Sprint said to be preparing new ‘One Up’ early upgrade program

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You knew this would happen sooner or later. Following in the footsteps of T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon, it looks like Sprint is preparing to enter the ‘early equipment upgrade’ club with a new program called ‘One Up.’

Much like T-Mobile’s Jump or AT&T’s Next, One Up is a program that will allow Sprint customers to pay for their devices in monthly installments. And after a year, they’ll be able to trade them in for an early upgrade…

CNET reports:

“Better late than never, Sprint is finally getting into the early upgrade game.

The company is preparing to launch Sprint One Up, a program that allows its customers to pay for their smartphones or tablets in monthly installments and upgrade after every year by trading in their devices, CNET has learned.”

Here’s how it works: Sprint customers on the One Up plan can pickup a phone at $0 down and pay for the device in 24 monthly installments. If a customer cancels their service early, they’re responsible for the balance.

The site also posted the following screenshot:

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Note that Sprint claims that its One Up plan, which includes unlimited data, is $200 cheaper than T-Mobile Jump, and more than $500 cheaper than AT&T’s Next and Verizon’s Edge. This, of course, is for one year of service.

And one of the reasons it’s so much cheaper is because Sprint is going to give One Up customers a $15 discount on their plan. So they’ll essentially be able to get unlimited talk, text and data for as little as $65 per month.

Competition between the top US carriers is expected to really heat up this fall, as all 4 providers will be launching the new iPhones for the first time. It’ll be interesting to see what, if any, impact these plans have on business.

According to CNET, Sprint’s One Up plan will be available starting September 20.