Sprint Corp.’s new CEO Marcelo Claure

A new leader often means new opportunities, even for the oldest of businesses. Sprint Corp.’s new CEO Marcelo Claure wants new customers and he know how to get them – entice buyers with new iPhones every year, and sweeten the deal with a $0 down payment. Yes, you read that right, Sprint is making it easier for consumers to get the latest iPhone when it launches with its enhanced iPhone for Life plan.

Originally, iPhone for Life allowed customers to upgrade to a new iPhone only after two years. But the revised version of this subscription service lets users upgrade to a new iPhone every year. Plans start at $30 a month.

Sprint’s new iPhone for Life plan

The enhanced plan offers new iPhones at zero downpayment with the iPhone 6 16GB at $30 a month, $35 a month for 64GB, and $40 for the 128 GB. For the iPhone 6 Plus, the price starts at $35 a month. The fees does not include taxes and service plan charges.

After 12 months, the customer can decide if they want to trade their old device for a new device and start a new lease, purchase the leased iPhone, continue leasing on a month-to-month basis, or terminate the service and return the old device in good working condition when the lease ends.

For the service plan, Sprint offers a $50 option with unlimited talk, text and data. That totals to a monthly payment of  $80 for the iPhone 6 16GB under the enhanced iPhone for Life plan.

The new iPhone for Life plan will kick off November 14 and as an added bonus, Sprint will also start offering the iPhone 5S for lease for 24 months, starting at $18 per month.

Sprint’s iPhone upgrade plan is very intriguing, especially if you’re one of those certain to upgrade handsets with each release. But Sprint isn’t the only operator offering an affordable upgrade plan.

Jump, Next or Edge – How will you upgrade iPhones?

T-Mobile Jump

The iPhone 6 16GB costs $27.08 a month on T-Mobile USA Inc. for 24 months, and if you want to be able to upgrade to a new device as early as six months, you need to pay an additional $10 a month and have paid of at least half the cost of your device. The handset will also need to be in good working condition to be eligible for this plan.

For service, T-Mobile offers $80 for its unlimited talk, text and data, a plan that also comes with a Rhapsody unRadio subscription.

Total = $117.08 a month

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AT&T Edge

AT&T Corp. also offers a way for its customers to upgrade to a new high end device after a year or two years, under its Next program. Next allows you to purchase a new smartphone with zero down and no annual contract.

You can choose between Next 18, which divides the price of your device into 24 monthly installments, or Next 12 which divides the price into 20 monthly installments. If you get a smartphone under Next 18, you can upgrade to a new handset after 18 months. The upgrades are available after 12 months with Next 12.

The iPhone 6 16GB costs $27.09 on the Next 18 plan and $32.50 on the Next 12 plan. For its service plan, AT&T offers unlimited call and text and 2GB of data per month for $65.

Total = $97.50 a month (Next 12 plan)

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Verizon Edge

Verizon Communications Inc. offers a two-year upgrade plan on Edge. Under Verizon Edge, the iPhone 6 16GB costs $27.08 a month for 24 months. For the service, you pay $50 for 2GB of data per month and $25 for a monthly line access, which totals $75 a month.

If you get the iPhone 6 16GB on Verizon Edge, you’ll be paying $102.08 per month for 24 months or change to a new device in just 30 days if 75 percent of the original cost of the device has already been paid off and start a new lease.

Total = $102.08 per month

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