This $45 plan embarrassed my $100/month “premium” service.
For a long time, we’ve all trusted that we were getting the best cell phone service by paying for AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon’s postpaid plans. Which is usually true. On those postpaid plans, you are getting higher data allotments and priority on the towers above all other plans from prepaid and MVNO carriers. But that’s not really true anymore.
Recently, all of the MVNOs that offer Verizon’s network on their plans have upgraded their plans to be truly unlimited high-speed data. Some are offering high-speed only on Verizon’s Ultra Wideband networks, while others – like Visible – are now offering unlimited high-speed data period. Keep in mind that Visible and Total Wireless are both directly owned by Verizon, so they do get an unfair advantage over some other MVNOs.
Additionally, US Mobile recently announced unlimited high-speed data on its AT&T network, with the same priority data level as AT&T’s postpaid plans. I have no idea how they were able to negotiate that plan with AT&T, but it’s an incredible deal. US Mobile is offering this for $44/month, while Visible’s plan is $45/month.
So why would you ever pay $90 or more per month to Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile?
Now’s the time to ditch the three major carriers
As someone who does a lot of traveling, both internationally and domestically, having unlimited high-speed data is very important to me. There are months where I barely use 10GB and others where I’ll use well over 100GB. In fact, in January, when I was at CES, I used over 220GB that month. That was primarily because the WiFi at CES sucks, as well as the WiFi at my hotel. So I was uploading pictures, videos and even streaming videos on mobile data for a week. When US Mobile announced its new Dark Star Unlimited Premium plan, it got my attention.
I’ve long avoided AT&T because their network is just not great in my area. In fact, I tested it just last year, and there were so many dead spots, as well as areas that were very slow. However, that is not the case now. I’m getting 300Mbps at home. So that made me make the switch from Verizon’s Unlimited Ultimate plan to US Mobile, which is less than half the price.
US Mobile’s Dark Star Unlimited Premium plan offers unlimited high-speed data, 100GB of high-speed hotspot data (100GB of 8Mbps after, and unlimited at 600Kbps after that), along with up to 20GB of international data. That was enough to get me to switch. But that’s not all that US Mobile has to offer.
Lately, US Mobile has been sounding more and more like what T-Mobile used to be: a disruptor. US Mobile allows you to switch networks whenever you want. As US Mobile does have plans for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, if one isn’t great in your area, you can quickly switch over to another network. This takes just a few minutes to accomplish, which is really incredible. You might remember, Google Fi tried doing this years ago. Though it was automatic. However, Google Fi was only using T-Mobile, Spring and US Cellular – which T-Mobile now owns Sprint and US Cellular, effectively making Google Fi a single-carrier MVNO.
On top of that, US Mobile also has multi-network in beta right now. Effectively giving you dual-SIM while paying for only a single line.
So why would you stick with AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon? There’s really no reason to do it. Sure, they offer other perks that you might find useful, like Apple TV+, Netflix, Hulu, etc., but with the savings, you can pay for those yourself. And likely save some money still.
Visible also added a new Plus Pro plan
Visible also recently announced a new plan to its offerings, which is called Plus Pro. A weird name, but when you know the names of their other plans, it makes sense. This new plan will cost you $45 per month, so a dollar more than US Mobile. But with this plan, you get unlimited premium data on all of Verizon’s networks – mmWave, C-Band, Sub-6 5G, and LTE. You also get unlimited hotspot at around 24Mbps, and unlimited talk and text to Mexico and Canada, and unlimited talk, text and data while in Mexico and Canada, and Smartwatch service is included (but limited to Apple Watch only, still).
That’s just some of the perks. And it’s honestly even better than what Verizon offers. The closest plan to this would be Unlimited Ultimate. Which offers unlimited premium data, along with 60GB of premium mobile hotspot data. Now, Verizon’s hotspot data will be faster than Visible’s because Visible does cap it at around 24Mbps. But it is still unlimited, and 24Mbps is still very usable. The major advantage Verizon has? Discounted phones when it’s time to upgrade. However, this plan is $90/month with autopay or $100/month without. Over a year, you could save $540 by using Visible, and that’s not counting the taxes and fees that you have to pay on top of that monthly plan at Visible. Which can almost buy you a new phone every year. It definitely could, every two years.
MVNOs customer service is sometimes lacking
A big reason to stick with the big three carriers is going to be the customer service. With MVNOs the customer service is lacking sometimes. Having used Google Fi, Visible, and US Mobile, I can agree that some are really hard to get in touch with, especially Google Fi. However, Visible and US Mobile are much better, and Visible has greatly improved over the last few years.
As a customer of US Mobile now, I’ve paid a lot more attention to them versus some of the other MVNOs, and something I’ve noticed is how active the company is on its subreddit, r/USMobile. Particularly the CEO. He is quite often replying to customers, and posting updates to its service. In fact, he posted the announcement about the company’s Pixel 9 and Pixel 9a promo over on Reddit himself. That’s the type of dedication you don’t normally see from CEO’s of carriers, a little bit more with MVNOs, but not quite on this level. Additionally, whenever I’ve needed to contact their customer service, it’s been a breeze.
Why stick with T-Mobile, AT&T or Verizon?
These days, I’m really struggling to think of reasons why anyone should stick with the big three. The MVNO carriers have gotten so good over the past year or so. Especially those that I’ve been naming throughout this article. Which is leading to others match these changes, so they can compete.
In fact, US Mobile offers better plans than AT&T. Currently, AT&T’s max hotspot option is 60GB of hotspot data per month on its Unlimtied Premium PL plan. US Mobile offers 100GB at max speeds, then another 100GB at 8Mbps before being really throttled into the ground. That plan from AT&T, by the way? $85.99 per month for one line. Or as low as $50.99 per month, per line when you have 4 lines or more.
In a time where, many economists are expecting a recession, it’s a good idea to try and save some money where you can. And this is one area that you can do that, without really changing your lifestyle. I did. I moved my main line over to US Mobile, and have a second line I use for review units, now paying less for both lines, than I did for one line at Verizon. And what shocked me the most was, the much better speeds versus Verizon, in my area.
2025-04-12 15:07:38