Sprint to Abandon Two-Year Contracts

AT&T has also indicated it will also soon move to a simpler, more direct model of selling or leasing phones to consumers, and said in its recent quarterly earnings statement that there is increasing interest in AT&T Next, a device-upgrade plan similar to Sprint’s new offering.

Don’t expect many to see many tears.

The US wireless industry is very competitive and you have to admit that T-Mobile has been leading the way to change the way business is run for the benefit of customers. Pay up, or tough luck. The contract option will go away, so it’ll be leases and full price devices only. The not-really-helpful answer is that it depends. So if you are a person who needs a LOT of space on your iPhone, then you’re out of luck. The latest company to join the bandwagon is Sprint which recently announced that it will introduce a new marketing model that allow customers to lease their phone instead of signing a two year contract.

With no-contract plans, you only pay month to month and can cancel and switch to another carrier if you’re unhappy with your service.

The new iPhone Forever offer is available on each and any eligible rate plan from Sprint, and customers will always get the upgrade eligibility included in their plans.

The carrier further says, “new or existing customers who are upgrade eligible can bring in any smartphone and get a 16GB iPhone 6 model and their monthly rate will be reduced to just $15 until their next upgrade”.

“This would be flushed out within two years, or however long it takes the carriers to reach the 90% or so steady state in the penetration of EIP within their postpaid bases”, said Jonathan Atkin, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets LLC.

YouTube/VerizonYou can save some money by going off contract. There’s no finance fees and the phone will be completely yours once you are done paying it.

But what sets the Moto X apart from other devices is that it’s completely unlocked, meaning that it’s not designed for any particular provider and it will not come with any carrier bloatware.

But for those two it wasn’t the first time they fought a brutal Twitter battle and it likely won’t be the last.

As to whether or not this will result in savings, it all depends what it is that you’re after.

This is different from Verizon’s model, which requires customers to pay off the full cost of a phone before getting a new one. So look forward to that.