24month policy before they offer upgrade price. Where as it will show you have options to change after the 20months.
On the Employee Referral Plan I have active (1 SERO line & 5 lines Employee Referral Everything Data +)
I have a Nexus 6 where it says upgrade but no 2yr option, however Contract is not fully up until November 13th.
Calling in, I was told I will be eligible for Subsidy Upgrade once contract fully expires. If iPhone 7(+) is water resistant I may use my upgrade on for that device this November if it is also heavily discounted.
(Note 7 included the 256GB micro-SD, waived activation, $30 bill credit, and now with the recall after I exchange for a new Note 7 an additional $25 Gift card …I feel bad for the people that I helped get on SERO or ERRP plans and they got suckered into the newer ‘No Contract’s lease or Easy pay options.)
if you go to Japan even once, you likely saved yourself hundreds of dollars with Sprint since no one beats their roaming rate there. period.
How is your SERO premium data fee waived?
I stayed on HTC TP2 until November of 2013 using an average of 50gigs a month of 3G data.
TEP couldn’t replace my Touch Pro 2 with another smartphone and leave me on my plan.
I talked to Retentions and said I’ll move to a new smartphone and pay for the SERO Premium but I’m not paying a Premium data fee…ever on this line.
They reviews my data usage and said it highly unlikely I would consume more data than current usage and noted my account to have Premium data fee waived…as long as I stay on same plan.
When I upgraded to Note 7, I made sure that they could find account note that said premium data waived.