Sprint counters T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, with own early upgrade program

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
America's third-largest wireless carrier may be late to the party, but Sprint will reportedly launch its own early phone upgrade program just in time for the arrival of Apple's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.


image via Cnet


Sprint One Up is said to be the name of Sprint's new early upgrade option, according to Cnet. One Up, according to sources familiar with Sprint's plans, will launch on Friday, September 20, the same day that Apple will launch both the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c.

Sprint One Up will allow customers to get a new phone for no money down. Customers pay down the cost of the phone over the course of two years in monthly installments. Under this scheme, a $650 device would be paid off in $27 per month payments, with any remaining balance paid in the final installment.

Should a customer terminate their contract before the two years are up, the customer is responsible for paying the remaining balance of the device's price. That fee would be due the following month.

The early upgrade aspect kicks in after one year of service. Customers can then trade in the phone they bought the year previous for a new device, whereupon the aforementioned repayment plan and obligations are renewed.

Reportedly, when the program kicks off on September 20, those customers who have already been on contract for at least a year will be eligible to participate. They will, though, be required to trade in their existing phones unless they are eligible for a discounted upgrade. The program is not open to Sprint prepaid customers.

One Up will compete against Verizon's Edge, T-Mobile's Jump, and AT&T's Next early upgrade programs. Sprint is the last of the major United States carriers to implement such a program. Its announcement marks the fulfillment of a trend that was started by T-Mobile earlier this year.

That carrier, continually losing subscribers over the past few years, announced Jump, which allows two smartphone upgrades per year for a $10 per month fee. Soon after, both AT&T and Verizon announced their own competing smartphone upgrade plans.

Observers have previously noted that T-Mobile's plan appears to be the best deal between that carrier, AT&T, and Verizon, due to the fact that T-Mobile offers a discount on the wireless plan as well. Sprint One Up also offers a discount on the wireless plan, meaning it is closer to T-Mobile's offering than it is either of the other two competitors.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    Sprints data network is so slow it's a joke
  • Reply 2 of 19
    And there it is. Now people will have the option of leasing smartphones. Talk about American culture.
  • Reply 3 of 19
    eckergus wrote: »
    And there it is. Now people will have the option of leasing smartphones. Talk about American culture.

    Exactly what I was thinking.
  • Reply 4 of 19
    Trying....to....resist....selling ....wireless soul.....for 5s

    Now I know why Adam and Eve had son much trouble with an Apple.

    AT&T might have me right were they want me.
  • Reply 5 of 19

    imo you are better off buying unlock and manage youre own upgrades.

     

    I pay $40/month for 1g/month data and everything else unlimited.  Virgin mobile (canada) silver plan at $45 minus $5 because I use an unlock phone.

  • Reply 6 of 19
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    I just went to the AT&T early termination page: 

     

    http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/early-term-fees.jsp

     

    It says $325 minus $10 for each month completed on your contract.

     

    So in my case I would owe $205.

     

    Gazelle will offer me $310 for my iPhone 5 64GB. So to get a new iPhone 5s I would be out of pocket $294 plus tax.

     

    Then I got to thinking, if I bought the new AT&T iPhone 5s for $399 and immediately requested early termination, that fee would be another $325 according to the AT&T web page. Once your contract responsibility is satisfied, AT&T will allow you to unlock the phone, right? At least they did with my last iPhone. So if you add it up, you could get an unlocked 5s 64GB for $724 plus tax, a savings of $125. Then pay off the early termination of $205 then sell the old iPhone 5 for $310 getting me into a new unlocked iPhone 5s for $621.  Sounds too good to be true. I don't really need an unlocked iPhone 5s since I already have an unlocked iPhone 4 for my travels abroad, but it would be nice thing to have anyway. It is kind of complicated and I really don't need  the extra savings but interesting none the less.

  • Reply 7 of 19
    mstone wrote: »
    I just went to the AT&T early termination page: 

    http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/early-term-fees.jsp

    It says $325 minus $10 for each month completed on your contract.

