AT&T vs. US Mobile: Are AT&T’s discounts enough?

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  Unlimited high-speed data

  AT&T

  AT&T is one of the largest and oldest phone companies and is one of America’s Big Three wireless carriers. AT&T mostly offers unlimited plans with perks like high-speed data and mobile hotspot data helping to set the plans apart.

  Pros

  • Strong nationwide and rural coverage
  • Lots of discounts available
  • Device savings with all unlimited plans

  Cons

  • Taxes and fees are extra
  • Top network speeds locked behind Turbo add-on

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  Choose your network

  US Mobile

  US Mobile stands out in a sea of prepaid carriers thanks to its strong plan lineup with multi-month savings available. You can even choose between the Verizon and T-Mobile networks with the ability to switch between the two.

  Pros

  • Strong coverage on either T-Mobile or Verizon
  • Hotspot data with all plans
  • Taxes and fees are included

  Cons

  • Teleport costs extra on some plans
  • Unlimited plans don?t have multi-line savings

AT&T is one of the first names that comes to mind when you think about phone service. It has a dominant network with impressive coverage, and a solid range of both prepaid and postpaid plans with unlimited data and reasonably quick speeds. Its 5G network is still growing, but its LTE network is known for strong coverage with some of the best rural availability of any carrier.

US Mobile is a prepaid carrier that operates on either the T-Mobile or Verizon 5G networks. It offers cheap shared data plans for multiple lines and unlimited plans with multi-month savings available. Whether you’re looking for a simple unlimited plan you can forget about, or want to save money by curbing your data consumption, US Mobile is a great option.

Mobile carrier features

AT&T’s primary unlimited plans mainly stand apart from each other thanks to their high-speed data allotment and hotspot data. Larger plans like Unlimited Extra EL come with 75GB of higher-speed data, previously called premium data, which isn’t slowed down based on network congestion.

AT&T isn’t unique in these speed tiers, but it does stand out with AT&T Turbo, an add-on that’s supposed to improve your network performance on top of the high-speed data you already pay for. Bold, considering AT&T has the slowest network speeds in Ookla’s Q4 2023 market report.

AT&T’s plans, for the most part, stream in SD quality, which is fine for most people, but could be annoying for those who watch gaming streams or videos where 60fps is a must. If you want HD video on AT&T, you need the top Unlimited Premium PL plan. US Mobile also streams in SD quality across its plans, which is fairly common for prepaid carriers.

One thing AT&T does better than a lot of its rivals is discounts. AT&T offers solid discounts to members of the military, veterans, teachers, students, nurses, doctors, and first responders. AT&T also has a Signature Member Program discount if your workplace or an organization you’re in is partnered with AT&T. Naturally, there are also multi-line discounts, so you save even more if you’re bringing multiple lines.

US Mobile offers a more standard prepaid experience with three unlimited plans, a shared data plan, and the Light Plan, all of which get SD quality streaming on either the T-Mobile or Verizon networks. You also get full 5G speeds with access to Verizon’s mid-band 5G and T-Mobile’s full 5G coverage. While US Mobile is still set as a lower priority than postpaid Verizon services, due to it being a prepaid carrier, it’ll offer plenty of speed for most people.

While it works with either the Verizon or T-Mobile networks, switching between them can take a couple of minutes, and unless you’re on the top plan, it costs $2 per switch. This isn’t a big deal since your first switch is free, so if it turns out one network isn’t giving you the right coverage, you can switch and try the other.

Coverage and reception

AT&T’s network offers nationwide coverage with LTE and 5G coverage in cities and towns across the country. Its LTE network offers strong rural coverage and even offers priority access to first responders under the FirstNet brand. For 5G, AT&T got off to a solid start with a chunk of dedicated low-band spectrum, but has struggled to keep up with Verizon and T-Mobile in total coverage. Still, AT&T is fast at work expanding its 5G coverage and improving speeds.

On AT&T, you can expect strong coverage across the country, but it’s still a good idea to check the AT&T coverage map to make sure you’re covered.

US Mobile, on the other hand, doesn’t just stick to a single network and instead offers a SIM with either T-Mobile (GSM 5G) or Verizon (Warp 5G) coverage. This doesn’t mean your phone will automatically switch to the best network, so you’ll need to figure out which one works best for you. While US Mobile more often than not recommends the Warp 5G Verizon network, you can choose whichever you’d like to use.

Luckily, US Mobile allows you to switch between the two networks using its Teleport feature, which is free with the top Unlimited Premium plan. On the other plans, you get two Teleports for free, then they’re $2 each. At least this gives you a chance to try out both networks for free to see which works best in your area.

Phone compatibility

Whether you’re looking for one of the best Android phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, or something cheaper like the Google Pixel 8a, they’ll work well on either of these carriers. AT&T keeps a list of approved phones (PDF) for its network, so you can easily check for your model before signing up. This list includes not only the biggest flagships from Samsung, but also less popular models like the OnePlus 12.

While US Mobile’s Verizon network isn’t quite as friendly to odd devices, it’ll work just fine with most devices made for the North American market. If your phone doesn’t work with this network, however, you can simply switch to the T-Mobile SIM, which will work with just about any phone you can buy. With some international models, you’ll miss out on some speed due to fewer supported bands, but they should still work fine.

Plans

One of the biggest reasons people consider switching carriers is to save money on their bills. But you still need to make sure you’re getting all the features you need. Luckily, US Mobile’s plans are fairly robust with high-speed data, hotspot data, and international features. That said, if you have multiple lines, AT&T may still work out to be the better value.

