Sprint Introduces Unlimited Anytime Minutes For $200, Raises Additional Minute Fees

Starting next Sunday, Sprint will launch new service plans called "Power Pack", which will allow users to personalize their plan. It also includes, for the first time, a $200 plan for unlimited anytime minutes. For the same price, Alltel, Cingular and Verizon currently offer a maximum of $6000 minutes. This represents more than 3 hours of primetime talking per day! So Sprint's new offer will only benefit really heavy users -- and users who also carry their charger everywhere, since there is no use for more unlimited minutes if your battery limits you.

For the other limited minutes plans, the trend seems to favor pack-oriented marketing. Additional minutes, which used to be 20 cents each, will now be charged at 25 to 45 cents, depending on the plan. However:

Free nights can start at 6PM instead of 7PM for an additional $5 per month.

Customers can buy a 50-minute pack add-on for an additional $5, thus lowering the extra minutes to as little as 10 cents, provided they use them all. This is non-stackable: You cannot purchase 2 50-minute blocks and get 100 additional minutes.

Sprint will also offer Unlimited texting for $15. Last fall, Sprint raised the cost of unique text messages from 10 cents to 15 cents per message.

Notable Fine Print...
Add-ons will only be effective on the next billing cycle, which means that you won't be able to purchase a 50 minute pack if you feel you are going low on your minutes for the current month. The new "Power Packs" won't include a $30 entry-level plan as former Fair And Flexible plans used to but a "Sprint Basic Plan" with 200 minutes at $30 will be available without the add-on options.

Current Sprint customers can keep their current plan if they prefer.