Sprint Prepaid Cell Phones
What Sprint Will Never Be Brave Enough To Do?

So What's the Problem?
So why doesn't Sprint offer Sprint prepaid cell phones?  That's a great question!  While I don't know for sure, I certainly have some ideas.  Perhaps it has something to do with wanting to keep prepaid at an arm's length from "the core business," which they believe is more desirable and profitable?  Or perhaps it's just the history of the Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile products and brands, and making such a dramatic change would be seen as too risky.  After all, why risk losing customers, slowing growth, or generally losing cash when the postpaid business has been struggling recently?  Marketing and branding has always been a tricky beast in any industry, and wireless is definitely a highly competitive industry.  Often times it's hard to prove the return on the investment of a brand, however, not spending money in order to prove it one way or the other could end up being too risky (i.e. costly).


So What Should Sprint Do?
Not that anyone asked me...BUT....I would recommend that Sprint develop a fully integrated prepaid experience as described in the Sprint Prepaid Cell Phone discussion, and test it in specific channels and markets.  Keep Boost humming along during that time.  I then predict that they'll find that the customer experience with properly branded Sprint prepaid cell phones would be much better, and operations will be highly simplified, and lower cost, by dissolving the Boost brand and having just a prepaid/PAYG Sprint offering.  Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that Sprint could ever get to this point due to its Virgin Mobile acquisition as well as a company fraught with bureaucracy.

Sprint Buys Virgin Mobile - Skip to see the impacts now!

I'm certainly not suggesting that Boost employees should all be laid off.  Prepaid is a VERY different animal than postpaid, and because rating has to happen in real time (instead of monthly billing), it's arguably far more complex from a platform and customer service perspective.  In other words, Sprint will need the prepaid subject matter experts to run the Sprint prepaid cell phone business.  Not likely much from a handset perspective (i.e. no need for different colors and logos), but more from a replenishment/topup perspective, as well as available services (and corresponding systems and platforms) that need to be paid for in advance, instead of having the luxury of billing for them on next month's bill.  All that said, recent years have demonstrated that Sprint executives don't understand the value of people with prepaid wireless knowledge, and they've been laying people off over the past couple of years.  This behavior is truly an indication of the lack of knowledge of current Sprint management.  


Conclusion
Will a Sprint branded prepaid cellular phone service happen at some point?  I predict 'yes,' however, management can be unpredictable, and such a move would be riddled with politics and/or operational challenges that could result in delays for many many years or it never even happening.  Does it make sense?  To me, absolutely yes.  Would it be the best thing for the Sprint business and for customers?  Yes, I believe it would be!  Should you hold your breath waiting for it; heck no!  In the meantime, check out the Compare Prepaid Plans section to review the available Boost and Virgin plans, and look for the Sprint MVNOs if you're really wanting Sprint prepaid cellular phones!

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