Update: This deal has ended, however Sprint now offers Kickstart for only $25
Sprint $15 Unlimited Kickstart Plan
Last week Sprint rocked the cellular world with the announcement of a $15 per month Unlimited plan. The plan has proved so popular that it will be ending tomorrow (6/15) at 11:59PM ET. I signed up yesterday and was going to write a post about it sometime next week, but with the plan ending, I figured I might as well share my experience to help people to decide whether to switch.
$15 Unlimited Kickstart Plan
To begin, let’s talk about the plan itself. Here is what you get for $15 plus taxes per month:
- Unlimited Talk
- Unlimited Text
- Global Roaming
Unlimited Data as follows:
- Unlimited video in standard definition
- Streaming video (up to 480p)
- Streaming gaming (up to 2mbps)
- Streaming music (500kbps)
Offer Terms
Here is the fine print of the $15 Unlimited Kickstart offer:
- Data deprioritization during congestion.
- Price is with AutoPay. (It’s $20 otherwise)
- Reqs new line, port, and BYOD or Full SRP phones.
- Compared to national carrier unlimited rates, features differ. Other mo. charges apply.
Analysis
In my opinion this is an incredible deal. While this is obviously a throttled plan, you simply cannot get unlimited service on a major carrier for less. I personally signed up for this as a second line. I have AT&T as my primary service and had been considering a second line anyway. This way I have a phone on a separate network in case of dead zones.
The other MAJOR consideration here is that you get Sprint’s Global Roaming. That is incredible! My main line doesn’t have that for free, so I’ll be able to carry my Sprint phone when traveling internationally and receive free 2G data in 165 countries plus calls at $.20 a minute. I am shocked they included that with this plan.
What You Need
In order to sign-up for Sprint’s $15 Unlimited Kickstart plan you need two things:
- A compatible phone (Bring your own or buy one from Sprint)
- A number to port in
Thankfully I already had a phone, so I just needed to get the number.
Finding A Number to Port
Since this is going to be a new line, I needed to get a number elsewhere to port into Sprint. Luckily I read a Reddit thread where someone was able to activate a T-Mobile sim for free on their “Pay As You Go” plan and then port that number out.
Unfortunately the SIM card I had sitting around was old (I bought it during a $.99 deal just in case) and didn’t work correctly when I called. The phone agent then sent me to a store where I got a little pushback from employees (who didn’t want to help probably because they weren’t getting a commission), but T-Mobile gave me a new sim card and a new number.
Signing Up
Hoping that the SIM issue was the only problem, I went to sign-up for the plan online. Sprint’s system was fast enough, but it errored out at the credit check. (Yes, it is a hard credit inquiry for non-customers.) Anyway, their systems were down apparently (which has now been fixed) and I was able to get everything done over the phone. Without the credit error the entire sign-up process would have been about 5 minutes.
20,000 AAdvantage Miles
I have not been able to get confirmation that these offers will stack, but based on the terms I think you should also be eligible to earn 20,000 AAdvantage miles for signing up. Either way it couldn’t hurt to preregister for the AAdvantage promo here before signing up.
Conclusion
The $15 Unlimited Kickstart offer has proven to be very popular for Sprint and because of that it is going away tomorrow 6/15 at 11:59 PM ET. I’m glad I was able to get in before it ends and will gladly enjoy a second line with unlimited data and global roaming for $15 plus taxes.
Have you signed up for this plan? What has your experience been like?
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Yeah, I fell for the Kickstart scam, too. After 2 months, my bill has shot up to $25 + tax and service fees, making it $30/month and struggle to get connected, half the time. Sprint Sucks!!!
you must have done something wrong. I’ve been on this plan for over 2 years. still $15/month
Took a while to get the correct sim card for unlocked Sprint galaxy s5 I had ordered on eBay and was using on T mobile pay as you go. At first I was told I didn’t need a sim card. After I couldn’t get phone to work I called in and was told to pick up a sim at the Sprint store. None of the local stores nor ones in the surrounding area had the correct sim. The store called and ordered me one from the company. I had to pay a little over $10 for the shipping . I received the wrong sim a couple of days later. I called on Thursday and I got the correct sim on Monday. I called in and they set the phone up and took $10 off the fist month’s bill since it took so long to get set up. Since then the service works perfectly so far.
I tried this plan also but now find that they are saying I needed to buy their phone in full even though I was given the option of paying for it monthly.
The phone port was not too bad, the first time it didn’t go through because my Republic Wireless account didn’t have a pin. But after it was done on the second try, I found out when talking to a rep that if I ever switch my phone Kickstart rates no longer apply. The rate is tied to your IMEI.
I had the same limitation with Republic Wireless so I kept the same phone for 6 years until the Kickstarter plan came along, THEN switched to a new phone.
I tried to get them to use my phones one had republic wireless the othe Progect Fi.
The IMEI for both said it was aready activated so I could not use them.
I taked to them and they said since one of the carries they use was with sprint as republic wireless uses Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s cellular network and Project Fi uses Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Three.
So no go for me.
I checked with Ting Inc. they use Sprint’s CDMA, EV-DO 3G, and 4G LTE nationwide network and GSM service via the T-Mobile network. Their rates seem cheaper you might want to give them a look. You pay for what you use with them.
Project Fi has a family plan where I can be added to my wife’s plan for $15.00 and we share the data. They also give you both $20.00 after the 1st month.
