cletus

You don't have to have two lines. You can have just one.

 

In other words 600 mb is 20+25=45

You are correct only because I am functionally retarded at reading my own spreadsheet. 

Here is what Sprint offers

600 mb 45

2 gig 50

Unlimited 60

 

They do have lower tiered plans!

You mean family share pricing for the first two options right??

For one line there would be a $25 line charge for both which brings them to $60 and $75 respectively. This is even for new users as line fees are only waived at 20 GB or higher tiers.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L4FXkfyfM69LNJ6-vJ0baMZxdSWJ8N8aQNS_vVd5XOM

I'll echo what GoBigRed79 said and add this thread from the Howard Forums that seems to have covered quite a bit of the information already:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1843922-Sprint-US-Cellular-merger/page4

This kind of Analysis always cracks me up:

 

So when T-Mobile announces 'un-carrier' moves (and stay tuned, they're doing more next week, apparently), analysts fart rainbows and ice cream because it's awesome and a direct shot at AT&T/Verizon. But when Sprint undercuts T-Mobile with a disruptive plan, analysts are on the fence about the pricing strategy.

 

Got it.

Hey, they called the pricing disruptive so we are making progress!

Don't know if this has been posted

 

 

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/13846/20140823/t-mobile-responds-to-sprints-60-unlimited-everything-plan-with-more-offers-and-uncarrier-moves-next-week.htm

T-Mobile has an answer to sprints new individual plans

So will this become a race to the bottom with the photo finish winners being Verizon and AT&T?

 

Maybe in response to these changes Sprint will offer 5 GB tethering/hotspot for the unlimited plans or something. Or maybe they actually ARE able to drop it to $50/line for everyone in which case it becomes price competitive with the family share plan for existing customers.  For example you can get 20 GB for 3 lines @ $145 vs 3 unlimited lines @ $150. For people with deep customer discounts the amount eligible would only be half of the potential $50 (or 44.25 with a 23% discount line I have) So for that example 1 line and 2 lines will always beat family share and 3 lines unlimited would be $132.75 vs $122.00 (20 GB family share w/23% discount).

 

For new customers the price advantage on family share is huge when combined with discounts. You can get the 32GB tier for any amount of lines for $100.10 (23% discount) or even 40 GB for $115.50.

 

You can compare it yourself @ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L4FXkfyfM69LNJ6-vJ0baMZxdSWJ8N8aQNS_vVd5XOM/

Port your numbers to an att go phone. Wait about 30 days and then port your numbers to sprint so you can take advantage of the promotion

What about T-Mobile? I have a Nexus 5 and Iphone 5 which should both work on Swiss Cheese-Mobile.  

Typically none of the phone companies will give port in promos from mvno divisions.

This was the case for Sprint owned MVNOs but not Ting. I had friends that ported from Ting back to Sprint and had promo deals given to them. It was one of the reasons I joined Ting rather than leaving Sprint altogether.

Super disappointed in Sprint today. I went into the corporate store to sign up and the process was a mess. First I had to setup the account and then verify a zero balance with sprint from 15 months ago when I left for Ting. The verification took 45 minutes. Once that was done I was then informed by the manager that because I am on Ting I am not eligible for the waived port in fee. So over an hour and 15 mins for nothing.

 

Apparently I am still considered a Sprint customer when I pay a different company for service. For my two lines this was a $30/month difference and it killed the deal for me.

 

I don't see myself rejoining Sprint ever again because of this. I'll have to explore my options elsewhere.

 

Very disappointed because this restriction for Ting was not in place before.

 

Anyways, thus ends my experience with Sprint.

Yeah, it's definitely concerning. Could it be a hack of Sprint's infrastructure?

 

I'm very curious if anyone else can reproduce this. I just tried it on my wife's phone, and got redirected to search-error.com as well. So it's not just my phone, anyway.

Does it happen just where you are or is it in other areas around town? If it is just where you are I am 99% sure it is just something misconfigured on Sprint's end rather than something malicious.

Yeah, this is with Chrome on Android. I don't believe I can change the DNS servers on it without root?

 

Also, when I connected to my home wifi with my phone, Chrome stopped redirecting NXDOMAINs.

 

The fact that search-error.com mentions and links to Sprint tells me that this is somehow related to Sprint, whether or not it's Sprint's doing.

Really weird. Perhaps a tower your phone is connecting to has bad DNS settings? I'd give Sprint a call as I have never heard of this outside using AT&T/TWC/Comast's DNS settings and seeing a spammy page for search results when it can't connect to a website (which is why I use the Google DNS).

