Sprint might finally be caving and offering an early device upgrade plan that will match up against plans the rest of the big four U.S. carriers have already rolled out. Sprint’s plan, dubbed “One Up,” will reportedly launch Sept. 20.
CNET has a screenshot that seems to compare Sprint’s “One Up” program with AT&T’s Next, Verizon’s Edge and T-Mobile’s Jump. In Sprint’s example of how “One Up” will work, a $650 device will cost $27 per month. CNET indicates that customers on Sprint’s Unlimited, My Way or All-In plans will be eligible for One Up and can trade in their device after a year.
Sprint has not offered confirmation on the new plan, but the carrier has offered up some news on its LTE progress.
Sprint today announced 34 new LTE markets, including Oklahoma City. With the addition, Sprint brings its LTE market coverage total up to 185 and moves closer to its goal of 200 million people covered by year’s end.
As Sprint continues with the current LTE deployment in its 1900 PCS spectrum, the carrier has indicated that it will soon lay out its plans for incorporating its 2.5 GHz spectrum into its Network Vision. Sprint came into a huge chunk of 2.5 GHz licenses when it earlier this year completed its acquisition of Clearwire.
Sprint’s Network Vision overhaul is scheduled to be complete around mid-2014.