Mike Wuerthele
On the heels of other carrier updates, Sprint has also revised its wireless plans, giving two phones unlimited data for $100 per month.
Sprint's Unlimited Freedom plan has unlimited talk, text, and what it calls "optimized streaming video." Sprint's new plan costs $60 for a single line, $40 for a second, and $30 per line after two, up to 10 lines of service.
Boost Mobile, Sprint's prepaid brand, has a similar offer it calls "Unlimited Unhook'd." It features the same unlimited offerings including the down-sampled streaming video and sells for $50 a month for a single line, and $30 per month each additional line, up to five lines total.
Video streaming from Sprint is cut to 480p resolution. Gaming is limited to 2 megabits per second. Music streams are restrained to 500 kilobits per second, which will only impact some "lossless" audio streams and will have no impact on Apple Music quality.
CEO of Sprint Marcelo Claure said that the company initially resisted transcoding streaming video to a lower resolution and bitrate. However, Sprint claims that customers asked about the video could barely tell the difference between a higher source resolution, and the 480p transcoded video stream on mobile screens.
Restrictions on mobile hotspot tethering are not known at this time.
The new Sprint and Boost Mobile data plans will be offered to consumers on Aug. 19.
Thursday's new data plan launch by Sprint is the third carrier update in a week. AT&T updated its own data plans skewed in favor of customers seeking more mobile data, across fewer devices. T-Mobile's new plan emphasizes family plan holders with multiple devices.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
10 Comments
Feels like the industry is going backwards?
Interesting. But, you still have to deal with Sprint.
I have a brand new iPad Pro sitting next to me, with the Apple SIM. I've been trying to make the Mobile Broadband Pass for a week. Doesn't work. The signup screen says to "try again later."
If you contact Sprint for assistance, they tell you to contact Boost or Virgin Mobile (which are their prepaid brands)... But, you'll need the phone number and pin to your account for assistance.
Just go elsewhere.
Wow, you Americans really do get ripped off when it comes to cell phone contracts.
Why are they calling this "Unlimited Freedom plan" it's the very definition of limitation and restriction. Wouldn't it be nice if it was illegal to "sell" things in any kind of buffet non economically justifiable tactic ? unloading dog crap on people that cannot be justified interms of (retail price) - (cost of production) = (profit) is hogwash, these dodgy unsustainable and ultimately poise for failere business models should be unlawful you can't sell an unlimited quantity of anything at a fixed price that's not even basic Math's it's basic commonsense it's false advertising that should be banned and companies should not be training consumers to value quantity over quality, there should be some gov dep insuring this everywhere not just for consumer protection but the betterment of civilasation, if everyone could only buy the very best possible thing at all the price points that even the cheapest is the best cheapest and no "buy one get one free" ha ? Yeah I know I know very naive but wouldnt it be nice
Not really a fan of all this 480p stream downgrading (it's not optimizing). We are getting new phones with better and better screens just to go back to SD resolution. No thanks. I think the new T-Mobile plan isn't great either. 2G for tethering? Nah! I'll stick with my 10GB with roll over and use it how I like.