Try setting your DNS to the Google DNS servers https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/

 

or to OpenDNS

 

http://wdgfstatus.com/opendns-win7/

 

Or do you mean your phone's browser?

Life would be so much simpler, easier if "unlimited" data would sensibly go away.  Then, subs could use any/all of their data for browsing, streaming, tethering, or however they please.

 

As an analogy, there is good reason why an all you can eat buffet might have a "children eat free" with paid adult meal night -- but limit it to children 10 and under.  The 180 pound, 17 year old may be a "child" but is wisely excluded.  And in the last several years, that "boy" is what smartphones have grown into in their data capabilities.

 

AJ

I just wish Data = Data. I dislike having certain data be used for certain things or certain apps being excluded (seriously T-Mobile? you net neutrality ignoring assholes)

 

Frankly I find the way Ting does data buckets per actual usage to be how I wish everything was done. Unfortunately Ting has goddamn expensive data buckets and for now I keep my phone lines locked down to under 500 MB/mo (which sucks).

Okay then make tethering addons double your data for 1 GB and 3 GB and for unlimited cap it at 5 or 6 GB. That way it is a nice value add and still keeps the tiers from being better than one another.

What would be nice on the individual plans is for them to give you the OPTION of either:

1. Unlimited talk/text/data, but you have to pay extra for tethering. (which is the current deal)

2. Unlimited talk/text and 5GB of data that you can use for however you'd like (wifi hotspot/tethering).

and they would both be $60.

Personally I think the best step would be

$30 1 GB (or 2 GB?) unlimited talk text no tethering 

$45 3 GB (or 4 GB?) unlimited talk text no tethering

$60 Unlimited Data unlimited talk text unlimited tethering

 

For the $35 and $45 plans they should make it a $10/mo tether option

Just confirmed in a chat that existing discounted lines are grandfathered in to the $15 access charge (as long as one line on the account qualifies)!  Thanks @utiz4321 for pushing this argument, I had this wrong

 

Megan: Thank you for visiting Sprint. What questions can I answer for you today?

You: I am interested in the new family share plan

Megan: I would be more than happy to provide you information on the Sprint Family Share plan.

You: can you quote out a price for my account if we were to switch all 3 lines to that plan, with 20GB of shared data?

Megan: You can change your plan to the Sprint Family Share plan if any of line in your account is upgrade eligible or you purchased any device through the Sprint Easy Pay program or you will add new line of service in your account.

You: my line is upgrade eligible so we meet that condition

Megan: Perfect!

Megan: Then your monthly bill will be $145 excluding taxes.

...

Megan: There is a monthly data access charge added for each device sharing your data. The amount varies by the data option you choose and how you acquire the device:

* Phones purchased at full price or your own Sprint phone:

---$25 for 600MB to 16GB or

---$15 for 20GB to 60GB

* Phones purchased at a discount: $40 for all data share levels.

* Tablets: $10 for all data share levels.

* Mobile broadband: $20 for all data share levels.

. We-Go and Phone Connect devices are not eligible for this plan.

 

You: what I need to confirm is, the other two lines on my account which are not upgrade eligible

You: are those access charges $40 each You: or $15 each You: you originally said $145 total monthly bill

Megan: You will charge $15 for each line.

Megan: Only one of the line should be upgrade eligible for the plan change and when you will go with the 20GB data then charge for each line will be $15.

Megan: The $40 charge for those line which will purchase at discounted price on today or after that.

You: so the additional lines are "grandfathered" in and treated as non-discounted

Megan: Yes, you are correct.

Thanks for this I was wondering how exactly they would treat the existing lines.

 

As an aside the pricing spreadsheet I made had 80+ viewing people when I checked it last night so apparently there is interest in these plans, disruptive or not. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L4FXkfyfM69LNJ6-vJ0baMZxdSWJ8N8aQNS_vVd5XOM/edit?usp=sharing

Hmm wonder if they could throttle on their Edge network... Hmm back to true dial up it would be.

Oh God, at that point it would be faster to shout "101010011101010110101" out your window and hope Legere can hear you.

I don't know why the confusion about easy pay on everything data;

 

The only reason to use easy pay on everything data, is to get a new phone when you are not in your upgrade period.

 

year 0, buy subsidized phone for ~$200

year 1, buy easy pay phone for ~0 down + ~20 month

year 2, buy subsidized phone for ~$200

 

etc, repeat ad infinity

 

alternatively to easy pay, just buy a phone unsubsidized whenever you want on a CREDIT CARD, oh em gee.

