Sprint joins chorus of carrier updates, reveals its own unlimited data plan

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.