By Andrew Berg
Boost Mobile, Sprint Nextel’s prepaid unit, is rewarding CDMA customers on its “UNLTD By Boost” offer.
Existing and new customers on the CDMA network who are paying more than $50 per month will be rewarded with a price drop of up to $20 per month or see greater value added to their plan with a bundled combination of nationwide talk, text and Web for $50 per month plus applicable taxes and fees.
Home calling areas have been eliminated and customers may now make and receive calls anywhere on the Sprint nationwide CDMA network without incurring a roaming charge of 15 cents per minute, the carrier said.
Existing customers on the UNLTD $50 Unlimited Talk, $60 Unlimited Talk & Text or $70 Unlimited Talk, Text & Web plans will be automatically switched to the new $50 per month rate while receiving the benefits of unlimited nationwide talk, text and Web. In addition, long-time customers on the original UNLTD $35 Unlimited Talk, $40 Unlimited Talk & Text or $45 Unlimited Talk, Text & Web plans will remain at their current price points.
The UNLTD offer is in the following 13 states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
With a new simplified price point for UNLTD users, Boost Mobile says it is aiming for price parity between its existing offers for unlimited nationwide talk, text and Web. For customers on the Monthly Unlimited plan launched in January, which operates on the Nextel (iDEN) network, $50 per month also includes nationwide walkie-talkie technology.
The move from Boost comes as TracFone shook up the prepaid world last week with
Straight Talk, a $45 unlimited talk and texting plan that includes 30 MB of data for Web-enabled phones. Analysts speculated the new TracFone plan could trigger a price war that could hurt prepaid profits.