Sprint boosting prices for Boost Unlimited

[hank424]

Sprint Nextel’s Boost Unlimited service has offered one of the very few customer-expanding bright spots during the company’s recent troubles.

News emerges now that the company is boosting prices for the prepaid service.

Boost Mobile is a Sprint unit that specializes in reaching out primarily to the urban youth market with a pre-paid phone service. Before Simply Everything unlimited calling plans emerged on the main Sprint network, the company began limited tests of an unlimited service with the Boost brand.

Boost operates in 12 states, largely in the southeast and western states such as California and Hawaii.

As it competes against regional flat-rate competitors such as MetroPCS and Leap Wireless, the Boost Unlimited service launched with different prices in different regions. Packages were available for about $55 in some areas.

“Now there is one common pricing,” said Leigh Horner, a spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel.

Unlimited calls are available for $50, unlimited calls and texting now are $60 and unlimited talking, texting and Web-browsing will be $70.

Romeo Reyes, an analyst at Jefferies & Co., got wind of the Boost Unlimited price increases that took effect this week.

He sees it as an opportunity for rivals such as Leap and MetroPCS. He also wondered whether Sprint was attempting to limit the loss of customers who otherwise would be attracted to the parent company’s Simply Everything unlimited calling plans, which have become a cornerstone of the current turnaround efforts.

The main Simply Everything package is available for about $99 a month.

Reyes did note that there is a difference between the plans as Boost Unlimited and the other services are limited to service within a home area while Simply Everything is nationwide.

“We believe that Sprint may be re-pricing the Boost service as it may have experienced cannibalization of its higher ARPU subscribers,” Reyes wrote in a recent report.

That certainly was one of the problems for Alltel when it “briefly rolled-out an unsuccessful unlimited Service” several years ago, he wrote.

Sprint raising the prices for Boost Unlimited should make it easier for Leap and MetroPCS to win business, Reyes stated.

“The increase in the rate plan offering by Boost, we believe, will benefit both LEAP and PCS, whose average
ARPU for unlimited regional calling is in the $45 range,” he said.

Sprint executives did not change Boost Unlimited prices because of potential conflicts with sales of Simply Everything plans, Horner said.

“We don’t view it that way at all,” she said.

Customers attracted to Boost’s pre-paid service tend to be very different from those who tend to sign up for Sprint Nextel’s core wireless service, she said.

Adjustments to Boost Unlimited are a reflection of how Sprint will continue to manage the use of its wireless network so the company brings “the right minutes at the right price point to be profitable,” Horner said.

When Sprint said that it lost 1.09 million subscribers during the first quarter, more than 540,000 of the losses came from Boost’s core pre-paid service. The losses were partially offset by the gain of 343,000 subscribers for the Boost Unlimited service.

More details are expected to emerge late this summer about how Sprint will rely on Boost Mobile and Boost Unlimited in its overall quest to return to growth.

[larry]

Boost Mobile offers better coverage and a much larger nationwide footprint than either Metro or Leap. So therefore I'm not surprised that Sprint wants to charge a little more for it.

[Quint101]

Originally Posted by larry

Boost Mobile offers better coverage and a much larger nationwide footprint than either Metro or Leap. So therefore I'm not surprised that Sprint wants to charge a little more for it.

I am assuming that the new pricing is the same over all the Boost Markets ? From what I saw before, one market had a base rate of $35, some started at $40, 45 and 50. What would be nice if the whole footprint was included for a flat fee.

[walkguru]

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D062; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

Originally Posted by hank424

Sprint Nextel’s Boost Unlimited service has offered one of the very few customer-expanding bright spots during the company’s recent troubles.

News emerges now that the company is boosting prices for the prepaid service.

Boost Mobile is a Sprint unit that specializes in reaching out primarily to the urban youth market with a pre-paid phone service. Before Simply Everything unlimited calling plans emerged on the main Sprint network, the company began limited tests of an unlimited service with the Boost brand.

Boost operates in 12 states, largely in the southeast and western states such as California and Hawaii.

As it competes against regional flat-rate competitors such as MetroPCS and Leap Wireless, the Boost Unlimited service launched with different prices in different regions. Packages were available for about $55 in some areas.

“Now there is one common pricing,” said Leigh Horner, a spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel.

Unlimited calls are available for $50, unlimited calls and texting now are $60 and unlimited talking, texting and Web-browsing will be $70.

Romeo Reyes, an analyst at Jefferies & Co., got wind of the Boost Unlimited price increases that took effect this week.

He sees it as an opportunity for rivals such as Leap and MetroPCS. He also wondered whether Sprint was attempting to limit the loss of customers who otherwise would be attracted to the parent company’s Simply Everything unlimited calling plans, which have become a cornerstone of the current turnaround efforts.

The main Simply Everything package is available for about $99 a month.

Reyes did note that there is a difference between the plans as Boost Unlimited and the other services are limited to service within a home area while Simply Everything is nationwide.

