Boost Mobile is a prepaid cell phone carrier. It was originally an Australian brand founded by Peter Adderton in 2000. Boost Mobile was quickly brought to the U.S. in 2001 in partnership with Nextel Communications.
Nextel merged with Sprint in 2005, and Boost Mobile became a Sprint prepaid carrier. Then, in 2020 Sprint merged with T-Mobile. T-Mobile sold Boost Mobile to Dish as part of the merger agreement.
Today, Dish continues to own and operate Boost Mobile. Boost Mobile will eventually use the Dish network to provide coverage, but until then it has agreements in place to use T-Mobile and AT&T for coverage.
Boost Mobile is one of the largest prepaid brands in the U.S. Dish reported they had 8.77 million total subscribers across Boost Mobile, Ting, Republic Wireless, and Gen Mobile, with Boost Mobile having a majority of subscribers.
Boost Mobile is a prepaid cell phone carrier. It was originally an Australian brand founded by Peter Adderton in 2000. Boost Mobile was quickly brought to the U.S. in 2001 in partnership with Nextel Communications.
Nextel merged with Sprint in 2005, and Boost Mobile became a Sprint prepaid carrier. Then, in 2020 Sprint merged with T-Mobile. T-Mobile sold Boost Mobile to Dish as part of the merger agreement.
Today, Dish continues to own and operate Boost Mobile. Boost Mobile will eventually use the Dish network to provide coverage, but until then it has agreements in place to use T-Mobile and AT&T for coverage.
Boost Mobile is one of the largest prepaid brands in the U.S. Dish reported they had 8.77 million total subscribers across Boost Mobile, Ting, Republic Wireless, and Gen Mobile, with Boost Mobile having a majority of subscribers.
Boost Mobile has a variety of plans to choose from. The most interesting plans are their multi-month plans, which are also their most affordable plans.
Curiously, some of Boost Mobile’s plans are only available to new customers. This includes their 1GB annual plan for $100/year, their 5GB annual plan for $150/year, their 2GB monthly plan for $15/month, and even their 5GB monthly plan for $25/month.
Boost Mobile is one of the few carriers we are aware of that has such an exclusive offering for new customers. Existing customers have limited options, and it almost makes you afraid to change plans on Boost Mobile for fear of losing a good deal.
While most plans include unlimited data at 2G speeds after your high-speed allotment, some of Boost Mobile’s plans will notably have the data shut off when you consume the high-speed allotment.
All of Boost Mobile’s plans are no-contract service plans, include mobile hotspot, include unlimited minutes and texts, and provide coverage with either T-Mobile or AT&T.
Check out the full details of Boost Mobile’s plans below:
Yes, Boost Mobile offers family plans. You can manage multiple lines from a single account. You can also take advantage of some of Boost Mobile’s family discounts.
A family of three can currently get 3 lines for $90 per month with unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 35GB of high-speed data per month.
Boost Mobile currently does not offer plans for tablets, smartwatches, or hotspot devices.
Boost Mobile no longer offers a referral program.
They do, however, offer good deals and discounts on phones. Check out the current smartphone deals here.
RootMetrics currently ranks Verizon as having the #1 best coverage and data speeds across the United States with an overall performance score of 96.0.
Verizon’s LTE bands are 2, 4, 5, 13, 46, 48, and 66.
Verizon’s 5G bands are n260 and n261.
You want to make sure your phone has as many compatible bands as possible for the best coverage, data speeds, and performance on the Verizon network. The primary bands Verizon uses are marked in bold.
Check Verizon coverage in your area by using Verizon's official coverage map, or by using a third-party map like Coverage?
The Coverage? app was developed by Cherie and Chris, two RVers passionate about helping the RV community find and stay connected to cellular networks while traveling.
RootMetrics currently ranks AT&T as having the #2 best coverage and data speeds across the United States with an overall performance score of 95.6.
AT&T’s LTE bands are 2, 4, 5, 12, 14, 17, 29, 30, and 66.
AT&T’s 5G bands are n5 and n260.
You want to make sure your phone has as many compatible bands as possible for the best coverage, data speeds, and performance on the AT&T network. The primary bands AT&T uses are marked in bold.
Check AT&T coverage in your area by using AT&T's official coverage map, or by using a third-party map like Coverage?
The Coverage? app was developed by Cherie and Chris, two RVers passionate about helping the RV community find and stay connected to cellular networks while traveling.
RootMetrics currently ranks T-Mobile as having the third best coverage and data speeds across the United States with an overall performance score of 90.3.
T-Mobile's LTE bands are 2, 4, 12, 25, 26, 41, 66, and 71.
T-Mobile's 5G bands are n41, n71, n260, and n261.
You want to make sure your phone has as many compatible bands as possible for the best coverage, data speeds, and performance on the T-Mobile network. The primary bands T-Mobile uses are marked in bold.
Check T-Mobile coverage in your area by using T-Mobile's official coverage map, or by using a third-party map like Coverage?
The Coverage? app was developed by Cherie and Chris, two RVers passionate about helping the RV community find and stay connected to cellular networks while traveling.
Boost Mobile supports visual voicemail, VoLTE, MMS, mobile hotspot, and 5G. International calling is available via a plan add-on.
International data, domestic roaming, and eSIM are not available from Boost Mobile.
You can check to see if your current phone is compatible with Boost Mobile by using their IMEI checker tool.
You can also consider purchasing an affordable device from Boost Mobile directly. That said, we typically recommend you purchase an unlocked phone directly from the manufacturer. This gives the flexibility to changes plans or carriers any time you want in the future.
Check out the options below. These phones will work on Boost Mobile:
International calling and texting are available to Boost Mobile customers via a plan add-on. International data roaming is currently not supported.
Boost Mobile has add-ons for international calling, international texting, and more. Check out all the available add-ons, and which plans they work with, below:
Boost Mobile customer service is available by chat, by phone, or by visiting a physical store.
Call Boost Mobile customer service at (833) 502-6678.
Customer service hours:
Boost Mobile offers some affordable plans, but the best deals are only for new customers.
You also should keep in mind that you can find great plans on both AT&T and T-Mobile, the networks Boost Mobile uses for coverage, from Mint Mobile and Red Pocket. In some cases, the plans from Mint Mobile or Red Pocket may be better.
It’s important to consider your options before signing up for Boost Mobile. Boost Mobile does have something strong going for it though: they are one of the few prepaid carriers that has physical stores that you can go to for customer service and support.
