Boost Mobile Offers $50 Unlimited Plan

Sprint's Boost Mobile is going after budget-conscious phone users - and rivals Leap and MetroPCS - with a $50/month plan with unlimited calls, Web, and texting.

Sprint subsidiary Boost Mobile is lowering the bar for budget-conscious mobile phone users, announcing a new pre-paid service plan that offers unlimited phone calls, texting, walkie-talkie, and mobile Web service for $50 a month. The move is designed to undercut regional rivals like Cricket and MetroPCS, as well as attract budget-conscious consumers as the economy continues to weaken. And, even better, the move might even serve as a revenue upgrade for some existing customers, who may be tempted to move up from existing budget plans that run just over $30 a month.

Boost Mobile’s “Monthly Unlimited” plan will be available starting January 22.

“Wireless consumers know there’s a lot of wrong out there—activation fees, overage charges, and extra costs for services like voicemail and roaming,” said Boost Mobile president Matt Carter, in a statement. “Unlike some other prepaid services, our new flat-rate plan will not include any of these charges; what you see is what you get.”

The plan targets customers who primarily rely on voice and text services; although the Boost Mobile offering includes Web browsing capabilities, Nextel’s iDEN network doesn’t offer a great deal of bandwidth. However, Nextel’s network coverage is substantially larger than MetroPCS or Leap, which currently reach about 60 million people each. Boost is available to an estimated base of over 270 million people in the United States.