Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash
These are the plan changes I observed in 2020 and early 2021:
Altice mobile
- New $14 1GB plan
- New $22 3GB plan
- Website updated to include information about international add-ons for stateside international calling and international voice and data roaming
AT&T
AT&T kept all of their plans the same this year and made a few minor adjustments. Unlimited Elite now includes HBO Max. AT&T also introduced “AT&T Unlimited Your Way,” which basically just meant you could mix-and-match their plans under one AT&T account.
AT&T Prepaid
- $40 8GB plan → 15GB
- New $30 5GB plan
- New multi-month 8GB plans: $33 for 3 months and $30 for 6 months ($25 annual plan was previously available)
- Unlimited now $65, $55 with auto-pay
- Unlimited Plus still $75, but now $60 with auto-pay (up from $55)
- Discontinued Walmart $40 25GB plan
Boom Mobile Purple
- $20 unlimited talk & text plan → $15 unlimited talk & text
- $22 1GB plan → $19 1GB
- New 3-month 3GB plan for $45 ($15/mo)
- Discontinued $27 2GB plan
- Discontinued $40 7GB plan
- Discontinued $50 10GB plan
- Discontinued $36 4GB plan
- Discontinued $15 500 minutes, 250MB plan
- Discontinued $17 1000 minutes, 250MB plan
- Discontinued $18 1500 minutes, 250MB plan
Boom Mobile Blue
- Unlimited plans now appear to be 22GB plans before unlimited data at 2G speeds
Boom Mobile Red
- New data-only plans: $12 for 500MB, $20 for 1GB, $55 for 5GB
Cricket Wireless
- $35 5GB plan → 10GB
- $55 unlimited plan now has access to AT&T’s 5G network
Eco Mobile
- New addition to the comparison chart & website
- I believe that since adding the plans they changed, they appear to now only be on T-Mobile
- $25 5GB plan → $20
- $35 10GB plan → $30
- $45 15GB plan → $40 20GB plan
- Discontinued: Eco Mobile $15 1GB plan
- Discontinued $55 unlimited plan
- 5G now included
Gen Mobile
- Discontinued: $5 unlimited text plan
- New $30 5GB plan
- New 3-month plans with 10% to 20% discount on service
Good2Go Mobile
- $20 3GB plan → 2GB
- $30 5GB plan → 6GB
- $40 10GB plan → $35
- New $45 20GB plan
H2O Wireless
- $45 15GB plan → 24GB
Hello Mobile
- $15 2GB → 4GB
- New $14 2GB plan
- Discontinued $18 3GB plan
I3 Mobile
- Pivoted to focuses on mobile internet plans for Nighthawk M1
- New $65 30GB plan
- New $75 100GB plan
- Discontinued: $21 1GB plan
- Discontinued: $41 10GB plan
- Discontinued $61 25GB plan with no hotspot support
- Discontinued $71 25GB plan with hotspot
Mint Mobile
- $15 3GB plan → 4GB
- $20 8GB plan → 10GB
- $25 12GB plan → 15GB
- New $35 30GB plan
Red Pocket
- $40 20GB plan → 22GB (AT&T only)
- $40 10GB plan → 12GB (Verizon and T-Mobile)
- $30 8GB family plan → 10GB (+$20 per add’l line)
- Discontinued $30 3GB family plan
Simple Mobile
- $30 2GB plan → 5GB
Spectrum Mobile
- New by-the-gig plan (I may have missed this from before)
- New $55 Unlimited Plus plan with 30GB data before being throttled to 1Mbps down and 512Kbps up
Sprint
*poof!* Gone. Sprint is gone, everybody. It was fun while it lasted.
Straight Talk
- $45 25GB plan now available in 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month bulk pricing options. Discount is pitiful, only discounting the plan down to $41.25 with the 12-month option
- Discontinued $30, 100MB, 1,500 minute verizon-only plan
- Discontinued $60 international calling plan
- Unconfirmed changes because old plans are still available on old site: https://www.straighttalk.com/wps/portal/home/shop/serviceplans
- New website: https://www.straighttalk.com/all-plans
Tello
Plans are now available on the T-Mobile network. Maybe the best Mint Mobile competitor we have?
Teltik
- New $20 2GB plan
- New $30 6GB plan
TextNow
- Discontinued $40 23GB plan
- Appears to still be using the Sprint network
Total Wireless
- $25 talk & text plan → now with 1GB
- New 3-month discount for $35 plan, making it $30 for 5GB
All plans come enabled with the Data Optimizer feature by default. This feature limits video streaming quality to 480p to help preserve your data and make it last longer. If you would like ot stream videos at HD quality, you can contact Total Wireless customer care to have them turn off the Data Optimizer feature.
Ultra Mobile
- $14 1GB plan → $10
- $49 50GB plan discounted down to $39
Verizon
Verizon updated their Start Unlimited, Play More, Do More, and Get More unlimited plans. The prices of the plans remained the same, Verizon just adjusted what perks were included. Here’s what we saw:
Start Unlimited
- What changed: Disney+ decreased from free for 1 year to free for 6 months
- Current offering: Apple Music free for 6 months, Disney+ free for 6 months
Play More Unlimited
- What changed: 25GB priority data increased to 50GB, Apple Music decreased from included for life to free for 6 months, Disney+ increased from free for 1 year to being included, Hulu and ESPN+ are now included
- Current offering: Apple Music free for 6 months, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ included
Do More Unlimited
- What changed: Disney+ decreased from being free for 1 year to being free to 6 months, 500GB cloud storage increased to 600GB cloud storage
- Current offering: Disney+ free for 6 months (no Hulu or ESPN+), Apple Music free for 6 months, 50% off connected device plans (that means it’s cheaper to add a tablet line or smartwatch line to your plan), 600GB Verizon Cloud storage
Get More Unlimited
- What changed: 75GB priority data decreased to 50GB, Disney+ increased to include the Hulu and ESPN+ bundle
- Current offering: Apple Music included, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ included, 50% off connected device plan, 600GB Verizon Cloud storage
Verizon Prepaid
Verizon discontinued their previous “double data” promotion and introduced new plans on 6/23/2020. The change in the plans was as follows:
- $30 1GB plan → $30 unlimited talk and text with data at 2G speeds
- $35 6GB plan → $35 5GB plan
- $45 16GB plan → $45 15GB plan
- $65 unlimited plan → $60 unlimited plan
- New $75 unlimited plan with mmWave 5G access
The new plans are eligible for Verizon’s new loyalty discounts. For months 4-9 you save an extra $5 per month, and after 10 months you save an extra $10 per month. The $5 and $10 savings are on top of the $5 auto-pay discount.