Sprint's (S) Prepaid Arm Extends Unlimited Service Offer

AAPL VZ S TMUS

U.S. national wireless carrier Sprint Corp.’s (S - Free Report) wholly owned prepaid subsidiary, Virgin Mobile USA, has extended the unlimited service offer to its existing iPhone owners who are switching over to the carrier.

Notably, Virgin Mobile is extending the offer of unlimited talk, text and data for just $1 for a year to its existing iPhone users, who port their number to the company’s ‘Inner Circle’ plan. After the first 12 months, Inner Circle subscribers will be charged $50 per month for the plan. However, if the customers upgrade to a new iPhone, they will be given an additional six months of service.

Until Sep 29 Virgin Mobile will ship out free SIM kits, beyond which the starter pack will cost $25.

Nevertheless, this unlimited offer has some downsides. Once users exceed 23 GB in any month, network speed will be reduced. Moreover, voice minutes are restricted at 800 minutes per month and domestic data roaming is restricted at 100 MB per month. Also, video is bound to 480p+ resolution, music is to 500 Kbps and streaming cloud gaming is reduced to 2 Mbps per month.

Sprint’s Unlimited Offerings in a Competitive Wireless Industry

Lately, Virgin Mobile USA inked a deal with tech giant Apple Inc. (AAPL - Free Report) to relaunch itself as an exclusive iPhone carrier amid stiff competition and similar promotional policies by its rivals.

In fact, such unlimited offerings are nothing new for wireless carriers, especially for Sprint, which has been the pioneer in this field. On Jun 13, 2017, the company launched a marketing promotion offering a year of unlimited talk, text and data to users, who switch from Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ - Free Report) , AT&T Inc. (T) or T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS - Free Report) to Sprint before Jun 30, 2017.

These moves further intensifies the mobile service pricing war going on among the four national service providers in the U.S. wireless market.

Again, United States Cellular Corp., the wireless subsidiary of Telephone & Data Systems Inc. (TDS) recently revealed a similar offering of free iPhone 7 in a bid to attract new customers. These phones will be provided to subscribers who switch to its network from rival carriers.

Earlier, T-Mobile US also offered its customers a free Galaxy 8 on the purchase of one at full price.

Nonetheless, Sprint’s continuous effort to lure customers from rival carriers by offering attractive promotional plans and lucrative discounts might help Sprint boost its prepaid market share. This, in turn, is expected to reflect in the company’s second-quarter reports.

Price Performance and Zacks Rank

Sprint’s share price declined 0.5% against the industry’s gain of 0.7% in the last three months. Currently, the company carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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