Sprint Counters T-Mobile's Low-Price iPhone Plan
September 24 2015 - 12:30PM
Dow Jones News
Sprint Corp. ramped up the battle for customers in the cutthroat
competition among wireless carriers and took a swipe at rival
T-Mobile US Inc. by announcing Thursday a new pricing plan that
leases the newest iPhone for as little as $1 a month.
In a statement titled "Not So Fast T-Mobile," Sprint said that
for a limited time beginning on Sept. 25, customers enrolled in its
so-called iPhone Forever program will be able to trade in an iPhone
6 and lease a 16-gigabyte iPhone 6s for $1 a month, and the Plus
model, which is bigger, for $5 a month.
The move comes a day after T-Mobile unveiled its own new pricing
plan that offered the popular smartphone for monthly installments
of $5. A T-Mobile representative didn't immediately respond to a
request for comment.
"Once again, it is clear that the best place to get the new
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is Sprint," said Sprint CEO Marcelo
Claure.
Wireless carriers have been trying to squeeze growth out a
mature U.S. market by luring new customers with installment plans
linked to equipment upgrades and relying less on traditional 2-year
contracts.
Apple has also entered the scrum, announcing recently that it
would finance iPhone sales directly to customers for the first time
without requiring them to be tied to a particular carrier.
T-Mobile has been successfully snatching away market share by
aggressively slashing its prices. Earlier this month, T-Mobile CEO
John Legere said the company had already surpassed the 2.1 million
net subscriber additions it posted in its previous quarter with
nearly two weeks remaining in the current quarter. T-Mobile
officially passed Sprint in total wireless connections last
month.
Shares of Sprint and T-Mobile declined 1.6% and 2.2%,
respectively, in recent trading amid broader market declines.
Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 24, 2015 12:15 ET (16:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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