Sprint restores plan for faster phone upgrades

Sprint is restoring the ability for customers to upgrade phones more quickly.

Sprint Corp.'s "Easy Pay" requires customers to pay the full price of the old phone before getting a new one with installment payments. The customer could then sell the old phone for cash. Programs offered by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile take back the phone and waive remaining payments.

Easy Pay replaces Sprint's "One Up," which was more like rival upgrade programs. That was discontinued last week when Sprint introduced a "Framily" plan, which lets friends and relatives pool accounts for savings, while keeping individual billing and data allotments.

One Up required 12 monthly payments for the phone before an upgrade. Easy Pay requires full payment for the phone, but that can be done right away.

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