Sprint: Product Knowledge Understanding The Wireless Industry Before you learn about Sprint and how to effectively sell it to customers, it’s important to understand the basics of the mobile phone industry. The Basics There are two main types of mobile phones in the industry; postpaid mobile phones and prepaid mobile phones. Postpaid Mobile Phone: The postpaid mobile phone is likely the type of mobile phone you’re most familiar with. The postpaid mobile phone is a mobile phone that’s service is provided by a prior arrangement with a mobile network operator. The user in this situation is billed at the end of the month, depending on their usage. There are four major postpaid mobile phone service providers. If you are not already familiar with these providers, it is important that you get acquainted with each of them! These providers are: Prepaid Mobile Phone: A prepay mobile phone (also commonly referred to as pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone or prepaid) is a mobile phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is used to pay for mobile phone services at the point the service is accessed or consumed. While the four major cell phone providers also offer pre-paid options to their customers, there are a few major providers that specifically offer pre-paid options that you should be familiar with. Those providers are: Boost Mobile/Virgin Mobile (Sprint pre-paid) Metro PCS (T-Mobile pre-paid) Cricket Wireless (AT&T pre-paid) Straight talk (MVNO-Mobile Virtual Network Operator; uses AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint towers) Line: “Line” refers to the user and their phone number. For example, when referring to how many different phone numbers or users are on an account, you would identify them by saying, “There are five phone ‘lines’ on this account.” Wireless Spectrum: Before you learn anything else about the mobile phone industry, you must understand what spectrum is and why it’s so important. Spectrum is the range of electromagnetic radio frequencies used to transmit sound, data and video across the country. It’s what carries voice between cell phones, television shows from broadcasters to your TV and online information from one computer to the next, wirelessly. Wireless Data: Wireless data is the transmission of data over the air. Wireless data includes all Internet-based communications. Wireless data generally refers to transmission to and from a mobile device. Voice: Voice refers refers to the audio signal that is transmitted from device to device when someone is communicating wirelessly. HD Voice: Wideband audio, also known as HD voice, is high definition voice quality for telephone audio. It extends the frequency range of audio signals transmitted over telephone lines, resulting in higher speech quality. Coverage: Wireless telephones work by communicating via radio waves. They use a system of base stations, which are more commonly known as “cell towers.” These towers send and receive calls and relay them to other networks. Because wireless phones communicate using radio waves, their reliability is influenced by many factors, including: Proximity of the phone to the cell tower with which it is communicating, physical obstacles and other types of interference. “Coverage” refers to the quality of signal strength dBm (decibel by milliwatts) that a customer has with their cell phone service. For example, you may hear someone say, “What kind of coverage will I get with Sprint?”. Roaming: “Roaming” is the term that describes a wireless phone’s ability to make and receive calls outside of the service offered in your provider’s service plan. You can also send and receive data or access other services. Roaming is when a subscriber of one wireless service provider uses the cell towers of another provider. The ability to roam is the answer to a customer getting better coverage than they would if they were only relying on their provider’s service areas. Mobile Hot Spot: A mobile hot spot is a setting that can be found on most smartphones. A mobile hot spot creates a small area of Wi-Fi coverage that allows nearby Wi-Fi devices to connect to the Internet through the data coverage of the cell phone. Most iconic smartphones can connect up to 10 WiFi devices per unit. Contracts: Contracts, once again, are only required mainly with the post-paid mobile phone providers. Contracts vary from provider to provider as far as price and terms are concerned. However, it is very rare nowadays that these providers require cell phone contracts. Rather, most cell phone providers have moved to require “mobile phone payments.” Mobile Phone Lease: A mobile phone lease works similarly to any other kind of lease fee. The fee varies depending on the provider, device itself and any promotions that the provider may be running at the time. The lease is a monthly phone payment that the customer agrees to pay every month while they have the service. Porting: Porting refers to when one provider submits a request to another provider in order to transfer a new customer’s previous mobile phone number to the new service provider’s network. It is important to understand that virtually every customer will want to keep their previous phone number and “port” it over when they choose to switch providers. You will need to collect the customer’s account number and pin code from the previous provider. Not all numbers are eligible for porting between carriers. It is imperative that you check in app drawer via the "port ELIGIBILITY tool" to verify each number. In the event that it does not qualify, Caliber has special options to assist your customers. Transferring Content: Apple Devices: Back up all the content to the "iCloud". If they do not have enough storage, the customer should purchase additional storage. (Settings > General > Storage and iCloud Usage > Manage Storage > Change Storage Plan) Android Devices: Use the manufacturer-provided application on the device or download a transferring application via the "Google Play Store". (For example, Samsung Smart Smart Switch, LG transfer Tool, HTC Smart Transfer) Non Smartphones or Flip Phones: Use the Bluetooth feature on the devices to transfer contacts between non-smartphone devices. Understanding Sprint The next step is understanding the Sprint product and service! Contract Buy-Out: A contract buy-out refers to when one provider offers a new customer the ability to pay off a certain amount of any remaining penalty fees after they have discontinued their previous services through the new provider. For example, Sprint offers each new customer up to $____(See tri-fold) per line to pay off any debts they may still have with their previous provider. Protection: The protection plan is a guarantee that the provider will offer each customer in order to protect their devices. Most protection plans are paid for in monthly payments as part of the customer’s bill and vary in price from provider to provider. When speaking to customers about our protection plan its important to not use the word Insurance. Fulfillment Process: After you submit the order in App drawer, the phones will ship from the warehouse overnight and your customers should receive the devices within 1–2 business days. Once the devices arrive, the customer will power on the devices and follow the on-screen steps in order to activate the devices. BYOD: BYOD stands for "Bring Your Own Device". This is going to be eligible for customers that own their devices completely. The advantage for you and the customer is that by bringing over the device there will not be any additional charge for the phone because it is payed off. This is turn allows you the rep to give a more competitive price. It is important understand that not all phones are eligible to be brought over to the Sprint network. All eligibility is based on the specific “IMEI #” for each device. IMEI #: The IMEI # is basically just another serial number for the device and is used to determine different aspects of eligibility. Checking Eligibility: In order to check eligibility see the following: Select the BYOD tab in Stratus (picture of stratus here) Enter in Phone IMEI into the tool (picture of BYOD page) Visit: https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/bring-your-phone-to-sprint.html?INTNAV=LP:BYOD:Shop:030918 Qualification: There are two different types of qualifications. All qualifications are based on the customer’s credit history. These qualifications are: Prime Sub-Prime Prime: If a customer qualifies as a “Prime” customer, they have excellent credit and will not have to pay any kind of deposit or down payment unless their device requires it. There are 2 levels of Prime customers. These levels are Prime 5 and Prime 10. The number associated with the qualification signifies how many lines of service they are eligible for. For example, a customer who is Prime 5 is typically only eligible for 5 lines of service. **NOTE: Even if a customer is Prime 5, there is still a good possibility that they can qualify for more lines of service upon request.** Sub-Prime: If a customer qualifies as a “Sub-Prime” customer, they will have a down payment on the devices. The amount of the down payment is based on their credit score. The following indicates the down payment amounts that are associated with the corresponding Sub-Prime qualification level. Sub Prime 5 $0 - $75 Sub Prime 4 $75 - $250 Sub Prime 3 $250 - $500 Sub Prime 2 $500 - $750 Sub Prime 1 $750+ It is important to know that Sub-Prime customers can also be subject to paying their first bill up-front as well.