Sprint introduced two distinct unlimited tiers in July 2018: Unlimited Basic, starting at $60 per month for one line, and Unlimited Plus, starting at $70. The difference was not simply a $10 price increase: the plans had different video-streaming resolutions and mobile-hotspot allowances. Sprint announced the offers as new choices, including for existing customers; the available announcements do not establish that Sprint changed every existing $60 customer’s service.
What Sprint announced in July 2018
Sprint said Unlimited Basic and Unlimited Plus would launch July 13, 2018, following its July 12 announcement. Contemporaneous reporting put the starting single-line prices at $60 for Basic and $70 for Plus. Sprint said existing customers could also get either offer. These were separate tiers, not two names for the same plan. Sprint’s launch announcement and its plan details describe the advertised offers.
| 2018 plan | Starting price for one line | Video streaming | Mobile hotspot | Included services noted in Sprint’s announcement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited Basic | $60 per month | SD, up to 480p | 500 MB before hotspot speed reductions | Hulu |
| Unlimited Plus | $70 per month | HD, up to 1080p | 15 GB of LTE hotspot before speed reductions | Hulu and TIDAL |
Both plans were marketed with nationwide unlimited talk, text, and data. That headline description did not mean every service had identical terms: streaming resolution and hotspot use were specifically differentiated. Sprint’s listed limits describe the 2018 offers, not current plan availability.
Why the advertised prices need context
The $60 and $70 figures are starting prices for one line, not universal per-line rates. Sprint’s release also listed multi-line pricing, with terms affected by AutoPay and how customers obtained their phones. For example, Sprint advertised a five-line Plus price of $22 per line for customers bringing their own phones or buying phones outright; leasing a phone had a higher five-line price. Basic had separate five-line pricing. The release’s headline prices excluded taxes and surcharges, and its footnotes set out AutoPay and line-by-line conditions. Do not compare a one-line starting price with a multi-line promotional rate as if they were equivalent.
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For any historical plan comparison, keep these variables alongside the price:
- Number of lines and whether the amount is a starting or promotional rate.
- Taxes, surcharges, AutoPay requirements, and device purchase or lease conditions.
- Video resolution and any streaming controls.
- Hotspot allowance and what happens to hotspot speeds after it is used.
- Roaming terms, included subscriptions, and congestion or prioritization policies.
Did Sprint “cripple” existing $60 customers’ plans?
The evidence supports saying Sprint launched a lower-priced Basic tier with more restrictive streaming and hotspot terms than Plus. It does not establish that Sprint retroactively reduced service for every customer already paying $60. Sprint’s announcement framed Basic and Plus as new choices and said existing customers could get them; that is not proof of a blanket change to existing accounts. The reviewed announcements also do not provide an independent customer survey measuring whether consumers felt the $60 tier had lost value, so a claim about customer reaction would go beyond what these sources show.
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Sprint continued adding tiers that summer
On August 31, 2018, Sprint announced Unlimited Premium, extending the tiered approach. Sprint listed 50 GB of LTE hotspot use before speed reductions, full-HD streaming, global roaming, Hulu, TIDAL, Amazon Prime, and Lookout Premium Plus among its benefits. Its footnote also said data could be deprioritized during congestion. These were Sprint’s advertised terms, not an independent assessment of network performance. Sprint’s Premium announcement gives its stated benefits and limits.
“Unlimited” did not settle every practical question
In carrier marketing, “unlimited” could refer to talk, text, and on-network data while other parts of service remained subject to limits or different treatment. Video quality, hotspot data, roaming, eligibility, and network prioritization all mattered. T-Mobile’s 2016 T-Mobile ONE announcement offers a dated example of the broader industry framing: it marketed unlimited talk, text, and high-speed smartphone data while specifying standard-definition video, hotspot at 2G speeds, and possible prioritization of the highest data users during congestion. That announcement is evidence of what T-Mobile marketed then, not an independent plan test or proof that its terms matched Sprint’s. T-Mobile’s 2016 announcement states those terms.
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Do not confuse the 2018 Basic tier with Sprint’s 2014 $60 offer
Sprint separately announced a $60 Unlimited Plan in August 2014. That offer was described as unlimited talk, text, and data for $60 monthly, but customers had to use Sprint Easy Pay, pay full retail for a handset, or bring a compatible device. Its date and device conditions distinguish it from the 2018 Unlimited Basic tier. The 2014 price and name alone do not show that it was the same plan or that its terms continued unchanged in the years between. Sprint’s 2014 announcement records the earlier offer.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What Sprint’s network-performance claim does—and does not—show
In its July 2018 release, Sprint said national average download speeds rose 30.9 percent year over year, attributing the figure to Ookla Speedtest Intelligence data for June 2017 through June 2018. This is Sprint’s reproduction and attribution of that statistic, not independent verification here, and it does not establish how a particular customer experienced the plans. The release containing the claim identifies Sprint’s stated source and period.
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