Sprint was the smallest of the big four carriers in the US in terms of coverage before their merger with T-Mobile in April 2020. Sprint can be a good secondary option, and works well in urban areas and along major highways, but lack of coverage in many areas of the country relegates it to, at best, a supporting role for most travelers.

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+-T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Notes

Last Update: November 18, 2020

Sprint is now part of T-Mobile, as per the merger that closed on April 1, 2020.

New Sprint customers are directed to T-Mobile to sign up for their plans, however, some of Sprint's legacy plans are still available in-store or over the phone. Customers on existing direct Sprint plans will be able to retain those plans for the next three years without price increases or changes to features.

The two networks still operate mostly independently with their own towers and frequency bands. Some Sprint customers can have their Sprint phones coded to make the T-Mobile network the primary network for their phones instead of Sprint. Sprint customers with recent 5G phones such as the Galaxy S10 automatically use T-Mobile as the primary network since the combined company is shutting down Sprint's 5G service.

As of October, T-Mobile is offering most Sprint smartphone customers that use the Sprint cellular network the ability to choose the "T-Mobile Network Experience". In short, TNX allows Sprint network customers with compatible devices to trade in their Sprint SIM card for a T-Mobile SIM card and move their plan to the T-Mobile network while retaining the features, billing, and terms of their original Sprint plan. You can read more about what this means here.

Starting in late November, non-profit Sprint based plans have T-mobile roaming enabled via a PRL update pushed to devices.

At present time - aside from Boost being sold to Dish Network - there are no changes to 3rd party, reseller or MVNO plans sold on the Sprint network. However, we are continuing to monitor the situation and will update as appropriate.

Unlimited Plans

Sprint offers a suite of unlimited smartphone plans which have differing attributes - collectively called 'Unlimited Freedom' plans. Current Sprint Unlimited Freedom plans offered:

Unlimited Basic - $60/Single Line
Unlimited Plus - $70/Single Line
Unlimited Premium - $80/Single Line **TOP PICK**

Sprint's three unlimited plans can be mixed-and-matched while retaining multi-line discounts. For example, you could get 2 lines of Unlimited Premium for $160 and two lines of Unlimited Plus (the mid-tier option) for only another $40/month.

Plan Specifications

Carrier Networks Used: Sprint
Carrier Relationship: Direct
Plan Types Available: Smartphone
Device Types Permitted: Smartphones
Unlimited: Yes
High Speed Mobile Hotspot Use:
- Unlimited Basic - 500MB, then 3G
- Unlimited Plus - 50GB, then 3G
- Unlimited Premium - 100GB, then 3G
- Additional high-speed data can be added on any plan for $15 per GB.
Throttling: Full speed on device. Mobile hotspot throttle as noted above.
Network Management: Unlimited plans are subject to network management after 50GB of usage in a month per line.
Video Streaming Resolution:
- Unlimited Basic - 480p
- Unlimited Plus - 1080p (Music & gaming may be restricted in speed.)
- Unlimited Premium - 1080p
5G Access: Yes
Device Purchase Required: No, but can purchase a device
Plan Period: 30 days
International Roaming:
- Unlimited Basic - Free voice/text roaming in Canada and Mexico with 5GB LTE data use per month.
- Unlimited Plus - Free voice/text roaming in Canada and Mexico with 10GB LTE data use per month.
- Unlimited Premium - (Premium International Experience): Free voice/text roaming in Canada and Mexico with unlimited 4G LTE data.
- For other countries, Sprint offers free texts, $0.25 voice calls and free "basic" (2g) data.
  - Data day passes are available - for most locations, a 1-day data pass is $5 and a 7-day pass is $25 and provides 4G speeds.
Domestic Roaming: There is a 100-300MB roaming cap per month on unlimited data plans - data roaming will be suspended for the rest of the month if the cap is exceeded.
Data Roll Over: None
Overage Charges: None
Lines permitted per account: 10
Extras:
- All plans include Hulu
- Unlimited Plus also includes Tidal
- Unlimited Premium also includes Tidal, Amazon Prime, LookOut, and UBER Credits

On 11/6/18, Sprint upped the hotspot data allotments for many of their retired unlimited plans - including plans that did not previously have hotspot data. Be sure to log-in to your account, or call Sprint to see if adding hotspot data to your account is an option - for free.

