Sprint on Thursday announced a $60-per-month unlimited talk, text and data plan -- its second price cut in four days -- that's designed to undercut competitors.
The Sprint $60 Unlimited Plan goes into effect Friday. The new price tag is It $20 less than Sprint's Unlimited, My Way plan. That plan offers guaranteed unlimited talk, text and data for life.
The Unlimited, My Way plan will continue to be offered along with the new $60 Unlimited Plan, but marketing efforts will be focused on the $60 plan, according to a Sprint spokeswoman.
In its announcement, Sprint noted that T-Mobile currently offers an $80 a month unlimited plan, while Verizon Wireless and AT&T don't offer an unlimited option. "Consumers no longer have to worry about high bills based on how much data they are using," Sprint said in a statement.
On Monday, Sprint unveiled a separate Family Share Pack plan for shared-data that offers four lines and 20GB of shared data for $160 a month -- double the data at a lower price than either AT&T or Verizon.
Both price cuts were promised by new Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure as a way to reverse a decline in subscribers. But many analysts said network performance problems at Sprint will still keep customers away.
Whether Verizon or AT&T finally adds an unlimited data plan is unlikely. Analysts have said often in recent months that both Verizon and AT&T have broader-reaching, more reliable networks than Sprint or AT&T and can keep customers from leaving even when charging for variable data plans.
Verizon couldn't be reached to comment on Sprint's price cuts, but AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said customers have liked AT&T's approach on rate plans. "Customers have flocked to AT&T Next and Mobile Share Value plans because they deliver terrific value on the nation's most reliable 4G LTE network," Siegel said.
In the last quarter, AT&T also had its lowest churn (subscriber departures) rate ever. Regarding unlimited plans, Siegel noted that while AT&T doesn't currently offer unlimited plans, some customers already on unlimited plans before AT&T introduced tiered data prices were able to keep the unlimited plans if they wanted to.
Read more about mobile/wireless in Computerworld's Mobile/Wireless Topic Center.