Say hello to the Framily (inexpensive but potentially confusing new Sprint group plan pricing)

[duddys31]

So has anyone heard what and if the there is a catch to people under contract with a subsidized phone can switch to the framily plan for a limited time if you bought your device before 1/10/2014? And not have to pay the 15 dollar fee monthly.

[Vette]

Don't you have to carry out the rest of your contract term?

[irev210]

It seems like a good hotspot option would be to build in a small cap and offer it to everyone as a part of their data service. Say, offer 200-500MB and either pay for more or it automatically deactivates until the next billing cycle. That way, it is another incentive offered by Sprint as a value add but it won't lead to crippling overuse.

 

 

Worked well for T-Mobile to do that with tablets.

[Vince]

Don't you have to carry out the rest of your contract term?

Let's say you got a shiny, new phone and contract for Christmas, or sometime before 1/10/14, by switching to framily, you're essentially knocking a full year off your contract. You're remaining contractual obligation to sprint becomes 12 months from framily activation. After the 12 months, you're contract free, and able to upgrade if you choose using their new "easy pay" plan.

 

So has anyone heard what and if the there is a catch to people under contract with a subsidized phone can switch to the framily plan for a limited time if you bought your device before 1/10/2014? And not have to pay the 15 dollar fee monthly.

No catch, once their "limited time" time frame is established, you'll avoid that fee.

[duddys31]

So will that start as soon as the framily plans start then?

[travismheim]

The way I understand it is you are still bound by your service agreement if you were under contract and switch to framily. You get an annual upgrade as part of the $20 unlimited data add on if maintained for twelve months via easy pay.

[Danzoman316]

So let me see

$25 if I join a group of 10

$16 for my unl data(corp dis)

$18.75 for 24 nexus 4 pmnts

$59.75 before taxes....

 

I'm not a sprint customer just sayin....

 

 

Is the $100 port in credit applicable as well?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Rocket87]

So let me see

$25 if I join a group of 10

$16 for my unl data(corp dis)

$18.75 for 24 nexus 4 pmnts

$59.75 before taxes....

 

I'm not a sprint customer just sayin....

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I was browsing the price tags today for friday. Here are 3 that i remember.

 

Nexus 5. $50 down payment and 16ish/month

 

Note 3 $150 down payment 23ish/ month

 

Galaxy s4 $99 down 20 ish/month

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[anthony.spina97]

So, let me ask a couple of questions.

 

1. My father and sister are both on one up, they entered into their one up plan in September of 2013, shortly after it came out. If we were to change their Unlimited My Way plans to this new Framily thing in say, sometime this month, does that mean they have to go through 12 payments from this month (January of next year) in order to upgrade? (assuming we get unlimited data, which we will) Or are they able to upgrade in September of this year? (since that will be when they make their 12th payments. And I know that they will either have to pay off their phones or give them back in order to upgrade)

 

2. Aside from my father and sister, I am also on an Unlimited My Way plan (under the same account as them), but I bought an iPhone 5 and signed a 2 year contract in July of 2013, and was planning on waiting until July of 2014 to sign up for one up, (because I was told by Sprint that I needed to be in my service contract for 12 months to sign up, so they said come back in July) but with Framily and easy pay, One up is dead, so I can't sign up for One Up. If we all sign up for Framily under the same account (again, lets say we sign up this month, and I get unlimited data), does that mean I have to wait until January of 2015 to upgrade my iPhone 5? Or can I upgrade in July of 2014? (since that will be when I'm 12 months into my service contract)

 

I appreciate the help!

 

-Anthony

[DaQue]

I was browsing the price tags today for friday. Here are 3 that i remember.

 

Nexus 5. $50 down payment and 16ish/month

 

Note 3 $150 down payment 23ish/ month

 

Galaxy s4 $99 down 20 ish/month

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

I'm trying to figure out if this a good deal for me or not.

 

I have a note 2 now  and pay:

 

Everything Data - 450 Minutes            $69.99

Premium Data add-on charge              $10.00

 

lets call it  $80 per month plus Top-Tier Total Equipment Protection   $11.00 which would likely be on the new plan too

I think I paid $299 for the phone 

24 months at $80 =$1920 add the $299 down payment and its about $2220 over two years ($92.50/ month)

 

Going with note 3 pricing. 

So now if I go it alone It would be $55 +$20 for unlimited data +$23 for the phone per month or $98/month 

Lets say I upgrade the phone twice to take advantage of being able to every 12 months add in $150 twice

($98x24)+300=$2652 or $110.50 per month.  $18 per month to upgrade once a year instead of every two years.

