DEAL Best U.S. BYOP Cell Service Deals (Fall 2026)

[wardmundy]

Total Wireless from Verizon - $20/mo incl taxes/fees after first month with AutoPay for 5 years (no congestion downgrade)
Reddit comparison to Visible+ offering



MintMobile with T-Mobile $15/month prepay for 12 months only (deprioritized; incl 20GB hotspot; +$20-$30 annual fee)
Reddit prefers: Metro by T-Mobile (taxes/fees included in $25 price for 5 years with autopay, add $5 for 10GB hotspot)


Best AT&T MVNO Deals by Provider

 

[KNERD]

I think too many of us were burned on Verizon's last venture.

 

[kenn10]

I think too many of us were burned on Verizon's last venture.

I have to admit after my bad experience with Visible, I didn't try again. I'm considering going with the $30/month unlimited Verizon Simplicity plan so I can get $15 off my Frontier Fiber bill each month. The only reason I'd go back to Verizon directly is because now they are making many of the towers they lease or share with other vendors unavailable to MVNO's. I have US Mobile and otherwise love it but my neighbors on Verizon have 4 bars of 5GUW and I barely have one bar of Verizon LTE on US Mobile Warp. Yet I can go down the mountain to another town that has Verizon-only towers and get 5GUW there. MVNO's tend to complicate things by saying "Its the same network as if you had Verizon" but it really isn't.

 

[wardmundy]

@kenn10: I wonder if that is also true with Verizon-owned MVNOs??

The Google Machine provides a more nuanced explanation of what may actually be happening in your situation.
For example, with US Mobile, only their Unlimited Premium tier Includes QCI 8 priority. Other QCI 9 tiers may limit your access to 5GUW tower access. This wouldn't be a problem with Total's Total Max 5G plan above.

 

[kenn10]

According to US Mobile, the only difference is priority. However, they do not always have access to non-Verizon towers in high demand or low density areas. That explains why in Highlands, where there aren't but 4 towers for all carriers, I'm only accessing one Verizon tower. The other three are all pretty much shared towers. If I go down to Franklin, almost all the towers were built and maintained by Verizon and I get 5GUW there.

I don't actually use the cell phone that much but when you need it, you need it. I may consider going with Verizon Simplicity which will work out to $15/month after the discount to my Frontier Fiber internet. I'm paying $28/month for two lines and 10 Gigs of data on US Mobile. I don't need or want unlimited data.