Sprint Announces More Affordable 4G LTE Tablet Data Plans

Hot on the heels of Sprint announcing that it will in fact be supporting Apple’s newly unveiled fourth generation iPad and the more diminutive iPad Mini, both with 4G LTE connectivity, on its network, the Now Network has just announced new data plans for 4G LTE connected tablets. These plans won’t be specific to iPads and will also work on Android tablets and whatever other slate computing platform(s) Sprint may decide to support in the future, and the Now Network is touting these plans as being more affordable. The official plans launch November 11.

Sprint is running a special promotion right now for its smartphone customers. For existing and current customers, adding a tablet plan for $15 will give users 1 GB of 3G/4G tablet data and adding a $10 plan will give users 100 MB on their tablets. The promotion is said to be a limited run promotion and could expire at any time.

For those who need more data, Sprint has traditional tablet plans that start at $14.99 for 300 MB and go as high as $79.99 for 12 GB. According to the carrier, these plans ‘ offer customers up to 20 percent more data than Verizon or AT&T for the same price.’

Users who may occasionally need data and those who are commitment-aversed can also sign up for a month-to-month plan, which is similar to a prepaid tablet data plan. These are called Sprint Mobile Broadband Passes and the great part is that pricing is similar to the regular plans so you get to skip the data on months where you don’t need it.

Sprint, along with T-Mobile USA, are the lone holdouts among the national carriers that still offer unlimited data plans. Larger rivals AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless had switched to a metered data plan sometime ago for smartphones and more recently those carriers have moved to mobile share plans, which allow multiple devices on the same plan to share the same data bucket for a fee.