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Verizon vs. Google Fi: Are Fi's features worth it?
While Verizon's data-heavy unlimited plans make sense for some heavy users, lighter users could save with one of Google Fi's plans
Whether you’re looking for international data or just want tight Pixel phone integration, Google Fi is an appealing carrier. If you need a lot of data, however, Verizon starts to make a lot more sense. With no cap on its plans, you don’t need to worry about your data being slowed due to heavy usage. Both plans feature multiline discounts, so if you’re bringing the family along, you can get some extra savings. Keep in mind, though, that all members need to be on the same plan with Google Fi, while Verizon customers can mix and match plans to fit individual needs.
Best Ultra Mobile plans in 2024
Ultra Mobile is a prepaid carrier with a focus on international features and even offers support in English, Spanish, and Mandarin
Ultra Mobile is a prepaid carrier with a focus on international calling and multi-month savings. Ultra Mobile includes free calls and texts to 90 international destinations, including China and India. Ultra Mobile even offers customer support in English, Spanish, and Mandarin, making it a great fit for those that have recently moved to the U.S. that don’t want to try to troubleshoot problems in a second language.
AT&T vs. T-Mobile: Which is the best unlimited carrier for you?
T-Mobile stands out for its coverage and pricing, but AT&T offers excellent international features
AT&T has been trimming its plans down to the basics with the removal of extras like streaming services, and a focus on data and international features. AT&T offers five plans, four offering unlimited data. The four unlimited plans also support full 5G access and unlimited talk, text, and data in Mexico and Canada. T-Mobile, by comparison, has many plans, though there's a lot of overlap. For the most part, T-Mobile's most interesting plans are its Go5G plans; its two most expensive plans focus on delivering regular phone upgrades.
Best Verizon plans in 2024
Verizon offers excellent coverage and a ton of 5G data with its best plans, but you probably don't need to get the top plan
Verizon is a popular carrier thanks to years of excellent coverage, and the best Verizon plans give you plenty of data to take advantage of the network wherever you go.
Cricket’s new multi-month plans offer big savings for prepaid fans
Pay-in-advance savings let you lock a deal for up to 12 months at a time
Prepaid phone plans offer the potential for savings and flexibility, making them a desirable alternative to traditional postpaid plans for a lot of smartphone users. But where's the in-between for people who both want to save money, and are OK with locking into a slightly longer-term contract? Cricket Wireless is introducing some new multi-month prepaid plan offerings that sound like they're just perfect for this specific nice.
What's the difference between throttling and network prioritization?
Providers can throttle or prioritize data. Here's how each affects you
No one likes it when their iPhone or Android phone data slows down. Provider decisions typically cause this. It's usually because some part of your plan or activity triggers a response that slows down your data speeds. That means downloads take longer, websites don't load as well, and some apps or online games may become unplayable. That's not great, and it can happen in any unlimited plan, regardless of how promising the language is.
MobileX MVNO review: It's all in the app
MobileX is an MVNO on Verizon's network that predicts your usage to build the perfect plan for your needs.
If you’re shopping for phone service, it can feel like every carrier quietly pushes customers toward its pricier plans whether that’s through promotions on new phones or by tempting customers with features they can’t fully utilize. MobileX feels different from any other carrier I’ve used; there’s a trial period designed to help you understand how much data you actually need, and an app that’s both clean and useful. Once you’re up and running, MobileX works like any other Verizon-based MVNO, but the app makes the service feel unique with fine controls over how you use your data, and how much of it you’re actually using.
Don't pay for data you don't use! Get the Goldilocks of mobile data plans, designed to fit just right
This article is sponsored by Ting Mobile
Summer may be halfway over, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had in the sun before autumn comes our way. As you embark on epic adventures away from home, we’ve partnered up with Ting Mobile to answer the question: How much data do I need for summertime?
Today AT&T announced its refreshed DataConnect plans, now with extra 5G. While that's nice, the big news is that they're considerably less expensive than they used to be. Customers looking to AT&T for a dedicated connection on a mobile-equipped tablet, laptop, or hotspot might want to check them out.
HMD, maker of Nokia phones, introduces a global data-roaming SIM card (Updated)
HMD Connect app pops up on the Play Store early, spoils some details
Read update
- HMD Connect is now official (in beta, at least), bringing with it those details we were anticipating on pricing and availability.
