Blink and you might miss it, but Sprint is taking a hearty shot at rival Verizon with a promo undercutting the latter’s $55 for 5 GB campaign.
In a blog post, new Sprint Chief Marketing Officer Roger Solé said for four days starting Friday Sprint will offer its unlimited data plan for just $50 per month. The move offers a $10 discount from the plan’s typical $60 per month price tag, and is aimed to undercut Verizon’s individual plan blitz offering 5 GB for $55 per month.
“We don’t underestimate the value of unlimited data and neither should you – or Verizon. I find it pretty ballsy for Verizon to tell me what I need or don’t need. We prefer to listen to our customers,” Solé wrote in a post that carried strong tones of T-Mobile CEO John Legere. “Welcome to 2017, Verizon. No one wants to watch a data meter and change their habits to meet your plan restrictions.”
According to the fine print, Sprint’s promo pricing will hold for just about a year before expiring on March 31, 2018. After that date, customers will pay the regular $60 per month price for the package.
While T-Mobile might be collateral damage from the promotion, the campaign is a pointed shot at Verizon, which has steadfastly refused to offer an unlimited plan like its peers.
On the carrier’s fourth quarter earnings call earlier this week, Verizon CFO Matt Ellis said the “superiority” of Verizon’s network allows it to “maintain a premium price for our service in the marketplace.” But it seems Verizon might be feeling the heat. Unlike his predecessor, Fran Shammo, Ellis hinted the carrier has a wary eye on what’s happening in the market place.
“We constantly look at to what’s out there,” Ellis said. “Unlimited is one of the things that some of our competition has at this point in time; that’s not something we feel the need to do. But as I say, we continually monitor the market and we will see where we head in the future.”