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The US is among the most expensive countries for mobile data plans.

If you live in the US, consider contracting with a foreign provider!

US Mobile has updated their plans so there are really only two tiers

• Unlimited Plans from $25-50/month
• Pooled Data Plans

Both are now tax inclusive (about time), have higher throttling speeds when you hit your cap, and appear to have the same cut off point before throttling happens on their VZN and TMO networks.

But they’re arguably a bit more expensive too now, especially if you used to be on a not unlimited plan. What do you think?

The Boost Infinite Unlimited SIM kit will be available to Amazon Prime subscribers at $25 a month for unlimited talk, text and data services. Dish and Amazon did not disclose their financial arrangement

Hey folks, I've been trying out AT&T Postpaid (I know, I know, this is more of a prepaid group). Prior to joining, it was a real paid to estimate what the taxes and fees would be. Well, now that I have that information from my bill, I'm sharing it out.

This sheet shows the monthly charges (2 lines on Starter + 1 on Extra, all with 25% discount from having AT&T Fiber). It also shows the fees breakdown and does a line by line comparison with what AT&T public docs say the fees could be.

Happy to answer any questions.

Red Pocket completely shut off my service without warning for going 6GB over my 10GB "unlimited" plan. They said I was using an unreasonable amount of data, but wouldn't tell how much is "unreasonable". I can't trust a lifeline to a company that will shut off service like that. I'm going to try Visible and see how that works out.

Does anyone have any experience with mint mobile in the USA Northeast?

I know they were acquired by t mobile but I’m currently on AT&T and looking into trying to save a little money.

Simple Mobile led the way in sales in the past quarter. Following behind them is Ultra/Mint Mobile. H2O wireless has the fastest growth.

Important to note: This survey only appears to survey actual independent dealers. So for example, US Mobile which only sells directly to consumers on their website, wouldn’t be eligible for this survey.

So take it with a grain of salt but, are you surprised or does this check out with you?

> Customers that use over 35GB of high-speed data during a billing cycle may have their data speeds temporarily slowed down compared to other customers on the same network when the network is congested

In summary:

• Plans are getting more data. The cheapest $20/month plan goes from 2 GB -> 3 GB and the most expensive $60 plan doesn't get a data bump, but does get a dedicated 20 GB hotspot pool.
• Data Throttling Speeds increase from 128 to 256

No experience with this provider, but seems like a really great rate for low data users who travel into Canada or Mexico

Apple is making a major change to its Apple Card Monthly Installment purchase option for iPhone buyers. Starting in August, Apple says that it will no longer allow customers to purchase SIM-free iPhone models using Apple Card financing. Instead, carrier connection with AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon will be required.

Incredibly expensive to build out a new cell network, and Dish deserves all of the credit in the world for its speed of delivery. Rooting for them, competition is good!

As this community is just getting started, I thought it could be fun to see what people are using today.

I'll go first:

• iPhone 14 Pro
• Using Boost Infinite Early Access Plan @ $25/mo for unlimited (on TMobile Towers)

Overall quite happy with the service. I'm not a heavy data user so I could save a few bucks on a pooled plan for USMobile, but I figured I'd snag the unlimited pricing while it was available to future proof a bit.

Copied from /u/Ethrem on Reddit ---

7/25/2021 - small update to Verizon and ATT

8/6/2021 - removed priority data from Spectrum Mobile

10/29/2021 - Cricket has revamped their plans, updated priority levels. The $60 Unlimited More plan is now prioritized. Red Pocket GSMA no longer has a speed throttle on LTE or 5G. Pure Talk has been reported to not have one anymore either.

11/5/2021 - It seems that some people still have the 75Mbps speed cap on Red Pocket GSMA so YMMV. My own testing over the last month with a GSMA SIM found no such cap as I got speeds consistently in excess of 100 and even 200Mbps.

12/31/2021 - Removed Total Wireless from QCI 8. Nobody has furnished me with any proof of QCI 8 and some people have confirmed that their Total runs slower than their Verizon postpaid which confirms deprioritization.

01/12/2021 - Updated to add Boost Mobile’s ATT plans as deprioritized.

03/24/2022 - Updated to reflect that 5G devices on US Mobile Super LTE and Xfinity Mobile get priority data now.

4/10/2022 - Added SafeLink to ATT’s QCI 9 list.

9/14/2022 - Updated Visible info.

