Best / Affordable Data Plan for Mobile Phone?

Ban Bot

Senior member
Jun 1, 2010
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Background: I have never owned a mobile phone so I am a mobile phone newb. I live in the Seattle area.

Anyways, it seems some plans (e.g. T-Mobile) you can get unlimited data, but only a set amount depending on the plan (e.g. 5GB) at fast speeds and anything over and above at slower speeds. Are the slower speeds painfully slow?

While prices continue to drop we are cheap skates ($20 for our landline with long distance, caller ID, voice mail, call waiting) so I am curious how "good" the prices are for a mobile plan with a good data package. I tend to use a lot of bandwidth at home (streaming movies, working on websites, gaming, etc.) When we go mobile we may likely drop the land line and go with 2 phones for me and the misses.
 

paperwastage

Golden Member
May 25, 2010
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T-mobile's $30 prepaid plan includes unlimited text, 100 minutes, 5GB data @ full speed. After 5GB, you get throttled to around 10-50 kBytes/s, which is slow (enough for email, browsing, but harder to load google maps / stream music)

Seattle's coverage: http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/T-Mobile/lte_310260#q=Seattle,+WA,+USA|coverage

a Moto G LTE ($220+tax) with this plan is good (could go cheaper on phone, but probably no LTE)

you could also do PAYG (pay $100 credit that expires in 1 year, $0.10/min), or a family plan if you want unlimited minutes ($80/month+tax for 2 lines, unlimited text/talk, 1GB data each line and throttle after that)




otherwise, AT&T resellers offers relatively similar data plans. Their network is generally better than T-mobile's (i.e. better coverage in rural areas, more LTE coverage)

(Straighttalk, AIOWireless, Cricket), ~ $35-$45 for unlimited text/talk + 500MB data to 3GB data, with throttle after as well (~16kBytes/s)



Ting (on sprint's network) offers pay as you use (min/txt/data) rates:
https://ting.com/rates
 
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Ban Bot

Senior member
Jun 1, 2010
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Interesting, thanks for the info. T-Mobile and Metro PCS seem to have pretty similar offerings.

Is it pretty standard to throttle or are some carriers still doing firm caps and charging overage?

Anyone in the area able to offer feedback on who has the best throttled speed (real experience)?
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
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T-Mo bought Metro. It's just a prepaid off-label for the same network now. Btw, AT&T just did the same thing to Cricket... if you surf to the homepage of AIO (their former prepaid off-label brand), it redirects to Cricket.

Cricket and GhettoPCS have the same throttle caps and base prices. Cricket chops $5 off monthly for signing up for autopay (which you'd definitely do), not sure if Metro has a similar deal. Metro has a multiple line family discount, Cricket has a referral thing that confuses me a bit (their multiple line discount negates the autopay one, so there's no net benefit for two people). But Cricket/AT&T has the better coverage, if the $30 T-Mo plan isn't enough minutes for you.

The G LTE is definitely the best starter phone for most people.
 
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paperwastage

Golden Member
May 25, 2010
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Is it pretty standard to throttle or are some carriers still doing firm caps and charging overage?

Anyone in the area able to offer feedback on who has the best throttled speed (real experience)?

well, you can choose to port your number and jump to another provider at any time (benefits of no-contract and owning a unlocked fully-compatible GSM/LTE phone)

I've only seen at&t/verizon/sprint postpaid charging data overage... almost every t-mobile/at&t prepaid I've seen just throttles or cuts you off for data
 

Strk

Lifer
Nov 23, 2003
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It's worth noting, depending on where you live, Tmobile plans to shut down MetroPCS within a couple of weeks in certain areas.

Also, does anyone know if Cricket caps the max speed? Aio capped you at 8mpbs or something like that.
 
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desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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I definitely would have gone T-Mobile if it were in my area. The $30 100min/unlimited data looked pretty killer for my needs, and I could have picked any old phone.

But the best/cheapest plan would probably have to be Republic Wireless, which offers a $25 (with tax) unlimited 3g data plan. They also offer the Moto G for a very reasonable $150.
 

