Sprint, which is officially known as Sprint Corporation, is a telecommunications company that operates in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The company and its subsidiaries; Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Assurance Wireless, provides wireless and wireline communications products and services that include voice, messaging, and broadband services to over 54 million customers, making it one of the largest mobile network operators in the country.
The company has been able to turn a profit by meeting the needs of many of its consumers which include businesses, the government, and other mobile virtual network operators who use its CDMA, EvDO and 4G LTE networks infrastructure to provide the same services to its own customers.
Sprint
The company that is today known as Sprint has been able to trace its origins to two 19th century companies; the Brown Telephone Company and Southern Pacific Railroad. Brown Telephone Company was a telephone service operator that was founded in 1899 and operated in Abilene, Kansas while Southern Pacific Railroad was a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Company that was founded in the 1860s and operated track and telegraph wire.
Brown Telephone Company started off its operations in the rural Kansas areas before growing to become an alternative to the popular telephone service at the time, Bell Telephone. By 1911, Brown Telephone merged with three other independent companies to form United Telephone Company. In 1925, the company changed to United Telephone and Electric (UT&E) before later going back United Utilities in 1939. United Utilities, which later changed its name to United Telecommunications, enjoyed massive growth in the 60s, 70s, and 80s after it launched the first major fibre optic network that handled more calls and provided better quality sound.
Southern Pacific Railroad, on the other hand, operated thousands of miles of track across the United States which its telegraph wire ran alongside. By the 1970s, the company moved to enter the long-distance calling business by first creating the Southern Pacific Communications Company which provided stiff competition for AT&T, the company that held the monopoly in the telecom industry at the time. Southern Pacific Communications later moved to create a division called SPRINT, an acronym that stood for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications, in order to differentiate its telephone service from that of its fax and telegraph.
In the early 1980s, Sprint and Southern Pacific Communications became the subject of acquisition by GTE Corp. After buying Sprint, the company merged with United Telecommunications to form US Sprint Communications which later became known as Sprint Corporation in 1992. In the following decade, Sprint expanded into Canada by acquiring a percentage of Canadian long-distance calling service Call-Net Enterprises, as it also merged with Chicago’s Centel Corp. The company then went into the cellular and wireless market via 360 Communications and Sprint Spectrum, respectively.
The Sprint Spectrum brand went on to become the first company to offer commercial personal communications services in the United States by 1995. The following year, the company struck a deal with retail giant RadioShack, to open up Sprint Stores in their establishments across the United States. By 2004, Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications, which were the third and fifth leading mobile network operators in the US respectively, merged to form Sprint Nextel Corporation. The company existed on its own until it was acquired by the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank in 2013.
Phone Plans and How They Compare
Plan: Single Line 2GB
Inclusions: No Contract, Unlimited Domestic Talk & Text, 2GB Data (full speed then slowed) (no overages), 2GB Mobile Hotspot
Price: $40 per month ($30 upfront) with AutoPay or $45 per month without AutoPay (Taxes and Regulatory Fees Not Included)
Plan: Unlimited 55+
Inclusions: For Customers Aged 55 and Above, No Contract, Unlimited Domestic Talk, Unlimited Domestic & International Texts (selected countries), 23GB Data (full speed then de-prioritized during times and places of network constraint), Unlimited Mobile Hotspot (up to 3G speeds).
Price: $50 per month ($30 upfront) (Taxes and Regulatory Fees Not Included)
Plan: Unlimited Basic
Inclusions: No Contract, Unlimited Talk (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Unlimited Domestic & International Texts (selected countries), 50GB Data (full speed then de-prioritized during times and places of network constraint), 500MB Mobile Hotspot, Hulu TV
Price: $60 per month ($30 upfront) (Taxes and Regulatory Fees Not Included)
Plan: Unlimited Military
Inclusions: For Veterans, Active Duty, and Reserves of the U.S. Armed Forces, No Contract, Unlimited Talk (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Unlimited Domestic & International Texts (selected countries), 50GB Data (full speed then de-prioritized during times and places of network constraint), 500MB Mobile Hotspot, Access to Hulu TV
Price: $60 per month ($30 upfront) (Taxes and Regulatory Fees Not Included)
Plan: Unlimited Plus
Inclusions: No Contract, Unlimited Talk (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Unlimited Domestic & International Texts (selected countries), 50GB Data (full speed then de-prioritized during times and places of network constraint), 15GB Mobile Hotspot, Access to Hulu TV and TIDAL Music
Price: $60 per month ($30 upfront) (Taxes and Regulatory Fees Not Included)
Plan: Unlimited Premium
Inclusions: No Contract, Unlimited Talk (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Unlimited Domestic & International Texts (selected countries), Unlimited Data, 50GB Mobile Hotspot, Access to Amazon Prime, Hulu TV, and TIDAL Music
Price: $80 per month ($30 upfront) (Taxes and Regulatory Fees Not Included)
Customer Service and Locations
There are a number of ways in which customers can get in touch with Sprint’s customer care. To contact support via phone, dial 888-211-4727. For mail, include customer name, telephone number, and account number when writing to
KSOPHT0101-Z4300, 6391 Sprint Parkway, Overland Park KS 66251-4300. Sprint can also be contacted online via the chat icon on its website or by sending messages to its Facebook and Twitter pages. Customers can also join the Sprint Community to get and share answers with other customers.
To locate the nearest Sprint shop near you, visit the Store Locator
Account Login
Sprint customers can monitor things like data usage, view or pay bills, update the account, or get custom deals and offers when they use their Sprint account. To log in, go to sprint.com, click “Sign in” and enter your phone number. Next step would be to verify your identity then create your username, password, and enter your email address.
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Promo Code
Like other telecommunication companies, Sprint has promo codes that its customers can use to make new purchases or upgrade to better packages at a more affordable cost. Sites like Groupon, RetailMeNot, and GivingAssistant are some of the best places to get the promo codes.