10/28/2022 - Big update, too much to list.

2/26/2023 - Another big update.

3/21/2023 - Xfinity Mobile has added priority data to Unlimited Plus.

4/6/2023 - Updated to reflect that mobileX has priority data on all plans.

This is a complex topic that pops up a lot so I thought that I would organize all of the available info in one place. One of the key differentiating factors between postpaid, prepaid, and MVNO services is data prioritization. Basically carriers manage the congestion on their networks by assigning a different QCI class to different types of traffic. For our purposes, we will only be looking at QCIs 6, 7, 8, and 9 but there are higher priorities that exist for things like phone calls that will be universal across all of a carrier’s plans. Higher numbers are lower priority. An important thing to note is that deprioritization is not a throttle; it only matters when the network is congested. If nobody else is using the network in your area, you’ll get the full speed that can be provided. Your QCI affects not just your speed but your latency on the network. It is not unusual to see priority data with around 20-50ms latency while someone who is deprioritized is getting 100-150ms at the same time despite both plans posting high speed test results because the prioritized traffic gets to go first, just something else to be aware of.

Verizon Verizon only uses two QCIs, 8 and 9. This means you’re either in the fast lane or the slow lane with them.

QCI 8 is assigned to postpaid plans (other than 5G Start and Welcome Unlimited which are deprioritized), Xfinity Mobile’s By The Gig plan, Xfinity Mobile’s Unlimited Plus plan, Xfinity Mobile’s Unlimited Premium plan, mobileX, and TracFone (as well as SafeLink). Additionally, US Mobile’s Warp 5G SIM offers priority data on 5G devices on all plans and Visible+ is QCI 8 until 50GB is used. Verizon has also finally added premium data to their own branded prepaid - 50GB on the top Premium Plus plan.

QCI 9 goes to literally everything else - branded prepaid besides the Premium Plus plan, Visible plans besides Visible+, US Mobile Warp 5G on LTE devices, Mobi, and all of the other prepaid MVNOs that use Verizon’s network will be assigned this QCI class. In addition everyone who uses their data bucket is moved to QCI 9 as well so you end up competing with all of Verizon’s heavy data users. Verizon’s network is spectrum-starved in many areas so its not unusual to see complaints about Verizon’s policies here.

ATT AT&T has shifted their policies a bit. They use 6, 7, 8, and 9 but only 7, 8, and 9 are available for consumer grade plans.

QCI 7 is only on ATT’s postpaid Unlimited Premium plan. This is their top of the line, most expensive, consumer postpaid plan. If you demand the best performance and you’re not eligible for FirstNet or a business plan, this is the plan you want.

QCI 8 is assigned to the majority of ATT’s plans as well as their own branded prepaid (other than the Unlimited plan), the Cricket More plan (their most expensive), and plans offered by H2o, Consumer Cellular, and PureTalk.

QCI 9 is assigned to ATT’s Unlimited prepaid and Unlimited Starter postpaid plans, as well as all plans once their data bucket is exhausted. Unfortunately most AT&T MVNOs are now QCI 9 as well. This includes Red Pocket and Boost. Many that used to be QCI 8 will need to be tested but probably should be assumed to be QCI 9 by default.

T-Mobile T-Mobile uses QCI 6, 7, 8, and 9. They are generally considered to be only a bit behind ATT in their traffic deprioritization policies for MVNOs.

QCI 6 is applied to all of T-Mobile’s postpaid and prepaid plans (except for Essentials) and Google Fi which also has QCI 6 as well. This means if you want the absolute best from T-Mobile, you want to get a plan directly from them. Even their cheap $10 prepaid 1GB Connect plan has priority data.

QCI 7 is applied to T-Mobile’s Essentials plan as well as all MVNOs (besides Google Fi) such as Mint, Metro By T-Mobile, US Mobile GSM LTE, and Tello.

QCI 8 is believed to be for any hotspot usage on a consumer plan.

QCI 9 is for their home internet service (yes, its deprioritized to last network priority) and all plans once their data bucket is exhausted.

I will be doing my best to keep this up to date. Feel free to let me know if I have missed anything or if I should add anything.

I first learned about data priority reading on Coverage Critic and from posts here and elsewhere. If you wish to test your QCI class yourself, you can follow this guide if you have a rooted Android phone.

ust remember that even though a phone might work technologically, some devices still don't work correctly on another provider.