Boost sees $50 unlimited plan battling Leap, Metro

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boost Mobile, a unit of Sprint Nextel (S.N), is unveiling a $50-per-month cell-phone plan providing unlimited calling and texting, pitting it directly against regional rivals Leap Wireless International Inc (LEAP.O) and MetroPCS Communications Inc (PCS.N).

The offering, available January 22, was designed to attract budget-conscious consumers in the weak economy.

"We anticipate a fairly rapid adoption of this, both from new customers and from existing customers ... Predictability is a very appealing thing in tough economic times," said Boost Vice President of Marketing Neil Lindsay.

But he declined to give specific growth estimates.

Boost. whose parent company Sprint has been bleeding customers, is looking to upgrade existing customers, who spent an average of $31 a month in the third quarter, and to steal customers from Leap and MetroPCS.

It is targeting consumers who use their phones mostly for voice calls and texting rather than surfing the Web because its iDen network has slow mobile Web speeds.

However, the service may also win some customers from Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile USA, which is often seen as a value provider, and from the top two U.S. wireless services, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc (T.N), which both offer unlimited voice services for $99 a month.

"It sets a bar for the wireless industry and in some sense a floor," Current Analysis analyst Bill Ho said of the Boost offer. "The pricepoint will hit everybody -- the postpaid people, the prepaid people and the wireline people."

Prepaid customers pay for calls in advance while postpaid customers commit to contracts of up to two years and pay bills at the end of every month.