A Guide to the Columns & Data Points in the Cell Phone Plan Comparison Chart
Here's what each of the columns mean, and how you can use this information to sort plans based on what you need.
The Different Columns Explained
Name: This is the name of the cell phone plan
Country (hidden by default): What country the plan is in
Carrier: What carrier offers the plan
Networks: What networks the plan uses for coverage
Plan Duration: How long the plan is for. Some plans offer 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month options
Link: A link to the plan (typically a partner link, and when a partner link is not available it brings you to the specific carrier page on the BestPhonePlans website)
Cost: Price per month in USD for the plan. This cost is rounded up to the nearest whole dollar. For example, if a plan is $32.25 per month, the cost is listed as $33. The cost also includes any auto-pay discounts that are available.
Data Amount Display: How much data is included in the plans.
Data Amount Filter (hidden by default): A numerical value for how much data is included in the plans in GB. For example, a 5GB plan would have a value of 5, a 200MB plan would have a value of 0.2, and an unlimited plan would have a value of 99.
$/GB: Cost per GB. The cost of the plan divided by how much data is included with the plan. Helpful for discerning which plans are the better value.
Taxes and Fees Included: Indicates of the Cost of the plan includes all taxes and fees.
Auto-Pay Discount: Indicates whether or not an auto-pay discount is available and what the value is
Estimated Total Price: How much I estimate the plan will cost you per month, factoring in all taxes, fees, and auto-pay discounts
Minutes: How many minutes the plan includes
Texts: How many texts the plan includes
Data Priority: Indicates the plan's priority level, either priority or deprioritized
Data Speed Cap: The maximum speeds of the plan. For example, Cricket caps some of their plans at 8Mbps.
Unlimited 2G data: Indicates if the plan includes unlimited 2G data after the high-speed allotment is reached
2G Data Speeds: How fast the 2G data is
Personal Hotspot: Indicates whether or not the hotspot feature is included, available as an add-on, or not supported
Hotspot Data is Separate from Handset Data: Indicates whether or not the hotspot usage counts against your total mobile handset data usage and deducts from your high-speed data allotment. This is a new field, and it may not be entirely accurate yet
Hotspot Dedicated Data: How much data you can use as hotspot data
Video Streaming Quality: What quality video content streams at. Keep in mind you can use a VPN, like my affiliate partner ExpressVPN, to bypass any streaming restrictions and enjoy full 4K video streaming quality on any plan
Netflix Data Speed: Shows if there is a data speed cap when streaming video content based on the fast.com data speed test