AstroManLuca

Lifer
Jun 24, 2004
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I definitely would have gone T-Mobile if it were in my area. The $30 100min/unlimited data looked pretty killer for my needs, and I could have picked any old phone.

But the best/cheapest plan would probably have to be Republic Wireless, which offers a $25 (with tax) unlimited 3g data plan. They also offer the Moto G for a very reasonable $150.

But Republic Wireless requires you to buy one of their phones (can't bring your own) and it's on the Sprint network (which is ass).

I'd rather have a 5 GB cap on T-Mobile than unlimited on Sprint. If you put any amount of effort into connecting to WiFi when you're at home and work, it's unlikely you'll run into problems.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
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Yeah, I wouldn't call Sprint data meaningfully "3G" in any way. T-Mo HSPA kicks its butt in every way... never mind LTE.
 

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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But Republic Wireless requires you to buy one of their phones (can't bring your own) and it's on the Sprint network (which is ass).

I'd rather have a 5 GB cap on T-Mobile than unlimited on Sprint. If you put any amount of effort into connecting to WiFi when you're at home and work, it's unlikely you'll run into problems.

Yeah but data on phones isn't that high a priority for me. I view it in utilitarian terms. 3g on sprint is enough for the important stuff -- finding phone numbers, navigation, some light web surfing to find information.

For streaming video? Kinda sucks. But streaming video isn't important while on the go.
 

AstroManLuca

Lifer
Jun 24, 2004
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Yeah but data on phones isn't that high a priority for me. I view it in utilitarian terms. 3g on sprint is enough for the important stuff -- finding phone numbers, navigation, some light web surfing to find information.

For streaming video? Kinda sucks. But streaming video isn't important while on the go.

All depends on your needs.

In my experience, Sprint's 3G was dog shit even for light use. Granted, I ditched them a couple years ago. But I couldn't even use Google Maps. It wasn't just bandwidth, it was also latency. Loading a single web page could take minutes.

Now, Republic does have a $25/mo plan with unlimited talk and text with slow (Sprint 3G) data, in case T-Mobile's 100 minutes on their $30 plan isn't enough. There's also Cricket, which uses the AT&T network and gives you unlimited talk and text for $35 with 500 MB of high speed data (or 2.5 GB for $45).

Personally I think the advantages of Cricket (bring your own phone, faster data for the first 500 MB) are worth the extra $10 a month over Republic.
 

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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All depends on your needs.

In my experience, Sprint's 3G was dog shit even for light use. Granted, I ditched them a couple years ago. But I couldn't even use Google Maps. It wasn't just bandwidth, it was also latency. Loading a single web page could take minutes.

Now, Republic does have a $25/mo plan with unlimited talk and text with slow (Sprint 3G) data, in case T-Mobile's 100 minutes on their $30 plan isn't enough. There's also Cricket, which uses the AT&T network and gives you unlimited talk and text for $35 with 500 MB of high speed data (or 2.5 GB for $45).

Personally I think the advantages of Cricket (bring your own phone, faster data for the first 500 MB) are worth the extra $10 a month over Republic.

I briefly had 3g (most of the time just keep it on talk/text $10) and it was fast enough to stream audio from google music.

Cricket is actually $40 (just checked website). Republic also has a $40 unlimited high speed plan.

No, you can't BYOD with Republic, but the cost especially of the $10 plan is unbeatable. For day-to-day you can keep the $10 plan and on special occasions like a trip bump it up. Works nicely.
 

ImDonly1

Platinum Member
Dec 17, 2004
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I briefly had 3g (most of the time just keep it on talk/text $10) and it was fast enough to stream audio from google music.

Cricket is actually $40 (just checked website). Republic also has a $40 unlimited high speed plan.

No, you can't BYOD with Republic, but the cost especially of the $10 plan is unbeatable. For day-to-day you can keep the $10 plan and on special occasions like a trip bump it up. Works nicely.

Cricket gives you $5 off each plan if you sign up for auto pay so the plan becomes $35.