Sprint has confirmed with Reuters that it will begin offering a flat-rate voice/text/data plan with unlimited push to talk for $50 a month under the Boost Mobile brand beginning on January 22nd. The intention of the plan is to compete with rapidly growing regional flat-rate carriers such as Metro PCS and Leap Wireless, operator of Cricket.
The representatives also touted the larger coverage footprint of the iDEN network compared to the pockets of native CDMA coverage Cricket and MetroPCS are known for, while predicting that possibility that potential T-Mobile customers that are driven by value may decide to take advantage of the offer citing less administrative fees leading to more consistent billing.
Is that only for iDen Boost or is that for CDMA Boost as well?
The $50 Boost Unlimited plan will only be for iDEN. Sprint realizes that there is a premium in EV-DO data, which is why they have been hesitant to roll it out on Boost (the Regional CDMA Boost plan does support EV-DO on one phone, the K1 KRZR).
I would suspect that Sprint is imposing that limitation on Boost, as a $50 CDMA plan of this type would too closely rival Simply Everything on Sprint proper.
It not only would rival Simply Everything, it would undercut postpaid and MVNO services on Sprint as well as other CDMA carriers if Boost also took care of the tertiary fees that add up to $18 on a comparable Metro or Cricket plan on Boost CDMA.
While I’d like to see Boost CDMA expand, it’d make sense as to why they’d offer this on iDEN first, since it recalls the first version of the Premium Plan before the confusing and ill-advised tiering.
They’ll also be getting rid of the old iDEN Premium Plan tiers soon and keeping this as the main monthly plan going forward on Boost iDEN Easier to just get a $50 prepaid card at a dealer or convenience store than deal with needing a credit/debit card.
Isn’t Boost Prepaid? I can see them screwing over customers much like AT&T did when they discontinued unlimited medianet. No contracts is sometimes not a good thing….
Joe, Boost currently offers both prepaid plans and postpay plans. This announcement is simply a new postpay plan. Postpay plans from Boost are offered as a means for Sprint to offer cheaper service without starting a price war. However, all of Boost’s plans have always focused on being contract-free.
We haven’t seen Boost discontinue their other, regional unlimited offerings. And, considering the relatively cheap cost of an iDEN handset… we aren’t talking people putting at risk the full retail price of an iPhone 3G or HTC Touch Pro here. Of course, you could still activate a BlackBerry 8350i on this new plan… so there is something for high-end users to take advantage of on this plan as well.
Are you able to use the high end phones from the iden side with this new unlimited plan?
I tried the unlimited plan for one day. And too many problems with Boost to list here. Horrible Customer Service, Horrible complicated phones. When they ported my number and gave me a temp to use on there website none of them worked and I had no phone to use. Lets see what else no call waiting they dont tell you about. And the Iden network is not that good signal goes in and out dropped calls even though it said i was in an excellent coverage area. I returned and disputed charges. And Would Highly recommend Cricket if they have service where you are.They are growing rapidly may not be quite nationwide yet but check there site they have greatly expanded coverage. And there top plan at 60.00 comes with 200 Roaming mins just in case and if you dont travel all the time everywhere you really dont have to worry and if you do happen to for a bit your guaranteed to roam and have coverage. And they already have coverage in at least 20 States. Well could go on and on. BUT DO NOT GO WITH BOOST.