Sprint looks to One Up the competition with its own early upgrade plan

With programs like AT&T Next, T-Mobile Jump and Verizon Edge allowing customers to upgrade faster than every two years, Sprint is rumored to be working on its own program to give its customers a similar opportunity. Believed to be launching on September 20th, Sprint One Up will allow customers to pay for a new device in 24 monthly installments.

For example, a device costing $649.99 will cost Sprint One Up subscribers $27 a month with the difference tacked on to the last payment. If a customer decides to leave Sprint, he will be asked to pay the remaining balance the next month. The payoff for Sprint One Up subscribers comes after a year of paying for a device, when it can be traded in for a brand new model.

To sign up for Sprint One Up, you need to have an Unlimited, My Way or All-In plan. Thanks to the $15 haircut you get from Sprint One Up, the carrier offers unlimited talk, text and data for as low as $65 a month, which beats out the $70 unlimited plan from T-Mobile. Existing Sprint customers who want to join the plan need to have an upgrade in their pocket or they must trade in their current phone in working condition. A chart produced by Sprint shows that those signing up for One Up can save $220 a year over T-Mobile accounts with a similarly priced phone and unlimited talk, text and data.

Sprint and T-Mobile have similar plans in the way they both offer a discount to the monthly service plans in exchange for paying monthly for a device priced with no subsidy. AT&T and Verizon offer thier customers a way to upgrade to a new phone early by making monthly payments, but do not give these customers a lower price for monthly service in exchange for giving up a subsidized price for their new device.

source: CNET