Since Sprint-Nextel Corp.’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA, the carrier has been busy combining the resources and experience of the Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile prepaid teams. The fruit of that effort was announced Thursday: Sprint will focus on four niche brands, each focused on serving distinct customer segments, amid unprecedented uptake in prepaid services. New offers are in the hopper too, including a rock-bottom $25 unlimited data and messaging plan from Virgin Mobile.
In the first quarter of 2010, more than half of Sprint’s mobile gross additions in the U.S. selected prepaid, and the carrier predicts that approximately 70 percent of the net adds in 2010 will choose plans without a contract. Dan Schulman, president of Sprint's prepaid group, noted that "this is the year that prepaid moves to the forefront of the wireless industry. With almost 60 million people now on prepaid service, the no-contract market has clearly moved beyond the credit-challenged and lower income segments. The prepaid market has changed dramatically, with customers across multiple demographics and lifestyles demanding a wide variety of handsets, features, and plans tailored to their specific needs and wants."
Virgin Mobile will lead the way in Sprint’s new approach with offers for the youth market, its traditional strength, but now clearly focused on data, texting and social networking rather than voice. Notably, it will soon launch an unlimited messaging, e-mail, data and Web “Beyond Talk” plan for $25 a month for 300 voice minutes, and a new high-end handset lineup that includes the Blackberry Curve, the LG Rumor Touch and the Kyocera Loft.
Two other “Beyond Talk” unlimited data/SMS plans include $40 to add 200 minutes of voice per month, and $60 for unlimited voice. Also for the first time, Virgin Mobile customers can add Blackberry data service to any of these plans for just $10 more, enabling a $35 plan consisting of both voice calling and Blackberry data service.
"Since we expanded distribution, lowered the price, and added more data capacity without changing prices, sales have tripled," said Schulman. "We'll continue to enhance this product line as well, possibly under multiple brands to include new services and the very latest in high speed networks, including 4G where available."
