Individual Phone Plans Comparison
WhistleOut crowns the best cell phone plans for June 2019. We sorted through tons of great unlimited talk & text, unlimited data, prepaid, and international plan to find the best values. The four major carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon) all make the list, as do several MVNOs, like Metro and Boost. Verizon Wireless family plan comparison. AT&T family plans. AT&T won’t charge you for overages. You’ll save $10 on your phone plan and $10 on your Fios bill. That adds up to $240 in a single year, so if you need two or three of these services, Verizon will help you out quite a bit. Each individual's unique needs should be considered.
Best Cell Phone Services 2019The best cell phone services offer a lot of deals that constantly change. There’s a lot of competition and so checking what each cell phone provider offers before making a decision on which one to go with it important.We carefully examined dozens of companies factoring in coverage, reliability, speed, customer service and cost. This list of the best cell phone services is ranked according to those factors.We chose to focus on cell companies that offer unlimited data plans as this has become a key feature many people look for. However, a cell phone company that has great coverage, speed and customer service will offer those features on all plans, whether you choose an unlimited data plan or not.is our top pick of cell phone carriers thanks to its strong network performance. It has the best coverage, reliability and speed of any carrier we evaluated. Also fared well in our assessment.
In particular, we are huge fans of its Unlimited 55+ plan, which offers discounted rates to seniors. T-Mobile’s prepaid subsidiary, is our pick for the best cheap cell phone service because of its great performance and budget-friendly prices.It doesn't matter whether you own the latest and greatest iPhone or are looking for cheap smartphone for calls and web browsing, these providers will have a plan that suits you. Verizon Wireless has a reputation for being the best wireless network in the U.S.It scores higher on network coverage, reliability and speed than any other cellular network, according to multiple independent studies. However, it’s also among the most expensive.
Across the board, Verizon’s prices are on the higher end of the spectrum. Its top-tier unlimited plans cost up to $90 per month for one person, and it doesn’t offer an individual budget plan.
Whether or not the extra cost is worth the improved network depends on where you live.Though we wouldn’t quite call it a budget plan, Verizon’s $60 individual plan is a decent mid-tier option. It gives you 5GB of data and lets you carry over unused gigs to the following billing cycle.
Adding more data is a bit expensive at $15 per gigabyte, but it’s a good option if you don’t quite need an unlimited plan. The family plans with limited data follow the shared data bucket model, allowing two to five lines to split 2GB, 4GB or 8GB.Best Value Cell Phone Provider. Metro by T-Mobile is a prepaid cellular provider that uses its parent company’s great high-speed network.Its prices are lower, and it has more plan options than T-Mobile. The cheapest plan at Metro by T-Mobile costs $30 per month, and the price goes up $10 for each higher data tier. Technically, all the plans have unlimited data, but the two lowest-tier plans throttle your speeds after you use your 2GB or 10GB 4G LTE allotment. The most expensive plan costs $60 per month, and in addition to having unlimited data, it allows you to use 15GB on hotspot tethering and comes with Amazon Prime.
If you don’t need that much hotspot data, you can save yourself $10 by signing up for the $50 unlimited plan, which only includes 5GB of hotspot data. Even on unlimited plans, it costs $30 to add each additional line, unless you happen to catch a promotional price.We like that Metro includes its Music Unlimited feature with plans that cost $40 or more. Music Unlimited lets you stream music from over 40 services, including Pandora and Spotify, without deducting from your data allotment. This is particularly nice since you can’t add data mid-cycle. It can also help you stay under the unlimited plans’ 35GB high-speed data threshold.However, its unlimited plans have a max video streaming resolution of 480p. DVD-quality streaming is fine and consumes less data than HD streaming, but it would be nice to have the higher-quality option, especially since phone screens now support high resolutions.Because it is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) that runs on T-Mobile’s network, Metro customers sometimes experience data de-prioritization to direct T-Mobile customers.
If a lot of people use data on T-Mobile’s network in the same place at the same time, Metro customers could see their speeds slow down. This wasn't a problem in tests conducted by Tom’s Guide, our sister site, but it is worth mentioning.Best Cell Phone Company for Seniors.
T-Mobile’s unlimited plans are a great value when compared side by side with similar offerings from Verizon Wireless and AT&T.Its Unlimited 55+ plan gives customers ages 55 and older a discount on the T-Mobile ONE unlimited plan for up to two lines – instead of $130 for two lines, it costs $80 for the same service. Though this discount is restricted to two lines, only the primary account holder has to fit the 55+ requirement.If you’re under 55, the T-Mobile ONE and ONE Plus plans are still solid unlimited-data options.
T-Mobile’s network is one of the fastest in the country, and you can use up to 50GB of data before hitting the de-prioritization threshold.On top of things you expect from an unlimited plan, such as unlimited talk, text and data, T-Mobile ONE adds extras like unlimited text and data use in more than 140 countries, in-flight texting and an hour of free in-flight Wi-Fi on Gogo-enabled flights. The $10 ONE Plus addition adds HD streaming, 10GB of 4G LTE hotspot tethering, unlimited Gogo flight data and visual voicemail.T-Mobile doesn’t offer many limited-data plans.