They also take a trade-in on your old phone on a new one so we got her a Moto G6.
I was mislead with this deal. The woman on Monday checked my credit, I gave her the number I wanted to port. It all sounded good. To good to believe is what I should have said, but I didnt. They told me how to unlock an ATT phone. The whole 9 yards. The sim card came by UPS. I was on the phone 3 hours. I know you think Im exagerating but trust me 3 hours and it turns out they gave me wrong information. So a week wasted. Their was no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I shot an evening, no supper just going to bed at 10:42 after working in this since 6 pm.
you forgot a HUGE negative! Sprint does NOT allow yet for simultaneous talk and data.
Very painful process. 90% of the way through the process, I was told to go to a local store and get the SIM kit, then they would call and continue. Two local stores were out of SIM kits, so I called and got them to mail it to me, no shipping fee. Now hoping it arrives before the 6/22 deadline.
I tried to sign up for this but it seems like a sham. I tired to check my phones IMEI but the website didn’t work. I called and tried to check and they said there was an error with my IMEI and said that I would have to submit an application and conduct a credit check to see how many lines I would qualify for. Now mind you, this was just to check if my phone can be ported over. Doesn’t make sense to me that I need submit an application and a credit check to see if my phone will work on their network. The phone is an unlocked Nexus 6P , which I told them. They should know by the model if not the IMEI.
Seems like they are trying to get as many applications submitted as fast as possible. Maybe trying to make their numbers look better for their new master.
I will have a follow up post next week about this, but I will say their phone customer service is absolutely terrible. What should have been so easy has turned into a tedious process.
Apparently their credit checker is still not working as I just had to phone in to speak with a 3rd party credit co. Guess I answered one of the 3 questions wrong so now I’m unable to get the plan. Took 3 days to track down a used phone that would work (I already have 4 that weren’t eligible). All to be shut down by a question which had to do with vehicle registration of some sort from 15 yrs ago. Hell I’ve moved around my entire life so I wasn’t sure, answered ‘none of the above’. Mind you I’m 40 yrs old and have 800+ credit and almost 1 mil in properties lol.. but can’t get a $15 month phone plan. I use Cricket now and it’s $35 so I guess that’s what I’ll continue to use. Oh well.
BUT……that ‘global roaming’ is 64K. Yes, 64K. I’ve used it, well tried to and it’s useless at that speed. You simply must upgrade to a higher speed when roaming. T-Mobile’s standard offering is 128K globally and that’s better but still painful. I do pay for the “plus” with TMO and get 256K which is not super but gets much better and is generally rather useful. 64K really just won’t do anything. I’ve tried it and it’s really useless for anything.
Still, a few dollars a month more when traveling makes this still a great deal.
Will Uber work OK at that speed?
I have two Motorola G4 Play phones that were unlocked Verizon prepaid types purchased from Best Buy here in the US. When I look up the specs of this particular model (XT1609), it says that it’s compatible with Sprint. However, when I called into Sprint to check the IMEI numbers, I was told they’re not eligible. They listed off 3 reasons such as being an international unlocked phone, an incompatible phone, or a version of android or apple phone that doesn’t work for Sprint. Seems to me, though, that none of those are the case with these phones (from what I can tell). Any ideas on what the deal is? Are they just trying to push you into getting a phone from them to offset the low cost of the plan?
Did you try their online compatability tool? I wonder if the agent just didn’t know what they were doing. It does seem they should be compatible if they were indeed Verizon phones. International phones don’t often have the CDMA chipset, but a Verizon phone should have that.
I tried their online tool as well which also says they’re incompatible. In fact, I have 6 different smart phones (all Verizon service) and none of them seem to be compatible. Unfortunate.
Strange – my Motorola G4 Play was approved. But it says the model is XT1607.
Sweet deal! What’s the data limit/ throttling like when you don;t stream (i.e. just use it for other apps)?
They don’t set a max speed or say as far as I can tell. My guess is that it will be de-prioritized below other Sprint plans but probably still prioritized above 3rd parties provides like Boost. At $15 a month with no start up cost (for me) I thought it was worth trying out. Hopefully it works well enough to keep.
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Curious if you’ve tried Project FI? This Sprint plan is cheaper and the 2GB global roaming is killer. Verizon is my primary and I have a Project Fi that I only use for Int’l travel. Don’t think I can justify a 3rd line but for $15 it sure has me thinking.
I haven’t tried FI yet. It was something I have looked at, but never pulled the trigger. I think this is a good enough deal standalone that I’m happy with it.
I also couldn’t get a replacement SIM at a T-Mobile store even with the phone rep calling them while I was on hold in the parking lot. It was a corporate store too so rep and I thought it was a one-off renegade employee fighting tooth and nail to keep those cards from leaving without charge. Never seen anything like that in 20+ years with T-Mobile. You could probably port a number from Google Voice too. Enjoy your data roaming!
Yup Google Voice is something I considered, but the T-Mobile route seemed like it would be much easier than it was.
I attempted to stack with the AAdvantage offer on its first day. During the process I had to call in. Sprint’s agent said no combining that or any offer with the Unlimited Kickstarter promotion.
Same, no other bonus/offer can be combined with kickstarter plan.
Any reason you signed up for this instead of the 1 yr free unlimited?
The phone I have isn’t eligible. This seems like hopefully more of a long term solution as well but their unlimited deal is terrific too.