    So in my case I would owe $205.

    Gazelle will offer me $310 for my iPhone 5 64GB. So to get a new iPhone 5s I would be out of pocket $294 plus tax.

    Then I got to thinking, if I bought the new AT&T iPhone 5s for $399 and immediately requested early termination, that fee would be another $325 according to the AT&T web page. Once your contract responsibility is satisfied, AT&T will allow you to unlock the phone, right? At least they did with my last iPhone. So if you add it up, you could get an unlocked 5s 64GB for $724 plus tax, a savings of $125. Then sell the old iPhone 5 for $310 getting me into a new unlocked iPhone 5s for $414.  Sounds too good to be true. I don't really need an unlocked iPhone 5s since I already have an unlocked iPhone 4 for my travels abroad, but it would be nice thing to have anyway. It is kind of complicated and I really don't need  the extra savings but interesting none the less.

    Hmm so you're talking about opening up a second line and the immediately canceling it.....

    I wonder...that may be a loop whole they will have a problem with.
  • Reply 8 of 19
    mstone wrote: »
    So if you add it up, you could get an unlocked 5s 64GB for $724 plus tax, a savings of $125. Then sell the old iPhone 5 for $310 getting me into a new unlocked iPhone 5s for $414.  Sounds too good to be true.

    It is too good to be true. You just sold your phone to gazelle twice. The first time was when you offset the early termination fee AND upgraded to a 64gb phone for $294....
  • Reply 9 of 19
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by qwrty View Post

     
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post



    So if you add it up, you could get an unlocked 5s 64GB for $724 plus tax, a savings of $125. Then sell the old iPhone 5 for $310 getting me into a new unlocked iPhone 5s for $414.  Sounds too good to be true.




    It is too good to be true. You just sold your phone to gazelle twice. The first time was when you offset the early termination fee AND upgraded to a 64gb phone for $294....

     

    You are right I did make a mistake but it was not selling the old iPhone twice. I was describing two different scenarios. What I forgot to factor in is the $205 termination fee on the old phone before I sell it on Gazelle. So in scenario #2 the final would be $621.

  • Reply 10 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

     

    I just went to the AT&T early termination page: 

     

    http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/early-term-fees.jsp

     

    It says $325 minus $10 for each month completed on your contract.

     

    So in my case I would owe $205.

     

    Gazelle will offer me $310 for my iPhone 5 64GB. So to get a new iPhone 5s I would be out of pocket $294 plus tax.

     

    Then I got to thinking, if I bought the new AT&T iPhone 5s for $399 and immediately requested early termination, that fee would be another $325 according to the AT&T web page. Once your contract responsibility is satisfied, AT&T will allow you to unlock the phone, right? At least they did with my last iPhone. So if you add it up, you could get an unlocked 5s 64GB for $724 plus tax, a savings of $125. Then pay off the early termination of $205 then sell the old iPhone 5 for $310 getting me into a new unlocked iPhone 5s for $621.  Sounds too good to be true. I don't really need an unlocked iPhone 5s since I already have an unlocked iPhone 4 for my travels abroad, but it would be nice thing to have anyway. It is kind of complicated and I really don't need  the extra savings but interesting none the less.


     

    https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/ :

     

    "AT&T reserves the right to deny any unlock request that it concludes would result in an abuse of this policy or is part of an effort to defraud AT&T or its customers. AT&T further reserves the right to alter this unlocking policy at its discretion without advance notice."

  • Reply 11 of 19
    So you pay for the phone then return it back after paying for it, what's the point if you don't get resale value, its the only way to make a current contract feel okay.
  • Reply 12 of 19
    So you pay for the phone then return it back after paying for it, what's the point if you don't get resale value, its the only way to make a current contract feel okay.

