Boost Mobile takes a play from Sprint, tacking $5 onto Android phone plans

Pre-paid wireless carrier Boost Mobile will soon be adding the high-end, Android-running Samsung Transform Ultra to its Android lineup, but at a price. Buried in details of Boost's Shrinkage plan — a sort of rewards program that lowers a user's monthly rate after a certain number of on-time payments — the carrier announced it will be adding a $5 monthly charge to the unlimited plan rate for Android-powered devices.

It's a tactic it likely learned from parent-company Sprint, which in January added a $10 smartphone data fee to help it stay above water despite offering an unlimited data plan (CP: Mobile data pricing: You can't have it every way).

Current Boost customers, don't fret.

"For our current Monthly Unlimited customers, we hear you! Existing $50 Monthly Unlimited customers with Android devices as of Oct. 6 can keep their current price plan as long as they don’t let their account expire," the carrier said in the Sept. 15 statement introducing the Transform Ultra.

Upgrade a device to a CDMA Android-powered device on or after Oct. 6, however, and the $5 monthly charge is all yours. Regarding the shrinkage issue, however, Boost has you covered — accrued Shrinkage savings won't be lost with the upgrade.

The $5 increase will actually put the carrier behind Verizon Wireless in affordability, as Verizon this week expanded its $50 unlimited plan nationally (CP: Verizon to offer $50 unlimited prepaid plan this week). However, the Verizon plan isn't applicable to smartphones.

Boost is charging $229 for the Samsung Transform Ultra, which runs Android 2.3, a 1GHz processor, a touchscreen of unknown size, a 3-megapixel camera with video, and Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and Wireless Web connectivity, among other features.

In the growing pre-paid unlimited segment — which enjoyed 45% growth between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010 — Boost has been named a customer favorite (CP: Sprint's Boost Mobile the preferred carrier in growing prepaid market). According to a J.D. Power & Associates survey, it received the highest overall customer care satisfaction score of any contract-free carrier.