It offers cheaper, no credit check plans that include 10GB of data, but they come with some disadvantages, including activation fees, deposits, ineligibility for discounts and lack of customization options. The ONE plans don’t have these problems, though if you’re new to T-Mobile, you pay $25 for a SIM card.Best Cell Phone Custom Plans. US Mobile is an MVNO that lets you customize nearly every aspect of your plan, from the network down to the amount of talk, text and data.It uses Verizon and T-Mobile networks, two of the best and fastest networks in the U.S.
These networks span both types of cellular technologies used in the U.S., which is great if you want to bring your own phone to the service. Though it does offer unlimited plans, they’re expensive compared to other carriers. US Mobile’s value lies in its customization, you only pay for what you use. This approach can save usage-conscious customers a lot of money compared to an unlimited everything plan from a Big Four carrier. If, for example, you only want unlimited texting, it costs just $9 a month.
You can also always add minutes, texts or data onto your account, should your needs change. The main drawbacks of US Mobile are that only one line per plan is allowed, and there aren’t any discounts available for families.Best Cell Phone Provider for Talk & Text. If you have a basic phone without data capabilities, Cricket Wireless’ inexpensive talk-and-text plan may be a good fit for you. It allows you to stay in touch via voice calls and text without paying extra for data service you don't want.Cricket Wireless is a prepaid carrier that's owned and operated by AT&T, and it uses its parent company’s extensive cellular network.
The prepaid provider offers five plans ranging from $25 to $60 per month: a talk-and-text-only plan, a 3GB plan, a 5GB plan and two unlimited-data plans. The talk-and-text plan, which offers unlimited minutes and texts but no data access, is the cheapest option. You can combine lines on different plans under the same account to fit your family’s needs. So, for example, a family of four could add two lines of Unlimited Extra, a line with 5GB of high-speed data and a talk-and-text line.Cricket is generally a good value, with prices on a par with those of other carrier-owned prepaid services and much lower than the prices of similar plans on its parent network. Cricket offers group discounts and a $5-per-month autopay discount on plans starting at the $40 tier.
The carrier often features new-customer promotions, such as discounted or free smartphones when you switch from another carrier.The biggest downside of Cricket’s service is the data-speed caps. The Unlimited plan caps download speeds at 3 Mbps, while all other plans cap download speeds at 8 Mbps, up to the data allotment. But overall, Cricket is one of the best choices for plans with little or no data access.Why Trust UsOur goal is to help you find the best cell phone plan for the least amount of money. To that end, we spent over 60 hours researching service providers’ offerings and comparing them side by side.All our data is collected from reliable sources, including the providers’ public information and studies by independent reporting agencies.
We spoke with Doug King from RootMetrics and representatives from three of the Big Four mobile networks, including Allan Samson, the senior vice president of customer acquisition for.How We Tested Cell Phone CompaniesWe’ve kept track of the ever-changing landscape of cellular plans for 12 years. We started with a list of 45 companies and quickly narrowed it to 15 services based on the availability of unlimited data plans. We performed in-depth research into these 15 companies, judging their networks, plans and extras. As part of our research, we combed through the companies’ websites, read all the fine print, chatted with industry experts and referenced studies conducted by independent reporting agencies like Ookla, RootMetrics, OpenSignal, Consumer Reports, J.D. Power and our sister site Tom’s Guide.The network is the most important part of your plan – all the data in the world won’t help you without a signal. As such, we weighted each carrier’s coverage, reliability and speed scores more heavily than other metrics.Price is also an important factor.
Mobile Phone Individual Plans Comparison
To embrace the full spectrum of the wireless providers’ offerings, we evaluated each one’s top-tier unlimited plan and cheapest budget plan. We compared plan prices for individuals and families and considered what you get for that price, noting things like high-speed data threshold and hotspot allowance.
Finally, we looked at smaller things like the selection of phones you can buy from the provider, whether it lets you add a tablet or wearable to your plan, and how many lines you can add on a single plan.How to Choose a Cell Phone ProviderThere are dozens of cell phone companies to choose from, and with fierce competition, you’re spoiled for choice. We narrowed down our recommendations to widely available services that offer unlimited data plans, but there are a lot of great options that don’t fit these parameters, including. A few others do fit within our parameters but didn’t make the cut, including, and.PriceCell phone plan prices vary depending on the amount of data and number of lines you add. An individual line costs between $30 to $60 for a limited-data plan or $60-$90 for an unlimited plan with mobile hotspot tethering. Family plans with four lines can cost $150 to $220 for unlimited or $115 to $150 for limited-data. In many cases, however, family unlimited plans are a better value, as many carriers offer discounts for multiple lines.Big Four Vs. MVNOVerizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint and are the only providers that operate their own networks.
These (excluding U.S. Cellular, which is a regional provider) are known as the Big Four. All other cell phone providers in the U.S. Are Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). MVNOs use the network infrastructure of one of the Big Four carriers and piggyback on its service.Big Four companies are more expensive but usually include more features and extras in their plans.
For example, Verizon Wireless’s $90 unlimited plan includes 15GB of mobile hotspot tethering, while Page Plus Cellular, which uses Verizon’s network, doesn’t offer any mobile hotspot usage with its highest-tier plan. MVNOs tend to be prepaid services that cater to budget shoppers, offering cheaper plans and device options than the Big Four. Big Four direct customers get priority when networks are congested, whereas MVNO customers may see slower speeds.Check Your AreaThough Verizon Wireless has the best-performing network across the U.S., it may not be the best option in every part of the country.