Sprint (NYSE: S) continues to follow T-Mobile's lead in streaming music, expanding its data-free unlimited service from its Virgin prepaid brand to its Boost Mobile prepaid business.
Now, users on every Boost Mobile plan can stream music from 8tracks, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Samsung Milk Music and Slacker Radio without incurring data charges. Sprint launched a similar service for Virgin Mobile users in October, expanding that offering today to include 8tracks and Samsung Milk Music.
The carrier declined to say whether it plans to roll out data-free music streaming to Sprint users.
Sprint is pursuing the same strategy T-Mobile employs with Music Freedom, which launched in June 2014; MetroPCS also launched its Unlimited Music offering a few weeks ago. While such offerings undeniably have consumer appeal, some critics have argued they're at odds with the FCC's net neutrality principles. The agencies guidelines are generally intended to prevent wireless carriers and other ISPs from unfairly transmitting their Internet traffic over other providers' traffic.
However, the FCC's net neutrality push is facing challenges. A U.S. appeals court is weighing whether the FCC overstepped its bounds when it classified wireless carriers and other broadband providers as "common carrier" service providers, making them subject to net neutrality laws.
In other Boost news, Sprint said it introduced a Boost program that rewards users who pay on time with additional high-speed data. Users can receive an extra 5MB of high-speed data every time they pay on time for three consecutive months, topping out at 18 months and 3GB.
For more:
- see this release
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Article updated Dec. 10 to include MetroPCS's data-free music-streaming service.