Other prepaid cellular services
Mint Mobile is a prepaid service that uses the T-Mobile network (T-Mobile acquired the company in 2024). Plans start at $15 for 5GB, although they offer an unlimited tier for $30 (and sometimes on sale for a lower price). Mint’s pricing is low, but the company’s plans have many restrictions on service and data, and Mint doesn’t offer smartwatch plans at all. International calls and data are also expensive.
Wireless cricket is a prepaid service owned by AT&T. It offers unlimited plans starting at $35 per month, although the entry-level plan doesn’t include hotspot data (it’s sold extra). Line discounts are decent up to five lines, so Cricket may be worth it for family plans. Cricket Wireless has many stores in the United States, which is unusual for a prepaid phone service provider, and makes Cricket a solid choice if you prefer to speak face-to-face with a customer representative.
Metro belongs to T-Mobile. The company’s unlimited 5G plans, available for $25 per month or $20 per month (when billed on a six-month cycle), are solid, as Metro provides 35GB of high-speed data as well as unlimited talk and text. However, these plans lack hotspot support, and even the most basic international support is an add-on service. Metro has a five-year price lock promise, but Boost by T-Mobile has a “forever” price promise. Like other T-Mobile brands, Metro has many retail locations, which can be great if you want face-to-face service.
Speak frankly is owned by Verizon and is often sold in Walmart stores. It offers unlimited talk, text, and data plans starting at $45 per month. These plans have 10GB of hotspot data and unlimited international calling to Mexico and Canada. However, US Mobile and Verizon-owned Visible offer plans with better value and more features, like bundled smartwatch support, at the same price.
TracFone is a prepaid cellular service owned by Verizon. Like Consumer Cellular, its marketing focuses heavily on older users. And just like Consumer Cellular, the plans don’t offer the best value. On a more positive note, many TracFone plans include rolling data, which is unusual. This can be interesting if you don’t usually need a lot of data, but occasionally use a lot more than usual.
Mobile is a prepaid cellular service that uses the Verizon network. It used T-Mobile and is owned by Boost. Ting offers unlimited plans, although many unlimited plans have rather low high-speed data limits. Hotspot data is included in all plans, but international isn’t included, so you’ll be charged extra for that. Smart watches are not supported. Personally, I used it as my primary service five years ago, but switched as its plans became less competitive.
Consumer Cellular is a brand that targets older people with the promise of a simple and inexpensive service. However, the company’s plans tend to be more expensive than its competitors, starting at $20 per month for just 1GB of data. The company ranks at least highly in Consumer Reports user surveys. Consumer Cellular has retail locations and opened its 50th store in July 2025.
MobileX is a prepaid service on the Verizon network that offers a range of paid and unlimited plans. Unlimited plans don’t seem compelling to me, given their data and international usage limits.
Red Pocket Mobile is a prepaid mobile carrier with access to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile (users choose network during signup). It has a simple plan system with just three tiers, from 3GB to 50GB of premium data. Only the premium tier has a hot spot. All plans include some degree of international coverage in over 80 countries, with 100 minutes/100 texts and a good amount of data (1GB to 10GB), so they’re a decent choice for people who travel internationally but don’t use enough data to justify the more expensive Google Fi Unlimited Premium plan. I was also frustrated with RedPocket Mobile’s app, which was buggy and often threw errors claiming my personal information was incorrect, but didn’t say what specifically was wrong.
Completely wireless is also owned by Verizon and offers unlimited plans starting at $40 per month. These are reasonable plans, but again, the alternatives from US Mobile and Verizon’s Visible are more compelling overall.
UScellular was, until recently, the oldest independent MVNO in the United States, but it was acquired by T-Mobile in 2024 and T-Mobile plans to integrate the company into T-Mobile. So while you can technically still purchase a plan from the company, it makes more sense to go with T-Mobile.
