Sprint, which is now the third largest wireless services operator in the US that currently serves roughly 55 million customers, is waging a war in trying to take more market share. In an announcement, Sprint is offering T-Mobile customers between $200 and $350 for switching their plans to Sprint.
The telecom sector is extremely competitive so this offer comes as no surprise. All telecommunications companies want a bigger market share and as such, have created innovative strategies to accomplish that goal.
It was only a few months ago that T-Mobile was in on the action by offering Verizon customers trade-in opportunities. The four major companies are all aggressive when it comes to marketing, something seen in an increase in subscriber numbers by AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon.
As part of Sprint’s current offer, which goes into effect today and lasts through April 9 of this year, a T-Mobile smartphone that is activated and running can be traded in for at least $200, the price to cover switching to Sprint’s service. However, to help people pay for a contract buyout, Sprint is willing to pay up to $350.
In 2014, the company purchased more than 3 million phones from consumers, with most of the smartphones being certified as handsets that were pre-owned. Even so, this created the opportunity for many people to enjoy a higher quality and more advanced cell phone at a significantly reduced cost.
For T-Mobile, the company offered a program called “Smartphone Equality”. With this, someone interested in a smartphone could make a purchase but without the credit score being a consideration. In addition, buyers were offered incredible handsets at discounted prices.
To position itself better in the market, earlier Sprint had tried to acquire T-Mobile but that deal fell through. Since that time, the war between the two telecom giants continues on. Using different promotions, both companies are pulling customers away from one another but with this new offer, it is clear that Sprint is targeting T-Mobile’s customer base to make up for customers it lost.
With this new switch offer in place, Sprint’s $60 “Unlimited Everything Plan” whereby unlimited talk, text, and data are offered, will be enhanced. In this case, the plan is available for $60 but without the need to sign a contract.