My cell phone is in the shop (phone is unlocked, but I’m currently with AT&T), and I bought a Tracfone to use until it’s fixed. (Pretty fancy LG smartphone at Best Buy for $10!)
I also have internet with AT&T, but no cable, and my phone service is separate (I get two separate bills). It’s about $65/month. I don’t mind paying that if I’m getting more than with the $20/month I signed up for with Tracfone. Am I getting more? Is there any advantage to being with a major carrier?
I use my phone for calls, texts, emails, a little web surfing (not much – I do that on my kindle). I listen to audiobooks but don’t watch TV, listen to music, or play any games. I don’t do any social media – not on FB, Instagram, none of those. I zoom on my computer, not my phone. I have a few simple apps – banking, weather, Fitbit – but those work over wifi.
What am I paying AT&T for? Do I need them?
I know Tracfone & Cricket use the networks of the major carriers.
Major carriers can be financially more attractive when you use a lot of data (heavy streaming…) or a family plan.
For a light internet user such as yourself the advantages of the major carrier are roaming and higher signal priority. Roaming might come into play when you are traveling–the AT&T plan would allow you to use another network in the middle of nowhere where AT&T doesn’t have service. The prepaid plan only allows you to use AT&T towers. And at times of very heavy cellphone usage I believe AT&T gives priority to users of its postpaid plans.
Thanks. I don’t stream at all on my phone. Do it LOTS on my TV. And no family, so no family plan. Also I don’t travel. Geez, I sound like a barrel of laughs, eh?
There are comparison sites where you can compare prepaid providers and input how many phone calls, messages and data and carrier you expect to use in a month:
Major carriers usually get the latest flagship phones, and offer discounts or deals on them. The carriers that are resellers of major carriers’ service often have older, cheaper phones.
If you ever travel internationally, some major carriers allow you to temporarily add international roaming to your plan. But you can also, with some phones, just buy a prepaid sim card in the place you’re traveling and use that while you’re there.
It sounds like those are not things you’d likely care about, but I think they’re what you’re asking about.
I have T-Mobile because I travel domestically, and it tends to be the cheapest of the major carriers (or was last time I checked) and it’s more built for people who buy their own phones.
As has been said, the 3rd party plans are deprioritized. Also the unlimited data is 2G, which is slow.
I’ve been in the habit of buying my unlocked phones from Amazon or Best Buy. I don’t necessarily need the very latest one-- don’t want to spend $1,000. My BB Key2 from Best Buy three years ago was ~$700.
Bingo! Now THAT is a good reason to go with a major carrier.
There may be faster ones, but on that comparison site the plans were all 2G for the unlimited data. It looks like there are plans for fixed amounts of data that are 5G and 4G. There may be fast unlimited plans – I don’t know – but they won’t be so cheap if they exist.
Old Information from years ago: with Verizon if you were with their post paid plan you get some extra towers over their prepaid plan and their resellers. These were non-verizon towers Verizon contracted with to extend service to areas where they had weak/no coverage. IDK if this is still the case, and if others do this.
@PastTense dealt with the major points, and others have addressed many of the others.
Short form, if you’re inside the domestic US, use minimal data and/or are comfortable with slower speeds you’re absolutely fine going with the various pre-paid options. A couple of points not addressed so far, but are unlikely to be an issue based on your stated needs.
While the lower priority in terms of congestion is normally not a problem, if you’re in a crowded venue (concert, convention center, full hotel on holiday) it’s much more noticeable - service is going to be poor for everyone, but worse on the pre-paid.
You buy your own phones, so almost certainly not a problem, but most carriers offer nice financing and/or trade in options if you’re upgrading, again, since your other thread was all about keeping your old-but-perfect-for-you phone, I reallllly don’t worry about this one.
I bring this up because you specified using your kindle - since they are Wifi only, if you are away from home, remember than almost all pre-pay plans DO NOT SUPPORT tethering, where you can ‘share’ your phone’s internet connectivity with a non-cellular device. Major carrier plans (certainly including T-Mobile who I used to work for) do, although the amount and speed vary greatly by plan and carrier.
You say you mostly use calls/texts/emails. If you aren’t sending images (MMS) or files in the emails and texts, you’ll probably be fine. If you’re sharing pics, it can add up surprisingly fast.
But in aggregate, post-paid plans work great for people with heavier internet usage and/or upgrade relatively frequently. They’re often very cost competitive once you’re at the ‘family’ level, with 4+ people on a plan. Years ago, I added my MiL and FiL as well as one of my groomsman and his mother to my plan. I pay @ 140 per month for 6 people with fundamentally unlimited high speed data. By themselves my M and FiL were paying 90, and my friend and his mother were paying @ 70 each. Post-paid plan pricing for singletons is insanely stupid on the whole.
No problem - without knowing your exact monthly data usage, I’d probably advise something like this -
It’s a T-Mobile pre-paid plan (because I’m most familiar with them, but shop around) where you have unlimited Talk and Text, 10G a month of 4G/LTE data which can be shared with mobile hotspot (same 10G pool though) for $40/mo before fees/etc. Saves you probably $10-15 a month over your previously stated bill.
Google Fi is a pretty good reseller (the technical term is Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO). They used to buy bandwidth from both Sprint and T-Mobile and automatically switch to whichever network is best where you are at the moment. Then T-Mobile bought Sprint, so it’s just T-Mobile now.
They have the most sane (and often, though not necessarily, the cheapest): you pay $20/mo for the line, and then $10/gig. And the $10/gig is prorated. If you use a gig and half in a month, you pay $35. The per-gig price maxes out at $60 a month. You get unlimited 4g/LTE/5g data above that - you just don’t pay any more.
And the part that I really like: it’s all just data. They don’t care what you use it for. Tether as much as you want - they don’t care. In fact, they’ll send you a ‘data-only’ SIM for free which you can pop into another device, like an iPad or laptop that supports LTE, and the data just accumulates on your normal account, gets billed at $10/gig, and the $60 max applies to the accumulated data across the devices.
The only downside is that not all phones are compatible. You can check yours here: Google Fi. I guess the other downside is that it’s Google, so who knows when they’re just going to get bored and cancel the whole thing. But if you bring your own phone, you wouldn’t have a contract, so that’s not that big a deal.
I found that Consumer Cellular will never connect my phones (I’ve tried three) with Wi-Fi Calling even though they say the do – many calls to support but no go. I live in a little valley with spotty coverage of all the major networks and many dropped calls. Got tired of having to go outside to use the cell phone.
Best plan I’ve found is one from T-Mobile for $15 a month. It has limited data but I rarely use data anyway. Wi-Fi Calling works without a hitch; no more dropped calls.
If you have an idea how much data you actually use this may be a good option for you. The plans have 2.5GB for $15 or 5.5GB for $25.
My total bill is $17.55 a month including taxes. After the first year they upped me to 3GB per month but I never come close to using it all.
Geez, I sound like a barrel of laughs, eh?