HMD Global is the manufacturer behind the Nokia brand revival and has created a plethora of well-received Android smartphones ever since that Windows Phone bet didn't work out. With Nokia re-established, the company seems to be searching for the next frontier, and it looks like it wants to start an additional business as a mobile operator. An "HMD Connect" app has silently appeared on the Play Store, and judging from the description and the listing's images, the Finnish company wants to focus its effort on providing data-only plans to those who travel a lot internationally.
T-Mobile is a bit strange in that it has two prepaid branches: T-Mobile prepaid and the newly-renamed Metro by T-Mobile. Alongside its name change, Metro introduced two new plans with unlimited LTE at $50 and $60. T-Mobile has just added a new prepaid $50/month unlimited LTE plan of its own, though it doesn't seem quite as appealing as Metro's.
From time to time, Spotify will ask its users about various things relating to the service. I had personally been putting off a survey asking for my thoughts on the home screen for a couple of days. However, a reader recently received a much more interesting survey question: whether a data-only mobile plan by Spotify would be something he/she would be interested in.
After years of prodding from T-Mobile and Sprint, Verizon finally started offering unlimited data plans again, which in turn caused AT&T to give up its petty Monopoly game and offer its own unlimited plan to everyone, not just DirecTV customers. But when the dust settled, AT&T was still offering the most expensive unlimited data in the country, and consumer advocates (including this very site) were quick to point out that it was a bad deal. Today the carrier is adjusting its primary data plan with a lower price and included tethered data, and adding a cheaper option for good measure. The new plans will be offered starting this Thursday, March 2nd.
Unlimited smartphone data is back! Roll out the barrels, re-download Netflix, and disable all those "Wi-Fi only" settings options, happy days are here again. But don't throw away your data meter just yet: the new batch of unlimited data plans from American carriers isn't what it used to be. A lack of limits now comes with an asterisk, like your favorite sports star "enhancing" his performance. So the question is no longer, "which mobile unlimited plan is the best?" Instead, it's "which carrier is going to put the least amount of petty restrictions on my so-called unlimited data?"
Sprint has unlimited data. T-Mobile has unlimited data. AT&T has unlimited data. True, all of these offerings have limits on unlimited, like T-Mo's extra charges for HD video and tethering and how AT&T will only give you unlimited data if you also pay for a bloated DirecTV contract. But Verizon's staunch refusal to allow customers access to the unlimited data spigot, not to mention pushing grandfathered unlimited data customers away, has been a big point in favor of its competitors. Verizon feels so insecure about its lack of unlimited plans that its advertising tries to tell customers why unlimited data sucks.
The times they are a-changing. A few years ago Verizon infamously stabbed a dagger in the back of Google Wallet in favor of its own carrier-partnered mobile payment system, Isis. Now Wallet is more or less gone, Isis has been rebranded (thanks to, well, ISIS) as Softcard, Google has bought up its technology, and Verizon would really like you to consider using Wallet’s spiritual successor, Android Pay. In other news, my spec script for a soap opera based on the machinations of the US mobile industry still hasn’t been optioned.
Let's say that you're an advertiser, and you just paid six figures for a professionally developed mobile game. We'll call it "Flappy Curd," on the assumption that you are being contracted by a dairy consortium. Your game is a smash hit, winning rave reviews and racking up millions of downloads. But one crucial segment of the market is under-exposed: Verizon Wireless customers. That's because people on Verizon are spending so much money on data plans that if they download Flappy Curd (a 1.2GB game), they can't look at photos on Facebook for the rest of the month. What's a dedicated advertising manager to do?
Last month AT&T announced plans to raise the price of its grandfathered unlimited data plan by $5. Starting next month, those customers will pay slightly more than what new subscribers fork over for 2GB of data.
AT&T, a company with a reputation for evil such that placing their logo inside a Death Star has always seemed genuinely appropriate, has announced some changes to pricing on its mobile data plans today. While some of those changes are genuinely good if you're a subscriber with a large data bucket or have some pretty particular usage habits, many new customers can expect to pay $5-10 more a month under the new structure, which AT&T of course claims is a totally innocuous attempt to "simplify" things for customers.
Quick poll, Verizon customers: what's the one thing you want from America's most-hated (but admittedly most reliable) wireless carrier? OK, now those who are clamoring for phones with unlockable bootloaders, sit down - everyone left standing wants unlimited data. But you shouldn't, at least not according to Verizon shill Jack Gold.