“We believe that Sprint may be re-pricing the Boost service as it may have experienced cannibalization of its higher ARPU subscribers,” Reyes wrote in a recent report.

That certainly was one of the problems for Alltel when it “briefly rolled-out an unsuccessful unlimited Service” several years ago, he wrote.

Sprint raising the prices for Boost Unlimited should make it easier for Leap and MetroPCS to win business, Reyes stated.

“The increase in the rate plan offering by Boost, we believe, will benefit both LEAP and PCS, whose average
ARPU for unlimited regional calling is in the $45 range,” he said.

Sprint executives did not change Boost Unlimited prices because of potential conflicts with sales of Simply Everything plans, Horner said.

“We don’t view it that way at all,” she said.

Customers attracted to Boost’s pre-paid service tend to be very different from those who tend to sign up for Sprint Nextel’s core wireless service, she said.

Adjustments to Boost Unlimited are a reflection of how Sprint will continue to manage the use of its wireless network so the company brings “the right minutes at the right price point to be profitable,” Horner said.

When Sprint said that it lost 1.09 million subscribers during the first quarter, more than 540,000 of the losses came from Boost’s core pre-paid service. The losses were partially offset by the gain of 343,000 subscribers for the Boost Unlimited service.

More details are expected to emerge late this summer about how Sprint will rely on Boost Mobile and Boost Unlimited in its overall quest to return to growth.

I was in walmart yesterday and noticed they had raised their prices by 5.00. I guess boost unlimited is taking away from the more expensive plans.

[RJB]

Originally Posted by larry

Boost Mobile offers better coverage and a much larger nationwide footprint than either Metro or Leap. So therefore I'm not surprised that Sprint wants to charge a little more for it.

As true as this is Metro and Leap have their own networks built from the ground up. If they were to piggy back on a national carrier then they could do the same as well.

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

what are the boost customers gonna do when iDEN gets turned off?

[cheddar]

IDEN isn't like analog. There's plenty of time to migrate them. Plus, some of the Boost plans are on CDMA not IDEN

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

well the Boost Unlimited subs are but everyone else including the Boost Premium plan subs are on iDEN and yeah theres no deadline to shut off iDEN but im still convinced that iDEN is just a money pit at this point

[cheddar]

Originally Posted by SmArTeStChIlD421

well the Boost Unlimited subs are but everyone else including the Boost Premium plan subs are on iDEN and yeah theres no deadline to shut off iDEN but im still convinced that iDEN is just a money pit at this point

It really depends on maintenance costs for them. If the equipment isn't dying than leaving it up probably doesn't cost much. Plus, in an interesting way losing customers could make the network more profitable. It takes pressure off the network and leaves room for the more profitable business customers. Where I work we would have to replace all of our in-building antenna's to migrate off of IDEN. We will at some point but people like us probably make the IDEN network worth leaving up for a while.

[RJB]

I think Sprint should slowly stomp on Iden then use the spectrum for their other needs.

[AnthroMatt]

I am just glad Sprint is selling CDMA phones under the Boost moniker now.

[larry]

Even their IDEN system should be working decent now as the loss in customers should greatly improve the reliability of the IDEN network.

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

one of the first times and prolli one of the last times ill ever hear someone say thank god we lost customers...

after the rebanding the capacity just wasnt capable of all those subs anymore

[bobolito]

Boost Mobile is a Sprint unit that specializes in reaching out primarily to the urban youth market with a pre-paid phone service.

In other words, Boost Mobile specializes in reaching out primarily to kids in the ghetto and ____ dealers which have caused network overloads and dissatisfaction for high paying traditional Nextel subscribers. In other words, Boost was a way for Nextel to replace highly profitable customers for many high risk, low paying customers. What a great way for a company to accelerate growth to a perfectly stable business at the expense of screwing themselves! (Speaking of Nextel, not Sprint)

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

yeah but the beauty of the Boost customers are that as youth they are often high spenders dumping loads of money into the Nextel network gaining access to all the services that are offered

[AnthroMatt]

I love the "urban youth market." A very key demographic!

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

they spend and spend and spend

[untouchable999]

Well Boost Unlimited is going out of business anyway. They gave it a year but knocked it back to six months. So there's about 5 1/2 months of Unlimited left. (Disgruntled ex employee) They'll deny it if you call them, and half of them probably don't know it, but yeah.

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

Originally Posted by untouchable999

Well Boost Unlimited is going out of business anyway. They gave it a year but knocked it back to six months. So there's about 5 1/2 months of Unlimited left. (Disgruntled ex employee) They'll deny it if you call them, and half of them probably don't know it, but yeah.

yeah a lot of their reps didnt know anything when i had them for like 3 months

[william007]

RJB,
"I think Sprint should slowly stomp on Iden then use the spectrum for their other needs." I agree!

[love2sin]

Is there any truth to the rumor that Boost UL is going t