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Josh Miller/CNET
Boost Mobile is upping the ante on its prepaid wireless plans.
The prepaid wireless service, a unit of Sprint, is cutting each of its month-to-month plans by $5 and is doubling the amount of data available for each plan. The promotion will be offered between Wednesday and November 3.
The prepaid wireless market, which is considered an area of growth as the traditional contract market slows down, has been seeing more promotions and price cuts as carriers aggressively pursue new customers. Boost and Sprint-owned Virgin Mobile USA have been successful in helping Sprint stem some of its losses on the contract side. But competition has risen in the form of T-Mobile’s MetroPCS and AT&T’s Cricket Wireless services, both of which revamped their offers this year.
Boost is cutting its plans by $5 each, now offering a $35, $45, and $55 plan. All of the options provide unlimited phone calls and text messages, but the low-end plan now includes 1GB of data at 3G or 4G speeds instead of 500MB. The midtier plan now provides 5GB of data, while the high-end plan now offers 10GB of data. There’s a catch on the lower-end plan, with video streaming potentially limited to a slower 3G connection.
Sprint has moved quickly under new CEO Marcelo Claure, who took the reins last month. In late August, the company unveiled a $60 unlimited data plan for individuals, as well as an overhauled family plan. Claure must work hard to shore up its prepaid business, which lost a net 503,000 customers in the last reported quarter. While much of the loss is attributed to subscribers who came off its Assurance Wireless government-subsidized phone service, the company is definitely facing stronger competition.
AT&T, for instance, has turned the regional Cricket Wireless brand into a national service and moved Cricket onto its LTE network. T-Mobile has seen success with the prepaid plans it offers through MetroPCS. In total, T-Mobile added a net 102,000 prepaid customers in the second quarter.
