I'm a geek. I admit it. I've worked in the tech field forever and simply love technology. And consumer cellular tech, don't even get me started. I read and comb through new phones and cellular plans as a leisure activity. As such, I thought I’d pass along a bit of info in the hope it might be valuable to someone shopping cellular plans and looking for an inexpensive option. Oh, and as an FYI, I did not offer anything in this thread associated to AT&T because I personally have had issues with their service and will not longer consider them when looking for cellular.

Please Note: This is not a thread to hate on particular carriers, or to tell me your corporate rate through work is much cheaper. This thread is about discussing these two consumer options that are available to everyone.

First off, like so many things in life today, big cellular carriers are starting to realize their marketing budgets and fixed/variable costs are generating plan costs that many people are simply starting to balk at. As a result, new 'virtual' cellular companies have entered the market. These companies subscribe service on one of the big three networks (T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T), but have no physical locations and very limited advertising budgets. As such, they can offer up plans at highly reduced rates over the big three market giants. Here's two options I've found to be particularly interesting.

If your area is best served by T-Mobile towers...Mint Mobile

Mint Mobile is privately owned, with one of the key owners being Ryan Reynolds (that’s Mr. Deadpool to you ). Plans start at $15/month for 4gb of data and go up to $30/month for their unlimited plan, and have access to 5G and allow for hot spots. Note, there are a couple fees not included in these plan amounts that vary by the user’s geographic location. My new Mint Mobile account actually costs me $17.02/month for 4gb all in. Different from some carriers, if you exceed your data allotment, Mint doesn't simply shut you off. Instead, you have slowed data through the remainder of the current month, but no additional cost. Mint offers the option of initially subscribing for 3 months as a trial, which is convenient to try out the service. Mint also offers a referral program where you can lower your cellphone bill by bringing new customers onto the platform. (More on the topic of referrals at the end of the thread.) You can read more about Mint’s plans at Mint Mobile.

If your area is best served by Verizon towers...Visible Mobile

Visible Mobile is fully owned by Verizon Wireless. Visible is simple...one plan...$40/month for unlimited talk/text/data on the Verizon network. You have access to 5G and hot spot functionality. Visible also just started something new called "Party Pay" where you can start your own group of four or more lines with friends or family, or you can join an existing group of people with four or more lines, and lower your plan cost to $25/month as a member of the group. Since Verizon just opened this up to an unlimited number of users per group, everyone should be able to find a large group they can join without concern about people leaving the group, the number of total lines dropping beneath four, and their monthly plan costs increasing as a result. An additional benefit of ‘groups’, if you start your own group, every time someone joins, you as the group owner get one month of service for $5/month. Visible allows you to bank 12 referral credits per year meaning you as a group owner could pay $60/year for your cellular service, assuming you could find 12 new members every year to join. There's even a Sub-Reddit designed to help people find Visible groups to join. I’m going to include a video below that offers additional info on both Visible Wireless and “groups”. You can also read more about this service at Visible Wireless.



Did you catch the trend or changing of paradigm in here? Referrals. That’s the direction the market is moving. Rather than spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising, companies are moving to these virtual, online, options that are heavily using internal incentives to have their current user base bring in new subscribers. I truly believe this is where the ‘consumer’ market is going, and we’re going to see more and more users peel off the big three cellular giants for these low cost, value, options.

Again, I hope this info was helpful for someone looking to open a new account or move an existing account to a lower cost option.

I am regretting my recent switch from Verizon to AT&T. I regularly get stuck with no Internet and even have to drive a few blocks away to get another signal or continue using my navigation. But I'm on a five person family plan and none of the others use their phones for more than occasional talk/text/Internet. I use mine every minute of the day for work. But I'm stuck for another 29 months.

It's clear these low frills low buck plans are having an effect, as is the long term moronic programs at the big 3/4 of giving free phones and discounts for people who shuffle at the end of the plan vs finding a way to incentivize existing customers to stay.

I've switched carriers every so often for freebees that if offered by the existing carrier would have kept me on.

Absurd that ATT would want to disconnect someone with 4 phones, $200 a month full service plans that has an excellent credit and pays via electronic auto pay (ie current) to give the whole magilla to someone from Tmobile who doesn't generate the same revenue that they lost from me...

Stupidity reigns in the marketing departments of cell phone companies.

At least this year ATT has decided to give incentives to existing customers, so I might stay...

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
....as is the long term moronic programs at the big 3/4 of giving free phones and discounts for people who shuffle at the end of the plan vs finding a way to incentivize existing customers to stay.

