I have dealt with all the major carriers. However a little over a year ago I cut all of them out. From here on out it is only MVNOs for me!! Why anyone would still want to deal with the big carriers is beyond me. The only benefit of the big Carriers is if you Actually NEED ”Unlimited” data, NEED 50GB of Hotspot data, or spend months on end in Canada/Mexico or other select foreign countries.
Most people don’t need TRULY Unlimited unless they have no home internet and are trying to use cell service for all their internet needs. The data caps on MVNOs are almost always soft ones so they never cut you off completely you just get throttled if you go over limit. Most all of them have options to add more data in the event that you do go over limit.
Where there is a will there is a way as long as you are willing to do research. People can find an MVNO plan that fits their data needs for fractions of the cost. There are ways around streaming quality caps as well by using a VPN. There are ways to get discounted phones without committing to 24-30 month contracts. Also the savings on MVNO plans usually more than offsets the benefit of that “free” or heavily discounted phone From the big carriers.
I started out with Mint Mobile which is of course is T-Mobile. Great flat rate pricing. They always have promos and they recently increased their soft data caps. Unlimited for $30 a month now includes 40GB of data a month before they throttle. Get 6 months free service if you buy a phone from them. I use Mint now to power my iPad. Only pay $15 a month since I don‘t use more than 5GB on that device.
I am now with Spectrum Mobile (Verizon) for my main line which is the perfect fit for me. I got one whole year of free unlimited service with them. Normally Just 29.99 taxes and fees included. 20GB of data before they throttle, for an extra $10 a month you can upgrade to Unlimited plus which ups the Data cap to 30GB plus unlike most MVNOs this also lets you stream at higher quality. Also they are the only MVNO that I know that also lets you add an Apple Watch also only $10 month also with taxes and fees included. I actually am seeing much better speed and coverage compared to my previous ATT unlimited plan.
Only caveat is that you need Spectrum Home internet or they charge an extra $10 a month per line. Spectrum always has deals on their Home internet pricing. I am currently paying only $19.99 a month for a 300Mbs plan with a 2 year rate lock. BTW no issues with speed I regularly see well over 300Mbs download speeds.
I am saving over $2500 over the next 2 years and even after that will still save hundreds a year compared to my previous setup with AT&T and T-Mobile for home internet.
I also suggest Red Pocket as another good MVNO that offers discounts on new iPhones with dirt cheap plans. You can currently get $100 off instantly plus another $200 back after just 3 months on autopay. Only need to keep a plan with them for a year and then you can have the phone unlocked to use on whatever carrier you want.
I wanted a 13 mini as a second backup phone. Got one new for only $329 after discounts and rebates. Paid only $20 a month for a plan for 3 months autopay. After that I switched it to annual which dropped the price to only $15 a month with 5GB data unlimited talk and text. They also offer one of the most dirt cheap plans available. For $60 a year yes just 5 bucks a month you can get a wireless plan!! Granted it’s limited to 500 minutes of talk, 500 texts, and 500MB of data. That can be great for someone who wants a backup phone for just 17 cents a day.
While you are correct about everything here, the big issue with MVNO’s is what happens when you live in/around/near a large city and need the high-speed bandwidth during peak hours. MVNO’s are throttled when their host network (T-Mo/Vzn/AT&T) are bottlenecked with traffic. Outside of making phone calls and sending SMS, it can become a downright painful 3G (or worse) experience.
I say this as someone who - besides the couple dozen business T-Mobile accounts and one personal T-Mobile account - has several cellphones and maintains a plan on Visible and Google Fi (I run an IT consultancy that does a lot of mobile development, so we’ve got a lot of skin in the game for both devices and services for testing and comms).
I live, and run my business, in the suburbs of a large east coast city. On weekdays between 10am - 6pm I experience bandwidth down throttling several times a week, nearly every week. It‘s consistently bad especially the day after a work holiday (Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc). It makes doing any kind of higher data activity - even just surfing the web - really painful.
If you live in a less population dense location, or you don’t really do any streaming using mobile data, an MVNO is a great economical option. If you stream to mobile devices or take Zoom/FaceTime/Teams video calls on the run, an MVNO may not be the best fit for you.