 

If I can get in a Framily (worst name ever?) plan with 5 phones it drops to nothing extra. 

So you think it will be hard to put together Framily plans? I really don't know if I could get may from work to join up and I basically have no friends who would consider Sprint. I think they said earlier in this thread something kills the idea of S4GRU groups.

 

Did I miss anything?

[Ascertion]

You guys are forgetting the device isn't included in the bill. If you buy a new device, you'll have to finance it and that's adding another $24/month per phone. It's great if you don't upgrade often but for me, if I kept unlimited data with a new device, I have a $45/month ($25 + $20) cost for my line (if I have 7 or more people on my Framily) and then an additional $24 for device so it comes out to $69 for my line. I know I'm an exception but I would rather keep unlimited data for myself, even if I offload a ton on WiFi. With my current plan (1500 family), my line comes to $50/line because my bill is $200 for four lines.

 

So if you upgrade often, not the best choice but otherwise is pretty cool.

 

Sent from my LG-G2

 

 

[WiWavelength]

You guys are forgetting the device isn't included in the bill. If you buy a new device, you'll have to finance it and that's adding another $24/month per phone. It's great if you don't upgrade often but for me...

 

Your analysis is off target.

 

If you take "unlimited" data for all it is worth and upgrade precisely on schedule, then the existing plans with included subsidy may be superior.  But if you upgrade more or less often than the month when eligible, subsidy becomes an albatross around your neck every month.  I demonstrated this in a post earlier today, showing that the max discount Framily plan can beat existing plans -- even including full price handsets costs.

 

Additionally, financing is not required.  Plenty of us would just pay the full price upfront.

 

AJ

[utiz4321]

You guys are forgetting the device isn't included in the bill. If you buy a new device, you'll have to finance it and that's adding another $24/month per phone. It's great if you don't upgrade often but for me, if I kept unlimited data with a new device, I have a $45/month ($25 + $20) cost for my line (if I have 7 or more people on my Framily) and then an additional $24 for device so it comes out to $69 for my line. I know I'm an exception but I would rather keep unlimited data for myself, even if I offload a ton on WiFi. With my current plan (1500 family), my line comes to $50/line because my bill is $200 for four lines.

 

So if you upgrade often, not the best choice but otherwise is pretty cool.

 

Sent from my LG-G2

If you up grade offer on the plan that you are on you would have to purchase one phone every other year At retail an one on subsidy. So assuming iPhone (easiest to do) then 200+650-300 (high resale, when I tried to sell my sprint iPhone 5 the only serious offer I got was 225) =550 dividing by 24 and you need to add 22.91 to you current plan to equal the same amount of phones on the new plan.

[BenChase7]

 

 

btw I want Samuel L Jackson to be the new spokesperson for Sprint and explain these plans for the common folk like he does with Capital One, but with a bit more aggression and slip in a curse word or two.

 

TS

[koiulpoi]

Ive seen a few people say sprint is moving away from unlimited and ditching the unlimited guarantee. But it is clearly included in the FAQ

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

That must have been something they quickly backpedaled on; the Launch Guide and FAQ from a couple days ago clearly said that the Unlimited Guarantee was not included, despite Unlimited Data being offered.

[Rocket87]

That must have been something they quickly backpedaled on; the Launch Guide and FAQ from a couple days ago clearly said that the Unlimited Guarantee was not included, despite Unlimited Data being offered.

It also said in the training it was not. But then there was a memo saying it was infact included. Now it shows it in a few places.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[richy]

That must have been something they quickly backpedaled on; the Launch Guide and FAQ from a couple days ago clearly said that the Unlimited Guarantee was not included, despite Unlimited Data being offered.

 

I think unlimited will be around for a while in one guide or another. I think it would be sensible for them to continue both sell metered and unmetered packages, they give metered (pay per GB) priority on the network and they cap unlimited at Xmbps (say 4mbps?). There is value in avoiding bill shock, there is value in catering to the I don't want to pay for unlimited crowd, no reason they cannot do both. I would love to see the networks move away from smaller allowances for per GB packages. It is so easy to blow 2GB a month on just browsing and email before you add in any kind of video or radio \ music etc. The 3GB plan is a pretty sane amount for basic usage. Having the levels be 3 \ 7 \ unlimited would be nice, but I guess it would result in a lot of downgrading of packages and therefore ARPU unless people opted to pay the same and use more in which case it could be a win.

