Sprint is considering doing away with device subsidies all together as early as next year.
During Monday’s earnings call, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said his company has moved up to the highest Equipment Installment Plan (EIP) mix in its history, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
Claure attributed the increase of customers moving toward EIPs to Sprint’s introduction of Easy Pay and the leasing program introduced for the new iPhones and now available for the Samsung Galaxy S5 as well.
Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer told CNET the decision of whether to eliminate subsidies will rest heavily upon how well the leasing program does.
But Claure said Monday on the call Sprint has already seen great take rates for the new leasing options.
A 2015 elimination of device subsidies for Sprint would put the carrier about two years behind T-Mobile, which was the first of the big four national carriers to stop offering device subsidies.
AT&T and Verizon both still offer two-year contract pricing for new devices but have been pushing customers toward their respective Next and Edge EIP programs. AT&T today added a 24-month option to Next to go along with the current 18- and 12-month plans.