Sprint Doubling Data Allotments

Things are suddenly starting to get interesting at Sprint.

To start - Sprint gave up on long rumored plans to acquire and merge with T-Mobile, and in the process a new CEO Marcelo Claure was put in place to take Sprint in a new direction.

And in his first week on the job, he is shaking things up and confronting the hard realities by admitting just how far behind Sprint has slipped:

"We're going to change our plans to make sure they are simple and attractive and make sure every customer in America thinks twice about signing up to a competitor. ... When you have a great network, you don’t have to compete on price. When your network is behind, unfortunately you have to compete on value and price."

The first big value move was announced today - Sprint is doubling data allotments in the new Family Share Pack, jumping way ahead of the other major carriers in data pricing.

Here is Sprint's new pricing grid:

To encourage users to switch to Sprint, they are making things even more attractive through the end of 2015 for new customers by waiving the $15/mo per-line charge, plus throwing in an extra 2GB/mo for every line. Sprint is also reimbursing early termination fees for people who break contracts to move to Sprint.

The new Family Share Pack plans will be available starting this Friday. You can read all the details here. I notice in the fine print Sprint leaves itself some future wiggle room to throttle the heaviest users: "To improve the data experience for the majority of users, throughput speeds may be limited, varied or reduced on the network."

I am looking forward to seeing if AT&T and Verizon feel any pressure from these new moves by Sprint, and increase their own data buckets in response.

More data for everyone is always a good thing!

Sprint's network lacks the coverage to be fully relied on by most RVers, but these new plans suddenly make Sprint a lot more interesting as a secondary plan.

Are any of you tempted to switch? MIA members, let us know in the comments!