Sprint, the last of the four major wireless providers to unveil an early upgrade plan, is now doing away with its One Up plan after less than four months of active duty. The company is instead pointing customers to a couple of recently added programs as alternatives, namely Easy Pay and their new Framily Plan.
Sprint Easy Pay allows a customer to purchase a new handset for a variable down payment and spread the cost of the device over 24 month installments. The company doesn't charge a financing fee but we're also told that the program is only available at select Sprint stores as of writing, meaning, not online. The program also lacks an annual upgrade option.
Perhaps the real reason why Sprint elected to jettison the One Up program is the introduction of the Framily Plan. As I outlined last week, Sprint's new program allows up to 10 individuals to join a "friends and family" plan in which each new member effectively reduces the cost that everyone pays per month, down to $25 per month for seven or more members.
The plan includes 1GB of data but the kicker is that data-heavy users can opt for unlimited data for an extra $20. Those that sign up for unlimited data also have the option of a device trade-in each year.
So it would seem that Sprint is doing away with one program to try and entice customers to sign up for another new program.
Existing One Up customers that move to the Framily Plan aren't required to sign up for the $20 unlimited plan to exercise their first 12-month upgrade. Those interested in subsequent upgrades will need to sign up for the unlimited data / annual upgrade bundle to continue to exercise the annual upgrade, however.
Sprint officially retired One Up on January 9.