"Family" or multi-line plans" have been the marketing hook for the big three to keep people for some time, but even those plans have now gotten expensive, and people are starting to notice. I had a four line family plan on T-Mobile that cost ~$125/month. Since no one on that plan was burning north of 4gb of data a month, putting all four users on their own basic Mint Mobile plans (riding the same network so service is the same) now costs ~$68. Save ~$50/month and see no difference in service? Yeah I'll take that. And the savings really add up if you are a single line subscriber. A T-Mobile single line Magenta plan currently runs $70/month, which in most cases can be replaced by a Mint Mobile plan costing ~$17/month. Again, that's a savings of ~$53/month ($636/annually) on a single line.

I truly believe the only thing slowing more users from switching to plans like these is simply a lack of knowledge about their options.

I don't know if the OP considered the reseller I use, Ting Mobile but I have been very happy with their service and pricing for a while now. I have been paying about $25/mo. for two lines and a hot spot device (this is $25 total, not "per line"). They recently rolled out "plans" rather than charging based strictly on usage with no pre-paid part, I am hoping this results in an even lower monthly aggregate bill (but I'm not counting on it). Thanks to the OP for options should the price go up.

I've been on AT&T for years based on a corporate price that inched up to $115 for 9 or 12 GB. I switched to T-mobile this January of 2021 as I was looking for service when I go overseas and AT&T plans are pretty expensive. I get unlimited with T-Mobile for $70. Shoot, that was a lot of money I pissed away.

I started to look at mint but it looks like it's a wash as their price doesn't include everything.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
I don't know if the OP considered the reseller I use, Ting Mobile but I have been very happy with their service and pricing for a while now. I have been paying about $25/mo. for two lines and a hot spot device (this is $25 total, not "per line"). They recently rolled out "plans" rather than charging based strictly on usage with no pre-paid part, I am hoping this results in an even lower monthly aggregate bill (but I'm not counting on it). Thanks to the OP for options should the price go up.

Absolutely I've looked at Ting (and many others) over the past year. If you do an apples to apples comparison of Ting's basic 'FLEX' plan ($10/month + $5/gb x 4gb = ~$30) to Mint's basic plan of $15/month/4gb = ~$17/month, the difference become obvious. I think Ting (who rides on both T-Mobile and Verizon networks depending on your location) is an option if you don't use much data. But for most people, the 4gb limit of Mint's plan accommodates the vast majority of subscribers. And the $25/month unlimited Visible plan is a smoking deal for people who tear through a bunch of data monthly.

This thread really wasn't meant to be me suggesting that the two options I discussed were the only viable options available out there, but rather, they appear to be plans that can/will accommodate the vast majority of consumer cellular user needs. For example, V-tail has his phones on Spectrum Wireless (rides the Verizon network) which reaps him a bill of $14/month/for 1gb of data. Obviously, if you stay under 1gb of data a month, that's a smoking deal. Unfortunately for me, Spectrum would not allow me to bring my own phone to the service, and I didn't want to buy a new phone just yet to accommodate them.

Good timing on this thread. Currently with Verizon on a two line shared 2GB plan for $84/mo, we're looking to add a line and see what minimal data plans are available on the Verizon network.

Big deal thanks for the refresher. Did you happen to look into which carriers offer reasonable overseas rates for those of us who travel (eventually..)

I've been using AT&T prepaid for about 5 years and been pretty happy with it; with auto-pay, I'm paying $40/month for unlimited calls/texts and 8GB data that rolls over whatevers unused to the next month; also includes hotspot.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Did you happen to look into which carriers offer reasonable overseas rates for those of us who travel (eventually..)

Not really. Most of these low cost plans offer the option to 'add' overseas calling/data for an additional fee when you need it. If you travel a lot, I'd imagine those additional fees could/would probably negate the advantage of the low plan cost. Again, these low cost plans meet the needs of a majority of consumer cellular users, but not all of them. In your case, I think you'd need to do a calculation of your own to know how you'd fair.

bigdeal

when you say you had issues with the ATT service were you referring to customer service issues or actual cell service issues?

quote:

Originally posted by straightshooter01:
bigdeal

when you say you had issues with the ATT service were you referring to customer service issues or actual cell service issues?

Both. When I had an ATT account 'any' issue became a continual debate with their tech support over what the problem was and what the solution for it was. One thing was always certain though, it was never ATT's fault. Second, I had a lot, and I mean a lot, of service dropouts throughout the Central Florida area. This is not an area of the country that you'd think would suffer from service drops, but apparently it was. Everytime I spoke with ATT support they acted as though I drove through or ended up in one of the only areas in Florida where their service didn't reach. Yeah, right. Once on T-Mobile, all these issues disappeared. I also had DirectTV Online prior to its purchase by ATT. Really liked it. Then ATT got involved, the price went up and service and channel selection went down. Yep, I eventually cancelled that too. IMO, ATT is the technology demon that infects and then kills tech companies.