[Danzoman316]

If any of you guys are going to do this I wouldn't mind hopping on a group of at least 7. That way I can get a Sim card and put it in my Nexus 5 and try out the network for a few months.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[WiWavelength]

btw I want Samuel L Jackson to be the new spokesperson for Sprint and explain these plans for the common folk like he does with Capital One, but with a bit more aggression and slip in a curse word or two.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX_Lqy_ySTA

 

AJ

[Vette]

I think unlimited will be around for a while in one guide or another. I think it would be sensible for them to continue both sell metered and unmetered packages, they give metered (pay per GB) priority on the network and they cap unlimited at Xmbps (say 4mbps?). There is value in avoiding bill shock, there is value in catering to the I don't want to pay for unlimited crowd, no reason they cannot do both. I would love to see the networks move away from smaller allowances for per GB packages. It is so easy to blow 2GB a month on just browsing and email before you add in any kind of video or radio \ music etc. The 3GB plan is a pretty sane amount for basic usage. Having the levels be 3 \ 7 \ unlimited would be nice, but I guess it would result in a lot of downgrading of packages and therefore ARPU unless people opted to pay the same and use more in which case it could be a win.

The whole idea of a data cap is so wrong though. 1GB at noon =/= 1GB at 2:30am in terms of network stress. I really, really, really, really would like to see some kind of peak/off peak data cap thing like Verizon used to have for minutes.

 

But the fact is, caps are used to increase revenue (at least in Verizon and AT&T's case), not to relieve network stress.

[bitslizer]

I have it confirmed with a Sprint Rep

 

for existing sprint customers on different accounts and want to join the new Framily plan, they can do a "change of owenrship" to merge the accounts

 

of course, only do this with someone you trust to pay their bills.

 

https://community.sprint.com/baw/message/709058#709058

[dedub]

here seems like a decent analysis and price chart comparison between sprint/tmo

 

http://www.pocketables.com/2014/01/sprint-announces-new-framily-plans-stack-t-mobile.html

 

note the chart does not include any handset charges/financing for either carrier, so that could make a difference as well.

[koiulpoi]

I have it confirmed with a Sprint Rep

 

for existing sprint customers on different accounts and want to join the new Framily plan, they can do a "change of owenrship" to merge the accounts

 

of course, only do this with someone you trust to pay their bills.

 

https://community.sprint.com/baw/message/709058#709058

Right, you do what's called a "transfer of liability". You put the liability of the phones in question under someone else's name. This somewhat eliminates one of the biggest advantages of Framily, as you will receive a single bill. You also may not be able to do this, depending on the credit of the receiving account. But yes, it will work.

[richy]

The whole idea of a data cap is so wrong though. 1GB at noon =/= 1GB at 2:30am in terms of network stress. I really, really, really, really would like to see some kind of peak/off peak data cap thing like Verizon used to have for minutes.

 

But the fact is, caps are used to increase revenue (at least in Verizon and AT&T's case), not to relieve network stress.

 

I agree the on peak off peak has merit but working very strongly against it is the fact that it complicates the situation for consumers that can barely tie their shoes. The biggest benefit of unlimited is not having to worry about your bill (apart from the abusers who just want to hammer the network for whom a special corner of hell is waiting), having time criteria reintroduces some worry. I agree it's a great concept, but practically it will run into issues with the cant think wont think crowd which seems to be about 70% of people  

 

Caps are most definitely revenue related at the moment. They look at usage tiers and see where they set the packages and prices to make X revenue. The problem with that is that the tiers also impact on usage so it is a cycle, they don't trust that raising the caps will likely result in a corresponding increase in use and satisfaction. (by they I mean at&t and vzw).

[S4GRU]

The whole idea of a data cap is so wrong though. 1GB at noon =/= 1GB at 2:30am in terms of network stress. I really, really, really, really would like to see some kind of peak/off peak data cap thing like Verizon used to have for minutes.

 

But the fact is, caps are used to increase revenue (at least in Verizon and AT&T's case), not to relieve network stress.

 

This is only true if you are the only person on the network.  If the network is at capacity at Noon, and at 10% of capacity at 2:30AM, then using 1GB of data at Noon is going to stress the network.  

 

Otherwise I agree with the rest of your post.  Caps do generate revenue.  Not just in overage charges.  But also in it causes people to buy larger plans than they may really need in fear that they go over and generate overage charges.  I probably even have one data tier higher than I probably need with AT&T as a buffer for those months I may need more.

 

I like the thought of peak/off-peak times.  However, there is a huge variance in what is a peak time.  It varies by site and by sector.  A peak time may be during the day in business districts and schools, but it may be night in residential areas.  Airports are consistently busy day and evening.  There are probably dozens of peak scenarios out there.

 

I think peak and off peak voice pricing was just a means of generating more money, and it never had any significant network performance ramifications.

 

Robert