Single Line Plans

All of Sprint's data plans are 'technically' unlimited. Even on their tiered data plans (those in which you purchase a bucket of data for each month), after the cap is reached, speeds are throttled for the rest of the billing period to 2G speeds.

Sprint offers single line phone plans with small buckets of data (2GB)

Talk/Text: Unlimited
Mobile Hotspot: All data on single line plans is available to be used via mobile hotspot
Domestic Roaming: Has a 100-300MB roaming cap per month on the data plan - data roaming will be suspended for the rest of the month if the cap is exceeded.
Sprint Global Roaming: Those who are not on 'Unlimited Freedom', 'Unlimited Basic.' 'Unlimited Plus' or 'Unlimited Premium' plans are eligible for this option. You get free unlimited data, text messaging, and voice calls for 20-cents a minute – but data speeds are limited to 2G (64kbps) speed on the Global Roaming plan, even in Canada and Mexico. You must sign up for this 'add-on' at least 3 days in advance of your international usage.
Data Passes: If you are not eligible for the "Premium International Experience" (aka, on an Unlimited Freedom plan), but you still need faster access at faster than 2G speeds, you can purchase data passes. These passes provide you with full speed data for $2 a day or $10 a week - limited to the constraints (data limits) of your plan.

Data Only Plans

Hotspot Devices & Routers

Hotspot Devices & Routers: Sprint offers a 10GB or 50GB (**TOP PICK**) hotspot plan. Speeds drop to 128 kbps after cap is reached, or additional high speed data can be purchased at $10/2GB.
Network Management: All data on Sprint hotspot plans is subject to network management and may be slowed on congested towers.
Domestic Roaming: Has a 100-300MB roaming cap per month on the data plan - data roaming will be suspended for the rest of the month if the cap is exceeded.
Data Rollover: Can carry-over the up to the full data amount from one month to the next.
Sprint Global Roaming: Those who are not on 'Unlimited Freedom', 'Unlimited Basic.' 'Unlimited Plus' or 'Unlimited Premium' plans are eligible for this option. You get free unlimited data, text messaging, and voice calls for 20-cents a minute – but data speeds are limited to 2G (64kbps) speed on the Global Roaming plan, even in Canada and Mexico. You must sign up for this 'add-on' at least 3 days in advance of your international usage.
Data Passes: If you are not eligible for the "Premium International Experience" (aka, on an Unlimited Freedom plan), but you still need faster access at faster than 2G speeds, you can purchase data passes. These passes provide you with full speed data for $2 a day or $10 a week - limited to the constraints (data limits) of your plan.

Connected Car

Sprint offers connected car plans on its 'Drive' device.

Sprint offers two plans that include data and telematics:

2GB of data for $15/month ($10/month with autopay)
Unlimited data for $30/month ($25/month with autopay)

Tablets & 2-n-1 Plans TOP PICK

For $25/month, Sprint offers an unlimited on-device plan for tablets and select 2-n-1 PC devices and includes 10GB of high-speed hotspot data.

For tablet plans, you can add-on "Premium Resolution Streaming" for $10/month, which includes video streaming at 1080p, HD music streaming at up to 1.5Mbps and gaming streams at up to 8Mbps.

T-Mobile Network Experience

If you are currently on a Sprint plan, you do have the option to retain them for the next three years. however you now also have the option to choose the "T-Mobile Network Experience" - aka TNX. TNX allows Sprint network customers with compatible devices to trade in their Sprint SIM card for a T-Mobile SIM card and move their plan to the T-Mobile network while retaining the features, billing, and terms of their original Sprint plan.

The T-Mobile Network Experience is the current next step in the process of combining the T-Mobile and Sprint networks following their merger earlier this year, and in moving all Sprint's customers to use a single network - the T-Mobile network. There are however certain requirements that need to be met in order for Sprint customers to take advantage of this. Customers should visit a Sprint store to determine their plan, device, and location eligibility.

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