Interesting. I'm over 70 and carry a flip-phone for convenience (not for business), no need for a smart-ass phone, I have internet connection at my home for when I want to do anything on-line. Texts annoy me, and my grandchildren have learned that if they want to communicate with old Grampa they need to light up my phone with their voices, not a bunch of emoji crap.

Over the past 25 years I have subsidized Verizon Wireless with monthly payments far in excess of any service I have received.

See y'all later, I'm going shopping.

Being a low volume user, I've been a happy TracFone customer for the last 5 years.

For $125 I get 365 days of service, 1500 minutes, 1500 texts, and 1.5GB Data. For the $10 a month it works for me. Service is on the Verizon network.

Every once and a while I'll buy a data or text card to top off. $5 for 2000 texts. $10 for 1.5GB of data, pricey but I don't use much. Look for those bonus codes.

I use unlocked Motorola phones and probably buy a new one every 2 or 3 years.

Like I said, "it works for me".

Even if you had to buy your phones outright, the plans you mention would be better deals for many people.

I needed two new phones and the deal I set up though Verizon post paid got me two new 256GB iPhone 12 Pros; 5 unlimited lines two with 15GB each of hotspot; Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN for 12 months; and 3 months of Sony Play+ all for $33 per line per month for 24 months including the add on fees.

5 lines may seem like an outlier, but a family of 3 could put one set of grandparent on for the same result.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Even if you had to buy your phones outright, the plans you mention would be better deals for many people.

I needed two new phones and the deal I set up though Verizon post paid got me two new 256GB iPhone 12 Pros; 5 unlimited lines two with 15GB each of hotspot; Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN for 12 months; and 3 months of Sony Play+ all for $33 per line per month for 24 months including the add on fees.

5 lines may seem like an outlier, but a family of 3 could put one set of grandparent on for the same result.

You offer up a great example of the old paradigm of hooking and keeping customers. Let's review for a moment what Verizon actually did for you.

* - 2 iPhone Pro's - Verizon obviously scores these for way less than you or I could buy them, but they 'are' giving you some value with this piece of the deal. However, these phones are unquestionably locked to Verizon's network for the duration of your initial contract preventing you from taking advantage of any future cellular options.
** - Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN package for 12 months and Sony Play+ for 3 months- Costs Verizon nothing through their corporate partners relationship. Just doing marketing for other companies which I'm sure they get paid for. In the long run, my bet is you cancel virtually all of these packages when the free trials expire. And any you do keep, I guarantee you Verizon gets a kick back on. So more money in their pocket for offering you a 'freebie'.
*** - $33/month/24 months - Again, that means you're locked to Verizon for the next two years regardless what opportunities might present themselves to you. After the two year initial plan term, Verizon will raise your rates significantly if history is any indicator of how they will behave in the future.

I'm not in any way attempting to malign your choice of carrier or packages. I'm just trying to demonstrate how marketing and perception drives people to the big three carriers where customers 'think' they're scoring huge perks, when in essence, they're just being cross marketed partner programs and products making the cellular carrier more money.

Another interesting part of the current paradigm shift in cellular is the way cellphones are financed. Everybody knows the "0% financing for x number of months" game. That financing used to be through the cellular carrier allowing the carrier to 'lock' your new phone to their network for the duration of the financing or cellular contract term. Now with many of these new cellular providers like Mint and Visible, these carriers advertise the availability of new phones on their websites, but the 0% financing for those phones is primarily with Affirm Financial (an outside finance company). Moving to this arrangement means phones are no longer locked to the cellular carrier and can be moved from carrier to carrier as the owner/user sees fit. I personally see this as being a huge move in the right direction for the customer as it removes any roadblocks to them taking advantage of future cellular deals as they become available. If I bought the phone and am paying for it, I should get to use it wherever I deem appropriate.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bigdeal,

I am currently on Verizon. I am trying to think of a reason why i wouldn't switch to Visible. I see they limit 5g to 200mbps, but my current phone isn't even 5g capable.

Unlimited everything for $40 and the same Verizon network?

Seems like a no brainer.

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
I am currently on Verizon. I am trying to think of a reason why i wouldn't switch to Visible. I see they limit 5g to 200mbps, but my current phone isn't even 5g capable.

Unlimited everything for $40 and the same Verizon network?

Seems like a no brainer.

Its actually $25/month for their plan if you join a group. If you opt to move to Visible, let me know and I'll provide you with a couple large groups you could join to get that reduced rate. And no, none of those groups belong to me.

And Verizon 5G is miles away from being readily available for a majority of the country, so that wouldn't be a deciding factor for me personally.