If you pick up an LG X Power ($180) you’ll be able to receive five months of free service from Virgin Mobile, a prepaid carrier operating on Sprint’s network. Sprint is hoping promotions like this will enable it to once again be the US’ top prepaid carrier.
The offer is available from select Best Buy stores. Virgin’s free service is equivalent to its $35 plan, which features unlimited talk/text and 5 GB of LTE data.
Sprint has lost hundreds of thousands of prepaid customers in recent quarters and T-Mobile is currently leading that part of the market.
Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure says offers like the X Power one will be tested to see what helps its subscription figures.
You’re going to see us test different models. One model we’re testing that we like is a potential — rather than subsidizing handsets, actually providing free airtime with no subsidy on the handset. So you’re going to see Virgin be our disruptor brand. And you’re going to see Boost be a very strong brand that can give good competition to both Cricket and [MetroPCS]. – Claure
