Sprint on Thursday jumped on board the HD train, following in the footsteps of Verizon and T-Mobile to offer the video-quality upgrade on its unlimited plan.
Starting tomorrow, Sprint customers will have access to HD-quality video and a 10 GB mobile hotspot with the carrier’s unlimited plan, compared to 480p video previously. The plan is being offered at a discounted rate of $90 for four lines – with the first line going for $50, the second for an additional $40, and the third and fourth lines for free through March 2018.
Sprint is also matching Verizon’s iPhone giveaway with its own offer of a free 18-month iPhone lease with a ported number and trade in of an iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung GS7, GS7 edge, GS6, GS6 edge, Note 5, LG V20, G5, or Moto Droid 2.
The move comes in response to Verizon’s decision at the start of this week to bring back unlimited, and T-Mobile’s subsequent effort to match the specs offered on Verizon’s plan. While it hasn’t happened yet, Instinet Analyst Jeffrey Kvaal noted AT&T – which currently offers unlimited only to DirecTV subscribers – will also likely give its unlimited offering a boost with a roll out to the wider base.
While all four wireless carriers now offer unlimited, Sprint CTO John Saw argued in a Thursday blog post Sprint is the best positioned to sustain that offer due to its massive spectrum holdings.
“With holdings of 204 MHz of spectrum, Sprint has more spectrum capacity than Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. We’re confident in our ability to serve our customers now and in the future, because we hold more spectrum capacity than any other carrier in the U.S. A lot more,” Saw wrote. “As we approach gigabit LTE and 5G, the type of spectrum, amount of spectrum, and associated technologies each carrier uses will become even more important. They will be defining factors in the race to provide customers not only with Unlimited data, but high-bandwidth experiences. I guarantee, in a dense urban world of 4K/8K video, high-definition VR apps and more, spectrum will be king.”