Depending on the credit card you bought it with you also probably get extended warranties rolled into it. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5335-phone-insurance-a-rip-off/page-2?hl=%20credit%20%20card%20%20warranty

Im not working today sorry.

No problem  . It isn't like the plans are going anywhere. 

My question is with this new $60 individual plan, is there employer discounts?  That will definitely help.

Yeah, I am also waiting for our resident Sprint employer extraordinaire Rocket87 to get details on how it might be applied.

ostensibly all of these low cost plans we're now seeing from T-Mobile, Sprint and whomever else are based upon a combination of being a new customer and not reading the fine print.  as you and I discussed last night, and as your spreadsheet illustrates, this is not something for existing subscribers.  instead, if you're dealing with another carrier with a very low data cap, you can switch to Sprint with a higher data cap and lower monthly fee.  in the case of T-Mobile, their rate doesn't include the monthly financing fee for the purchase of a device, which is something you basically cannot avoid if you're becoming a T-Mobile customer and buying a new phone.

 

my issue centers primarily on the folks arguing that this is a great deal for people who buy their phones outright.  I would argue that is not who Sprint is targeting with these plans.  if you're looking for cheap plans, you're not someone who's likely to have paid $650+ for a phone.  you're looking for cheap plans because you're trying to cut costs wherever possible.  that means you see $100 per month with a a good amount of monthly data and will come on-board.  that Sprint waives the monthly device fee for the first year is definitely going to make this attractive for new customers who want to save money.  but you're not getting your hair blown back by incremental savings for decent additional data if you're dropping $650 per phone with frequency.  those people are obviously not the target of these promotions. 

 

Well, one potential loophole option would be to switch to Ting and lock down data on your lines and then switch back to Sprint after the 30-45 day (I think?) period so you become a new customer. It honestly looks worth it to me when I look at the pricing difference there. If someone asked me if I would clamp my lines down and use no data for a month for $960 (4 lines @ 20GB over 16 months of the promotion) .. it would be an easy choice. Nothing wrong with doing this in my eyes as that is what the terms say at Sprint. I'd rather see someone do that than move to another carrier altogether.

Sprint introduces a plan that is 25% cheaper than the competition and people still complain. Those are the people who will never be impressed.

Hum, that is one way of looking at it. I made my little spreadsheet after seeing how many people complained about the price. To me the biggest thing about these family plans is that the employer discount can be HUGE for some people. For me, I can have 2 lines with a total of 24 GB for only SEVENTY SEVEN ($77) DOLLARS! (I think I am convincing myself to pull the trigger). That is cheaper than T-Mobiles 1 GB per phone plan for 2 lines!

 

However, I can definitely see that current subs can get a real stick in the ass when they see the calculated savings for new subs over a promotional period or for heavy data users on a Framily unlimited line looking at this as an inferior plan which is in some ways correct.

 

Many people here and on other Sprint user forums are on cheaper historic plans and see this as a price increase or see the family shared data as losing unlimited which is accurate and totally fine. I want Sprint to succeed but the real question is are these plans enough to help them succeed? I am leaning towards maybe right now and yes depending on how discounts to the individual plans are applied and if they consider allowing tethering for individual plans.

so for those of us long time customers who have no reason to ever switch to something like the Family Share Pack, how long until Sprint stops allowing us to keep using grandfathered-in plans?

Considering how long people have had some REALLY damn old plans here I would guess you are fine for quite a while.

Sprint is there in many markets. Not all markets. And that's why they are now competing on price. And it is getting better every month. So the value just keeps building and building. Even a slack jawed yokel can grasp that.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

No disagreement here. Austin has really started to turn around and the drops to 3g are almost zero for me now.

I would worry about getting stuck on a shrinking framily too, sprint is going to keep framily but not actively push it. All the posters, rate plans and collateral that say framily have to go in the dumpster tonight. And there is that rumor that GorDon murdered the Frobinsons....

Do you have any details yet for how employee discounts will apply to this new $60 plan or is that information/training tomorrow?

You do realize that EVERY CARRIER offers cheaper rate plans when you have to pay for your device without subsity. Hell, that's the ONLY way to get service with T-Mobile.

 

I don't understand why it's ok that Tmo, AT&T and Verizon can get away with that, but when Sprint follows suit, the world ends?

Because AT&T and Verizon are solid networks and T-Mobile is incredibly fast in Metro areas. Sprint, in it's current state, is not quite there yet. 

 

It is a raw deal for Sprint considering the huge potential they have but potential doesn't mean much until it is realized.