Following up on a promise made by Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure in early August, we are seeing some evidence that the carrier is finally doing away with 2-year contracts for smartphones. A leaked internal document indicates that Sprint customers activating a new account will no longer have the option to purchase a smartphone on a 2-year contract. Since no official announcement has been made yet, Sprint is technically the last of the four major carriers to ditch the contract model (AT&T stopped offering contracts as of today).
According to the document, sales reps are being encouraged to promote Sprint’s leasing and Easy Pay plans as alternatives to subsidized on-contract phone prices. The change does not affect tablets, which helped bolster Sprint’s numbers last year as its phone subscriber base shrunk. It is unclear if the 2-year contract change will eventually apply to tablets as well, but we suspect that’s something Sprint executives want to decide after seeing the figures on tablet sales.
Source Android CentralÂ
