Sprint brings back two-year contracts

For the Samsung Galaxy S7, the two-year contract offer brings the cost of the device to $199, down from a full price of $649 or monthly installments of $25.99 or $27.09 on Sprint’s lease and installment options, respectively.

Falling in line with the other three big carriers, Sprint recently got rid of two-year contracts. Instead T-Mo started promoting a new payment program which allowed customers to buy phones in installments with interest-free financing, very much like European carriers have been offering for years.

“We listened to our customers and are giving them more choices to get their new device”, Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein told FierceWireless. However, today Sprint resurrected the contract.

Regardless, if you’re shopping for a new phone at Sprint, Sprint customers now have the choice of leasing devices, paying for them in monthly installments, signing up for a two-year contract, or paying full price for the hardware. Verizon (NYSE: VZ) in August largely discontinued offering contracts, though will provide them to existing customers who wish to continue using them.

Sprint had previously said it would kill the contract model by the end of 2015, but it missed that deadline.

The Engadget News notes that, the company stopped offering contracts just this January following similar moves by other tier-1 carriers over the last few years. That or Sprint likes offering something its competitors don’t. Verizon and AT&T have gone this route, as has Sprint and T-Mobile. But experts added that most of the nation’s wireless carriers have moved away from the two-year contracts as majority of Americans do not seem to like them. The company claims it wants to give customers more choices.