Does anyone still offer unlimited data

While your mileage may vary, the good news is that these networks are growing and improving all the time, particularly as the three major players race to blanket the US with 5G. It's quite possible that a decade ago you left a network complaining about their sparse service, but now it has beefed itself up because of that arms race to acquire customers. If you know any friends or family in your area that already use the carrier you are considering, ask about their experience.

You could also go to a carrier's store and see if they offer any free ways to try out the service before switching over, such as T-Mobile's Test Drive. One other thing to keep in mind: discounts. All of the carriers offer additional discounts which you could be eligible for depending on your employer, military status, student status or age.

First responders, military members, veterans, nurses and teachers can get discounts on every major carrier. Discover the latest news and best reviews in smartphones and carriers from CNET's mobile experts. Those looking to save the most on unlimited service from the major carriers may be best with T-Mobile's Essentials. Unlimited talk, text and data are included for all of the carrier's base unlimited plans. All three carriers offer 5G access with their base plans.

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Steve Kovach. If you add more than one unlimited line of service, US Mobile will let you pick your streaming perk from an impressively long list. Our own Andrew Grush gave Visible a shot, and you can read about his thoughts right here. He found it to be a solid option and continues to recommend it to this day.

Every carrier and its mother has an option to try, and the prices vary wildly. However, this section will hopefully give you an idea of a few more carriers to look into. Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile are two carriers that are bound by the same restriction — you have to be an internet customer before you can sign up for mobile service. You can bring your own phone or grab a new one, though you ultimately may not save much money due to the internet plan requirement.

You might ponder whether to buy an unlocked phone to bring to a network or to get one as part of your plan when you sign up. We can help you decide. In general, a carrier phone — also known as a locked phone — is sold through a wireless carrier or a third-party partner of that carrier such as Best Buy , for example. When you buy the phone, it is already attached to your wireless account or will immediately attach when you first set it up.

This lockdown can be removed, but there are usually significant requirements involved. Unlocked phones are devices you buy without a carrier involved. This could be buying directly from the manufacturer or through a third-party retailer such as Amazon.

Unlocked phones usually come with no SIM card and no prerequisite to sign up with any particular carrier. As the name suggests, unlocked phones are not bound to any particular carrier, so you can feel free to bounce from one carrier to another as you see fit.

Firstly, you rarely have to pay for the phone in full up front as the carrier will let you split the cost of the phone across the length of your plan. Finally, there are some phones which you can only get as carrier phones. The LG V60 above is a great example. Unlocked phones have the obvious benefit of freedom. Pay for them outright, but then you can do what you like with them.

Plus, you can buy a refurbished device to make significant savings. Some carriers have even caught on to the popularity of this approach and offer refurbished phones as options in their online stores. This can be especially confusing when importing devices from other countries. In general, you should do a lot of research on a device before buying to make sure it will work the way you expect it to. You can dive much further into the pros and cons of carrier vs unlocked phones in our expert analysis on the subject , but those are the key differences.

Also, be sure to check out our guide to the very best Android phones. The best unlimited data plans in the US The best way to make sure you don't run out of data is to sign up for an ever-popular unlimited plan. The Starter tier also doesn't include any Wi-Fi hot spot, unlike T-Mobile's cheaper basic Essentials plan which does include a bit of slow 3G data.

It doesn't have HD video streaming or international data either. Verizon still has the best coverage , but T-Mobile and others are giving it a run for its money. The carrier finally got rid of its confusingly named double unlimited plans, GoUnlimited and BeyondUnlimited, only to replace them with four unlimited plans and a kids plan.

We've outlined pricing for the starter tier below. If you live in a rural area, Verizon has the strongest coverage, according to OpenSignal. All tiers include talk, text, and data to Mexico and Canada and international texting. If you're on the basic Start Unlimited plan, there's no Wi-Fi mobile hot spot, and Verizon may throttle your internet speed during any "congestion. Both the Play More and Do More plans come with a gigabyte cap on data before throttling.

Verizon has a Device Compatibility Search tool you can use to check if your phone is supported on the network. If you bought your phone from your wireless carrier most people do , it was probably sold to you as a locked device that works only on one wireless carrier.

We recommend you buy devices unlocked online instead because they will work on other networks, allowing you to switch.

Just take it in or ask about procedures on how to unlock a device.