Note the example of Visible and Straight Talk owned by Verizon, where Verizon still gets to keep the business of the price conscious customers, while less informed customers pay higher prices. Another example is Cricket owned by AT&T.
Even with other MVNOs like Boost Mobile, the operating carrier still gets business indirectly as the MVNOs buy bandwidth from the operating carrier.
I signed up our Auntie with Cricket - $25 monthly unlimited cell, data & texting - it was a no brainer.
This isn’t news to many. Relatively lower cost plans have been available for many years. I pay $14/month for my plan. There are lower cost options below $14 on T-mobile, but I wanted Verizon network. The plan also gives me access to additional discounts, such as a 60% discount for Internet and occasional special sale prices for phones, such as being able to get a Galaxy S23 for $200 without contract, earlier this year.
https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones has a good search tool
With a discount plan, can one still download apps, do google searches, get Mapquest directions, etc.? – all the things a smart phone can do? Or is it limited to voice and text??
You can do all the same things.
We have Cricket, four lines for $100, unlimited everything. It didn’t require any activation fee, no “free” phone come-ons. We all have our own phones that we paid for separately. But Cricket does offer iphones and such, just like the big carriers. I’ve not investigated those deals at all.
Now, I wouldn’t recommend Tracfone - we were with that company for over a decade and it finally got too much - customer service beyond incompetent and prices going up, too much hoop-jumping to get the best deal. (Straight Talk is part of this company, and I’ve read similar horror stories.)
Cricket is painless; they send me a text once a month and I pay the bill on their website. When I first switched to Cricket, I had to do a voice call and it was a pleasure.
The kids stream everything, no worries about throttling (though I assume if they livestreamed their lives, 24/7, there would be).
Also, Cricket has actual stores in most locations. With the ability to offer tech support, phone sales, and pay your bill.
we’ve had cricket for 13 years! 4 people, $116 a month. I think we pay extra for an insurance policy on one of the phones. Teens go through data, and Cricket has been great; has saved us $$ over the years.
ONE big thing though - you have to buy your phone outright; one of my kiddos is a typical teen boy - and goes through them quickly. My kids have never had the most updated phones like some peers as we wont pay top price for the newest iphone.
Does Cricket also have free text and internet internationally?
Depends on the specific plan how much data is included.
How is the coverage? I travel to rural area often. Even att can be spotty.
Coverage depends on what operating carrier(s) the MVNO primarily uses and can roam on.
Right - we are in a rural & mountainous area and service can be spotty no matter the underlying carrier - Verizon/At&T/Sprint towers.
We have to pay for a landline at our house because our phones barely get 2 bars.
Nobody can tell you which carrier would work best for you - most metro areas & big suburban sprawl areas have great coverage for everyone, from what I’ve read, but get outside them, and you have to do some research as to which one is best for your area.
And sorry, I was speaking specifically to Cricket on “unlimited everything.” Right, there are all kinds of plans with, like 5g data a month or whatever. Cricket’s best deal for us also happened to be unlimited data, so …
DH and I have Verizon, and have since my first cell phone in 1999. So if we switch to Cricket, assuming an umlimited plan, we should see no difference at all in any service – voice calls, text, google searches, google maps, FB app, American Airlines app, and so forth?? We both already own our phones.
I haven’t had a major carrier’s plan since we moved to this area and it stopped providing decent coverage. That was the 90s, though. Things have changed a lot.
The discount carriers essentially piggyback on the towers. It’s not technically accurate, but that’s the end result. I mean, Cricket doesn’t have a cell tower out there. It’s an AT&T subsidiary, using AT&T towers.
So if you have Verizon and you’re happy with its coverage, you shouldn’t necessarily pick Cricket, which is AT&T and might not have the same coverage map. You would want to pick a Verizon subsidiary.
At least, that’s the way I’ve been viewing it. Again, if you live in a well-populated area, this might not be a concern at all.
ETA - to really do research, I suggest this discussion forum:
i dont believe they have international. we bought a sim card and a plan for our kid when he was abroad for 2 weeks.
Since Cricket is owned by AT&T, if coverage differs between Verizon and AT&T in your area, you may notice a difference in that respect.
Yes, I’ve used several different lower cost carriers. The lower cost carriers consistently have the same coverage as whatever the network they run on – AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon. However, they may have a difference in priority for data (not calls). Whether this difference in priority is relevant or not depends on whether you are using your phone in congested areas with limited bandwidth.
For example, T-Mobile gives a higher priority to Google Fi than they do to Mint Mobile. Different priorities is not unique to just MVNOs. There may be multiple different priorities within the lager carriers. For example, AT&T first responders and “business elite” have highest priority; followed by business performance, pre-paid, and premium plans; followed by unlimited plans. You can find lists of the priority level of different lower cost carriers online.
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