OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), September 08, 2014 – Today Sprint announced it will meet or beat all competitors’ pricing to ensure the best trade-in values. Sprint will match all major U.S. carrier buyback pricing (Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile) on all new lines of service starting immediately. Last year, Sprint put more than $100 million back in customers’ pockets with their award-winning phone trade-in program, Sprint Buyback.

For the past three years, Sprint has been recognized by Compass Intelligence, a leading market analytics and consulting firm, as having the best phone trade-in program among all major U.S. carriers. Sprint’s commitment and reputation for providing the best trade-in value highlights the carrier’s commitment to the program. This new program will enhance their reputation and maintain their leadership position.

“Sprint remains the leader in mobile phone trade in programs,” said Kate Pearce strategist and senior consultant at Compass Intelligence. ”They’ve been leading the industry for the past few years by offering the best value and convenience to their customers. They’ve been doing an in-store take back program longer than anyone else and they’ve mastered how to make the program a win-win for their customers and their business.”

Today, Sprint offers are better than competitors in many ways such as providing an instant credit in-store and up to $300 for eligible devices (toward a new phone purchase OR an account credit). Sprint also allows customers to trade-in up to three phones per line at any time and five in a calendar year. T-Mobile, on the other hand, only allows one phone trade-in per line and only allows customers to trade-in their phone when purchasing a new device. Sprint customers can take advantage of the trade-in credit at any time – whether they are buying a new phone, looking to purchase new accessories or want to use their trade-in credit towards their bill.

“Our trade-in program is well known in the industry and when we guarantee the best value over any of our competitors, we’re taking this to another level,” said David Owens, senior vice president-Product. “Offering a competitive price match was the next logical step to ensure existing and new customers understood that we make our trade-in program a top priority and are willing to provide the very best value in the industry. We want to make it easy for our sales reps so they never have to worry.”

In 2001, Sprint developed the first phone take-back program and later was the first to take back other carriers' devices and provide an instant credit in store, in early 2010. Today, more than four out of every 10 customers in Sprint retail stores participate in the buyback program. Of those devices collected, more than 80 percent of those phones are remanufactured as certified pre-owned phones. Sprint has gained significant business synergies from its relationship with the world's largest specialized wireless distributor, Brightstar Corp., and has helped Sprint dominate the phone trade-in and pre-owned phone market. Both Sprint and Brightstar Corp. are subsidiaries of SoftBank Group Corp Corp.

As part of its industry-leading Electronics Stewardship Policy, which highlights Sprint’s efforts to work with only certified recyclers to achieve their aggressive recycling goals, Sprint aims to collect an average of nine devices for every 10 devices sold by 2017. Sprint has also taken industry-leading steps to promote environmental sustainability in production of new devices and packaging. Sprint is the only carrier to partner with the U.S. EPA, as part of the agency’s Sustainable Materials Management Program.

In addition to being honored with the Best Buyback Program, Sprint shattered the Guinness World Record for the number of cell phones recycled in a single week, more than double the previous record set by AT&T.

About Sprint:

Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served more than 54 million customers as of June 30, 2014 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint as the most improved U.S. company in customer satisfaction, across all 43 industries, over the last six years. Sprint has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America in 2011, 2012 and 2013. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.