    You are totally right. People that get into this deal are literally leasing the phone, you never own anything. This is outright leasing.
  • Reply 13 of 19
    I don't plan on using Sprint's upgrade program as I haven't changed my plan to one of the My Way plans. Plus I don't want to upgrade my iPhone 5 until next year for the next iPhone.
  • Reply 14 of 19
    WHAT AN EFFING SURPRISE THAT ALL FOUR OF THE MAJOR TELECOM WOULD HAVE THE EXACT SAME POLICIES IN PLACE. I AM SHOCKED BEYOND BELIEF THAT ALL FOUR OF THE MAJOR TELECOMS WOULD FOLLOW IN EACH OTHER’S FOOTSTEPS SO CLOSELY.

    WHY, IF I DIDN’T KNOW BETTER, WHICH I OBVIOUSLY DO, I WOULD SAY THAT THE FOUR MAJOR TELECOMS WERE TALKING TO EACH OTHER BEFORE SAID POLICIES WERE ENACTED SO AS TO MAKE SURE THAT EACH OF THEM DID THE EXACT SAME THING.

    BUT THAT’S SILLY.
  • Reply 15 of 19
    WHAT AN EFFING SURPRISE THAT ALL FOUR OF THE MAJOR TELECOM WOULD HAVE THE EXACT SAME POLICIES IN PLACE. I AM SHOCKED BEYOND BELIEF THAT ALL FOUR OF THE MAJOR TELECOMS WOULD FOLLOW IN EACH OTHER’S FOOTSTEPS SO CLOSELY.

    WHY, IF I DIDN’T KNOW BETTER, WHICH I OBVIOUSLY DO, I WOULD SAY THAT THE FOUR MAJOR TELECOMS WERE TALKING TO EACH OTHER BEFORE SAID POLICIES WERE ENACTED SO AS TO MAKE SURE THAT EACH OF THEM DID THE EXACT SAME THING.

    BUT THAT’S SILLY.

    Why does it shock you? They don't want to find themselves in the position of telling a customer "we don't offer what that other carrier does" unless of course it's the data plans.

    They read the press releases just like we do and react accordingly. Copying and collusion are 2 different things.
  • Reply 16 of 19
    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post
    Copying and collusion are 2 different things.

     

    And raising prices to identical levels simultaneously falls under… 

     

    You have a 50/50 shot; have at it.

  • Reply 17 of 19
    And raising prices to identical levels simultaneously falls under… 

    You have a 50/50 shot; have at it.

    Raising prices of what? Don't most smartphones cost the same? Did Apple, Samsung, Moto, HTC, etc collude to charge the same price?
  • Reply 18 of 19
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,807member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post



    WHAT AN EFFING SURPRISE THAT ALL FOUR OF THE MAJOR TELECOM WOULD HAVE THE EXACT SAME POLICIES IN PLACE. I AM SHOCKED BEYOND BELIEF THAT ALL FOUR OF THE MAJOR TELECOMS WOULD FOLLOW IN EACH OTHER’S FOOTSTEPS SO CLOSELY.



    WHY, IF I DIDN’T KNOW BETTER, WHICH I OBVIOUSLY DO, I WOULD SAY THAT THE FOUR MAJOR TELECOMS WERE TALKING TO EACH OTHER BEFORE SAID POLICIES WERE ENACTED SO AS TO MAKE SURE THAT EACH OF THEM DID THE EXACT SAME THING.



    BUT THAT’S SILLY.

     

    Exact that you are completely and utterly wrong. Although they resemble each other to a certain degree they are all very different. T-Mobile deserves credit for being the first however and kudos to them for changing things up a bit. But the prices and policies couldn't be different like you are asserting. 

     


     

  • Reply 19 of 19
    If you compare the plans, Sprint's is not better just because they give a service discount. You need to factor in that they ARE charging a $36 Activation Fee plus their term is 24 months, whereas the others are 20 and they don't charge an activation fee. All can swap phones for a new one at 12 months, but do the math... Sprint's offer isn't the best. So far, at&t's Next is the best one offered.
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