This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Sprint announced Friday an early-upgrade program for people who want to get new mobile phones earlier than two years, joining a bandwagon of similar plans started by T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon.
The "Sprint One Up" plan starts at $65 per month for unlimited talk, text and data, and then the customer must pay an additional monthly fee for up to 24 months. After the first 12 months, the user can get a new phone by handing in their old phone and starting the payment plans all over again. The program begins Friday.
"Unlike other carriers, Sprint guarantees the unlimited talk, text and data for life. No other plan can compare," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said in a statement.
The Sprint One Up program follows on the heels of similar plans from the other three major carriers that were introduced earlier this month. The first was T-Mobile's "Jump" plan, which allows customers to upgrade up to twice a year for an additional $10 per month. Then AT&T introduced its "Next" plan, which is similar to Sprint's "One Up" program. Finally, Verizon debuted its "Edge" plan in which customers can upgrade their phone as early as six months as long as they have paid 50 percent of the full retail cost of the phone.