Cell Phone Plans: Comparing the Best Data Plans for Smartphones
If you’ve got a smartphone – whether it’s a BlackBerry Curve, an HTC Droid Eris, an iPhone or a Samsung Omnia II – you need a data plan. Half (or more) of the features that make today’s smartphones so revolutionary depends on their web connectivity, and to get the most out of your phone, you’ll want to
be connected all the time.
You can get a great handset from any provider of cell phone plans – Verizon has the Droid, AT&T has the iPhone, Sprint’s got the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi and T-Mobile has a whole host of excellent BlackBerry smartphones and Motorola smartphones. So, no matter which cellu
lar service you go with, you’re guaranteed a slick smartphone. But what about the data plan? Which one is cheapest? Which one is fastest? Which one has the best coverage? And of course, which one is best? That all depends.
Data Plans Price Comparisons – Verizon vs. T-Mobile vs. Sprint vs. AT&T
Every company offering cel
l phone plans worth its salt has an unlimited data package. Pricing them out isn’t as clear cut as it seems, though – and chances are, the moment this post is published, something’s going to change. But recent data is a good starting point for selecting out the loftier prices compared to the bargain bin cell phone plans.
According to a November 2009 Consumer Reports survey, AT&T had the highest average plan price ($134) for two lines with data packages. Undoubtedly, that’s because of the iPhone, which requires an unlimited data plan. Next most expensive was Verizon, with $126, followed by T-Mobile and Sprint who were tied for $114.
Other factors you want to consider when pricing cell phone plans: cancellation fees, rebates, activation fees and other available discounts. We can’t speak definitively on this issue, since these variables are always in flux (for example, Verizon just raised its early termination fee by almost double, but Verizon also prorates their early cancellation fees so that it’s cheaper if you cancel later in your contract). Our advice: make yourself a spreadsheet and do an apples-to-apples comparison of all the extra fees and discounts. Read that fine print!
Coverage Comparison
We’ve all seen the commercials where Verizon bashes AT&T for having shoddy coverage. There’s some truth to that – AT&T is notoriously bothersome for iPhone users in New York. But as someone who’s used both a 3G Verizon phone and a 3G AT&T phone in Pittsburgh, I can see that they are both pretty much flawless in terms of coverage in this particular region.
Consumer Reports also did a city-by-city comparison of coverage for 26 major metropolitan areas. In almost every city – including Atlanta, San Francisco, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Chicago, New York and other obvious high population areas – Verizon topped the charts in customer satisfaction. AT&T brought up the rear while T-Mobile and Sprint dominated the middle, once again.
Again, that’s not to say that Verizon is always going to be the best everywhere. For example, AT&T and T-Mobile are GSM phones while Sprint and Verizon are CDMA networks. That’s going to matter if you ever venture outside of the U.S. (all of Europe is GSM) and it’s especially going to make a difference if further developments skew towards GSM technology. For example, Verizon has already said that it’s going to gravitate towards LTE rather than WiMAX as it transitions to 4G technology, thereby abandoning its CDMA-based network. Which leads us to the next topic…
Speed
Nextel isn’t shy about letting the world know that they have the only 4G network – and they really do. As mentioned above, Verizon is still gearing up its push for LTE, but Nextel’s been up and running with WiMAX for quite some time. Not only that, Time Warner Cable and Comcast are busy spreading WiMAX across the nation as we speak. However, 4G is by no means universal yet – and if the WiMAX man hasn’t come to your town yet, don’t rush to sign up for Nextel because of 4G. Our advice: check the coverage map. More and more cities are becoming WiMAX cities every day, but make sure yours is one of them before you drink the 4G Kool-Aid.
For now, it’s best to focus on 3G speeds. Once upon a time (July 2009), Wired released a news story announcing the Verizon had knocked the socks off of AT&T in 3G speed tests. T-Mobile and Sprint came in second and third, respectively. PC World did a similar test in May 2009 and got similar results.
But…
In December 2009, PCWorld came back with another test that showed that AT&T had the fastest 3G data speeds. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Verizon does have much better 3G coverage than AT&T in more sparsely populated areas (3G does you no good if you’re on the EDGE network).
So, as you can see, data connectivity speeds is somewhat of an arms race between the big four with AT&T and Verizon playing the parts of the U.S. and Russia (though we won’t say which one is the U.S. and which one is Russia). Our advice: go to the store and try out a couple handsets. Pull up your favorite webpages and take note of how long it takes to load and whether or not there’s a little 3G icon in the corner. You don’t have to buy there to try there (you’ll get better prices online without the pushy sales).
It’s also important to note that the software on the phone can affect how fast a page will load – so take time to compare cell phones within the same carrier, too.
Conclusion
We realize this guide was somewhat of a non-answer for the question “Who has the best data plan for smartphones?” But there really isn’t an answer. What you should be asking is “Who has the best data plan for my city and my phone?” For this, we suggest asking your peers, either in person or on the cell phones forum.
The good news is that for most cities, the competition is pretty stiff, meaning you can’t really go wrong. If you want to go with a provider simply because they have the lowest prices (T-Mobile or Sprint, currently), then go for it. If you want to go with one company’s cell phone plans because they’ve got the latest, greatest Android phones (Verizon) then do it.
The best data plan all depends on what works best for you.
Image by roland
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