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Sprint unveils aggressive plan to win customers back

Eli Blumenthal, Special to USA TODAY
Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure,

NEW YORK—A day after T-Mobile claimed to have become the third largest carrier in the U.S., Sprint fired back Friday with an aggressive new plan designed to help lure customers to its network.

Dubbed the "best family share plan" the Kansas-based wireless carrier is offering 12GB of shared data for four lines for $90 a month. For existing customers the company is also lowering the price of its "data access charge" for each of the lines from $25 to $15, bringing the total price for existing Sprint users with a family of four to $150 for 12GB of shared data with unlimited calling and texting. The company announced it will also be offering the lower data access charge on all plans with 12GB of shared data or higher.

New customers switching to Sprint will have that data access charge waived on all plans with at least 12GB of shared data for one year, assuming the devices are purchased using the company's Sprint Easy Pay monthly payment plan making the total offer $90 per month for 12GB of data on up to 10 lines. The company will also continue to buy out customers' contracts with rival carriers.

Sprint's promotion is available until March 12.

After several years of struggle, Sprint has been aggressive with its pricing following the appointment of CEO Marcelo Claure last year. Earlier this year the company offered to cut the bills of AT&T and Verizon customers "in half." In earnings released this month Sprint reported that it had added 967,000 customers in its most recent quarter, up from the 682,000 customers added one year ago. That's still a far cry from the 2.1 million "net adds" T-Mobile gained during the same period.

Sprint shares ended Friday down $0.05 to $4.83.

Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter@eliblumenthal

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