Sprint Nextel Adds Prepaid Cellphone Brand
Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) is pushing even further into low-cost, prepaid cellphone service as the U.S.’s third-largest wireless carrier by subscribers fights to hang on to traditional contract customers.
The carrier plans to launch a new and cheaper prepaid-cellphone brand, its fourth, in coming weeks and to start selling new, lower-priced plans from another of its prepaid labels.
The moves are part of a new strategy under which Sprint hopes to win more prepaid subscribers by building brands around specific consumer types, for instance infrequent cellphone users or teens who send lots of text messages. But the new brands also reinforce prepaid customers’ sensitivity to price.
