Verizon or AT&T for iPhone 5 for Uncle

[blairh]

My uncle wants to leave Sprint and his iPhone 4S for an iPhone 5 with Verizon or AT&T. He's going to Italy this summer and wants to be able to use his new iPhone with a local SIM while abroad.

I know a subsidized Verizon iPhone 5 can be used by default with a GSM SIM. I'm leaning towards having him go with Verizon for this reason alone.

Does anyone know offhand how much the cheapest plan would be for him on Verizon? I tried looking on their site and I'm confused by the results. The lowest price it quoted me was $100 a month without taxes and surcharges and that doesn't seem right.

 

[lordofthereef]

$80/month before taxes and surcharges, assuming no business discounts are applied, looks to be the cheapest plan. That's unlimited calls/texts with 300mb data, no visual voicemail.

AT&T's cheapest option is $60, but you get 450 anytime with rollover, 5000 nights and weekends, and 300mb data, and includes VVM. Unfortunately they will not unlock the phone for you until it's off contract though.

Depending on your uncle's usage, it may be smarter to just buy an unlocked phone either used or straight from Apple to use with AT&T to save money in the long term.

 

[CEmajr]

Don't forget that at $60 on AT&T you get no texting. Paying for each individual text could be extremely expensive.

Opt for the $80 300mb plan if he is a very light data user. Otherwise yes $100 is the lowest plan that gives a decent amount of data.

 

[scaredpoet]

Don't forget that at $60 on AT&T you get no texting. Paying for each individual text could be extremely expensive.

However, if he uses iMessage frequently, then texting becomes a non-issue.

The break-even point between casual per-use texting (20 cents per message) and the unlimited texting plan ($20/month) is 100 texts. If he sends more than 100 non-iMessage texts per month, then it pays to get the unlimited plan. If not, then he's better off without it.

 

[wxman2003]

Does your Uncle get an employer discount? If so, go with the carrier that offers that to his place of work. That can be as much as 20%.

 

[DarwinOSX]

My work discount is 30%.

 

[blairh]

He's retired so no discounts.

He's pretty adamant about using an iPhone 5 and using it unlocked in Europe. But he's paying $70/month with Sprint now. I don't know what his data use per month is. Even if it isn't a ton I wouldn't put him in a 300mb plan.

The huge advantage is that the Verizon phone can be used unlocked in Europe. It blows my mind that such a luxury requires an unlocked purchase with AT&T.

I'll probably have him sign up with Verizon at this point.