DL Take: An excellent prepaid carrier choice because it's affordable, has 2 great plan options that are regularly discounted, and you have ultimate flexibility by choosing between T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T networks to connect to.
A couple of years ago, I made the decision to ditch Verizon and T-Mobile in favor of prepaid options that use their networks. Through all of the price increases and perk shifting, plus the fact that I spend a good chunk of my time on WiFi, I decided I didn’t want to pay the enormous prices to have their best plans anymore. The savings I was supposedly getting with “free” Disney+ or Netflix just weren’t there.
Testing Mint Mobile and Visible first
When I finally decided to fully switch over to prepaid, my journey started with Mint Mobile, which T-Mobile owns. And because T-Mobile now owns them, it gets access to T-Mobile’s best-in-the-US network. It also costs a fraction of the price and is a straightforward type of plan.
Mint is constantly running promotions that can get you their most expensive Unlimited plan for as little as $10 or $15 per month. This plan comes with unlimited high-speed data, hotspot usage, and coverage in Canada and Mexico.
Mint, unfortunately, isn’t great for people like me who switch phones every few weeks. They set limits on how often you can switch before then charging you each time your eSIM goes into a new phone. But making matters worse, they eventually set limits even if you want to pay, and that just doesn’t work for someone like me.
After learning of that limitation, I eventually made my way over to Visible, a Verizon company. They have no such limits and won’t ever charge you to make phone switches.
Visible, like Mint Mobile, is also incredibly affordable. They like to run a steady stream of promotions too, with some topping out at 50% off for 12 months. Their top tier plan also has all of the high-speed data you can handle, hotspot, and similar international use.
But while Visible is incredibly affordable (especially with promos), Verizon’s network in the Portland area is just not that good and hasn’t been for years.
That realization led me to finally give US Mobile a test run, partly because we have had several readers suggest we give it a try.
US Mobile: What is it? Can you really switch between the 3 major US networks?
Never heard of US Mobile? Well, it’s a prepaid wireless provider like those other two, but it has a unique approach in that it lets you choose which major US carrier’s network you attach to.
When you sign up for US Mobile (Android and iOS supported), part of the setup process is choosing a network. They’ll recommend networks for you and attempt to describe which one might be faster or have a better connection, but that’s likely because they aren’t allowed to just call them what they are.
During sign up, you’ll choose from Warp, Light Speed, or Dark Star networks. Those are their made-up names for the three major US carriers. The breakdown of them is as follows:
- Warp: This is Verizon’s network
- Light Speed: This is T-Mobile’s network
- Dark Star: This is AT&T’s network
If you decide to use US Mobile, you get to choose the network that you think best fits your area or needs. Also, if you choose a network and don’t like it, they’ll let you switch to a different network for free with their Unlimited Premium plan or for $2 with their Unlimited Starter.
Starting to see the idea here? It’s pretty neat.
As for US Mobile plans, they offer two: Unlimited Premium and Unlimited Starter. Without promotions, they cost $44 and $25 per month. As you’ll notice below, they are running a deal that includes significant discounts for the first 6 months if you come over. You’ll use either code “BRING25” or “BRING15” to get the prices seen here.
For features, you can see them above, but the Unlimited Premium plan is what I’ve signed up for. You get priority high-speed data on your network of choice, which should mean far less throttling during congested times. You also get 50-100GB of high-speed hotspot and 20GB of data use internationally.
Just know that the features can differ depending on the network you choose, but US Mobile is pretty good about sharing that information and showing you comparisons of the different networks on each plan.
You can tap on each image in the gallery below to see each plan and its features.
US Mobile also allows you to add a Multi-Network add-on at a discounted rate. This Multi-Network add-on basically connects you to a second of the three networks as a backup solution.
For example, you might have chosen Dark Star (AT&T) as your main phone line, but if you want Verizon as a backup data option when you head to rural areas, you can do that by choosing Warp as your Multi-Network add-on. This will allow US Mobile to fill your phone’s eSIM slots with both AT&T and Verizon access. Because we all own modern phones, our phones can handle 2 eSIMs at once and smartly switch data between them as needed.
Finally, US Mobile has a good enough app that allows you to make changes, switch networks, manage add-ons, etc. The UI is a bit weird, but after switching between networks a handful of times and changing phones dozens of times, I’ve started to figure out some of its quirks.
Is US Mobile any good?
I made the switch to US Mobile over the summer, so I’ve had a solid 3-4 months on it at this point. I started out with a combination of Dark Star (AT&T) and Light Speed (T-Mobile), but pretty quickly realized that AT&T was not for me. My setup has since switched to Light Speed (T-Mo) as my main and Warp (Verizon) as my backup. While I don’t think having the backup option is necessary, I’ve been using it for testing purposes and it has come in handy a few times.
But in the end, the connection situation matters and I haven’t noticed that any of the networks feel like they have been given less priority than when I was on Mint Mobile or Visible.
Not that I live in a congested area, but I just ran a new speedtest from my house and T-Mobile pulled almost 300Mbps down with a 2-bar connection.
Texting and RCS are there, I’m about to take advantage of that 20GB of international data on a trip to Japan, and the price I’m paying just can’t be beat. When I signed up, US Mobile was offering 12 months of service on Unlimited Premium for $299 (about $25 per month).
If you have any questions, let me know!
