Verizon recently brought back an unlimited data option, and T-Mobile made its ONE plan less awful in response. Now it's Sprint's turn to roll out a new unlimited plan with included HD video. Pricing starts at $50 per month, but it sounds like this is only available to new customers. Feeling bummed yet? It gets worse. The cheap price is only offered through next March, then your bill goes up.

According to Sprint, anyone who switches to Sprint starting this Friday will have the option of signing up for the new unlimited plan. It includes 10GB of hotspot data, unlimited on-device LTE, and video will stream in HD. The pricing is tiered and starts at $50 per month for one line. That's not bad. Two lines will run you $90, and it's the same for a third and fourth line. That works out to $22.50 per line if you have four of them. That's the number Sprint is pushing. All these numbers assume a $5 discount for autopay.

So, the above deal might sound alright. Here's where it gets bad. The data is still throttled, just not as badly. HD video streams at up to 1080p, music at up to 1.5Mbps, and gaming streams at up to 8Mbps. Sprint also has a nasty habit of hiking its prices after you sign up, and that's the case here. The above pricing is only valid through March of 2018. At that point, customers on this promo will pay $60 for the first line, $40 for the second, and $30 for lines three and four. That works out to $160 per month instead of $90. Again, this includes the autopay discount.

This seems like a good deal in the short term, but that price hike is substantial. It's also really sketchy that Sprint hid the promo period in the fine print. It seems like all Sprint really cares about is adding subscribers ASAP, and it'll figure out how to keep them later.

PRESS RELEASE

Source: Sprint