AT&T’s plans

AT&T has seven prepaid plans and five postpaid plans, so most people should be able to find a plan that fits their needs. Starting with prepaid, the cheapest plan comes in at $30 per month for 5GB of data with rollover, meaning that any unused data will be added to your available data pool for the next month.

Moving up, a 10GB plan adds not only more data, but usage in Mexico and Canada, too. This plan starts at $40 per month and also supports rollover data.

Beyond that, you can get an unlimited plan for $40 per month with 30GB of data at 3Mbps, then 1.5Mbps after. This data speed is quite low, so if you download a lot of files or watch a lot of social media videos, you may find the speed lacking. Above that is a $50 unlimited plan with 5G speeds and 5GB of hotspot data, which is a much better value. The top unlimited plan comes in at $55 per month, with 25GB of hotspot data and even HD video streaming. All three plans get unlimited usage in Mexico and Canada.

If you’re willing to pay for multiple months at once, you can get an 8GB plan for $99 for three months. An unlimited plan with 16GB of high-speed data comes in at $300 per year. Keep in mind that none of these plans include taxes and fees, so your final bill will be a bit higher.

Moving on to postpaid, AT&T’s cheapest plan, and perhaps its worst value, is the 4GB plan. This plan has unlimited talk and text with usage in Mexico and Canada with 4GB of RAM, and comes in at $50 per month for the first line, or $40 per line with three or more lines.

Next is AT&T Value Plus VL, which comes with unlimited talk, text, and data. You don’t get any hotspot data, but at a starting price of $50.99 for a single line and $30.99 per line for four lines, it’s still a solid value. To get 5GB of hotspot data, you can move up to Unlimited Starter SL for $65.99 for the first line. With four lines, that comes down to just $35.99, making it a lot more reasonable.

Continuing upward, AT&T Unlimited Extra EL comes with unlimited talk, text, and data with 75GB of high-speed data. You do get 30GB of hotspot data with this plan, though video streaming resolution is locked to SD. Unlimited Extra EL costs $75.99 for the first line, and $40.99 per line with four or more lines.

AT&T’s top plan, Unlimited Premium PL, comes with unlimited high-speed data that doesn’t slow down based on usage. You get 60GB of mobile hotspot data and full 4K streaming video support. This plan also gets unlimited talk, text, and high-speed data in 20 Latin American countries.

AT&T lets you mix and match these plans with multi-line discounts intact, so you can pick the right plan for each member of the family.

Before signing up for AT&T, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, AT&T does not include taxes or fees, so your bill will be higher than the list price. Next, you need to enable auto-pay with a checking account to get the full discount.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that AT&T offers an add-on called AT&T Turbo that gives customers on Unlimited Extra or Unlimited Premium some extra data performance, which is a bit of a drag considering these are AT&T’s top plans. I do not recommend paying for AT&T Turbo, and if you need better mobile gaming performance, Wi-Fi is your best bet.

US Mobile’s plans

US Mobile’s cheapest plan is called the Light Plan, and it comes with unlimited talk, text, and 2GB of high-speed data. If paid monthly, it costs just $10 per month, but if you pay annually, it comes in at $96, or $8 per month.

The Light Plan is really just one of US Mobile’s By the Gig plans with the lowest data amount. These plans cost $8 per line and share the same pool of data. Like the Light Plan, 2GB is the starting point at $10. For 10GB of data, you’re looking at $20 per month to start with additional data costing $15 for 10GB. If you’ve got a large family with lighter data needs, this could be a good plan to save.

Moving up to unlimited, Unlimited Flex is the cheapest option with 10GB of high-speed data and 5GB of hotspot data. While 10GB hardly qualifies as unlimited, it’s only slowed to 1Mbps if you use all of it. This plan is only available if paid annually, coming in at $210, which breaks down to $17.50 per month.

Unlimited Starter takes the price up to $25 per month, or $22.50 per month if paid annually. This plan gets 35GB of high-speed data, which is plenty for most people, and 10GB of hotspot data. International texting is supported, but if you want international calling, you’ll need to pay $3 more per month. Usage in Mexico and Canada is included, however.

Unlimited Premium comes with all of the above, but the premium data goes up to 100GB with 50GB of hotspot data. Unlimited Premium also gets unlimited Teleports, so you can switch networks as desired. For a single month, this plan costs $44 per month, but annually, it comes down to $32.50 per month, or $390 per year.

Don’t forget, US Mobile includes the taxes and fees in the advertised price.

Which should you choose?

If you’re looking to save, US Mobile is the way to go. It lets you pick from two networks, so you can be confident that your phone will work, and that you’ll have coverage where you need it. US Mobile’s plan prices are also some of the best you can get, not only when compared to AT&T, but to other prepaid carriers as well. In fact, US Mobile has some of our favorite mobile data plans overall.

While US Mobile doesn’t offer family plan savings like AT&T, it still manages to compete with cheaper plans in general. Plus, if your family can make good use of Wi-Fi, you could even save with a By the Gig shared data plan instead of an unlimited plan.

AT&T could still be a good option for many people due to its excellent rural coverage and competitive prices with multiple lines. If you need a lot of hotspot data and usage in Latin America, AT&T’s Unlimited Premium PL could be a good pick thanks to its unlimited high-speed data and massive 60GB of hotspot data. It’s also worth checking if you qualify for any of AT&T’s other discounts, as they can make these plans a lot more competitive.