The 2026 World Cup kicks off in just over two weeks, and for the first time, the tournament will be split across three separate countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States. That means, no matter where soccer fans are from, they may end up crossing multiple international borders to attend all their games

If you've got experience with international travel, you'll know all about the pains of trying to use your existing data plan in a different country. Data roaming can be prohibitively expensive if you're not careful, and it pays to have a plan in place so you can stay connected without hopping between different public Wi-Fi networks. The good news is that multiple U.S. carriers have anticipated this, and have launched travel plans specifically for the World Cup

So whether you're traveling to North America for the tournament, or a U.S. resident crossing over into Canada and Mexico, here's what you need to know about staying connected throughout the World Cup.

AT&T

AT&T has launched a new short-term eSIM package for travellers visiting North America for the World Cup. This system is powered by "eSIM by AT&T" and gives travellers the flexibility to pay for connectivity when they need it.

This means you can buy data passes valid for one, seven, 15 or 30 days, complete with unlimited data and 5GB of hotspot access. The single-day pass is only valid in the U.S., and costs $4 a day. The other three options do offer coverage for Canada and Mexico, but you will have to pay a premium for it. Here's the rundown of the prices, inclusive of tax and other fees.

These plans only include data, and don't include voice or text messaging. So if you need to stay in touch with others, be it family back home or other members of your group, you'll need to use IP-based services like WhatsApp.

Existing AT&T customers can take advantage of the carrier's "International Day Pass," which lets you use your existing plan as if you were still in the U.S. This is available in 210 locations around the world, including Canada and Mexico. This costs $12 a day, and you're automatically charged for 24-hour access whenever you use data on your phone outside the U.S.

T-Mobile

International travellers visiting the World Cup can sign up for T-Mobile's US Pass eSIM, which 50GB of high-speed 5G data within the U.S., and 5GB of high-speed data in Canada and Mexico. Once you use up those allowances, your connection will be downgraded to 3G, which means noticeably lower speeds. Hotspot data is also included, but the amount you get id dependent on which pass you purchase.

Here are the prices for the different US Pass eSIMs, which do not include taxes or fees. However, each pass does include unlimited calls and text messages across North America.

Existing T-Mobile customers may be able to get international coverage as part of their existing package, but the level of that coverage depends on which sort of plan you're actually signed up for. For the most part, you get an allowance of high-speed data, after which you get unlimited data throttled to either 256kps or 128kbps speeds. Here are the allowances for Canada and Mexico with unlimited calls and texts:

• 30GB: Better Value, Experience Beyond, Go5G Next plans. Throttled to 256kbps thereafter
• 15GB: Experience More, Go5G Plus plans. Throttled to 256kbps thereafter
• 10GB: Go5G plans. Throttled to 128kbps thereafter
• 5GB: Max, Plus plans. Throttled to 256kbps thereafter
• 5GB: Magenta, One plans. Throttled to 128kbps thereafter

All other plans are charged at $0.01 per megabyte of data, $0.25 a minute for calls, and free unlimited texts. Those of you who have T-Mobile's T-Satellite connectivity will also be able to use that in Canada, if you ever find yourself without cell service.

Verizon

Verizon is the official Telecommunication Services Sponsor for the 2026 World Cup, and even offered free game tickets to its customers. Despite this, the carrier hasn't announced any specific World Cup-branded deals for customers travelling to games. Though it does offer various plans and perks for existing customers who are partaking in international travel.

The good news is that roaming in Mexico and Canada is actually included with all Unlimited plans — but it's not quite the same as using your phone at home. 5G and 4G data have a 2GB daily cap, and after you use it up, you'll be restricted to 3G data speeds. There are no restrictions on how much 3G data you can use, so you won't ever be cut off, but you will have to deal with much slower download speeds as a result.

If you don't have an Unlimited plan, you can pay for a Verizon TravelPass instead. Once added to your plan, these passes will offer unlimited calls, texting and data when you leave the U.S. TravelPass costs $6 a day in Canada and Mexico, which is half the price it would cost if you went elsewhere. If you choose to stick with Pay as You Go roaming, then you'll be charged $2.05 for every megabyte of data you use. A megabyte is not a lot of data, and at those prices, a single gigabyte will end up costing you over $2,000. Obviously, you do not want that to happen.

Verizon does not offer any shorter-term plans, which means you can't just sign up for a few days and temporarily enjoy the carrier's roaming plans. However, its subsidiary Visible is a totally different story.

Visible

The Visible eSIM travel pass is powered by Verizon's Ultra Wideband 5G network, and is designed to offer travellers unlimited data within the United States. The plan also includes 500 minutes of calls from the U.S. to 85 different countries and unlimited texting to over 200 countries. Don't expect ay hotspot data, though.

Sadly, this generous data allowance does not extend to Canada, Mexico, Alaska, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands. Visible only offers 2GB of high-speed data in those regions, after which you'll be relegated to 3G speeds — though you do get unlimited calls and text messages.

The prices are easily some of the best around, thanks to Visible offering a $10 discount on each plan with the code FIFA10. This means you can expect to pay the following for each of the four passes, inclusive of taxes and fees.

Existing Visible customers from the U.S. can take advantage of the carrier's Global Pass if they plan on travelling to Canada or Mexico for the World Cup. This pass includes 2GB of high-speed data per day, with coverage downgraded to 3G thereafter, as well as unlimited calls and texts.

Coverage in Canada and Mexico is $5 a day if you have a standard Visible plan, but anyone with a Visible+ or Visible+ Pro plan has roaming already included at no extra charge.

Ultra Mobile

Ultra Mobile, which is owned by T-Mobile, has just launched some new international plans designed for all travellers — including those heading to Mexico and Canada for the World Cup. However, they do not appear to be suitable for international travellers, or anyone who isn't already an Ultra Mobile customer.

There are two different kinds of international "Go Roam" passes on offer at Ultra Mobile right now.

The Go Roam Mexico Data Pass offers 5GB of high-speed data over a period of 30 days. This plan is included with all Unlimited plans, but can be added to any other Ultra plan for $5. The Go Roam World Pass is available for either 5 or 15 days, and covers 200 other countries around the world — including Canada.

A 5-day pass is $5, bundled with 1GB of high-speed data, 100 minutes and 100 outgoing texts. The 15-day pass is $10, which offers 5GB of high-speed data, 300 minutes and 300 texts.

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• AT&T just announced a new 'Build-A-Plan' that starts at $15 a month: here's what you actually get

Today AT&T announced a new customizable wireless plan that lets you choose the right features for you starting at $15 per month. The new "Build-a-Plan" is month-to-month and kicks off on Wednesday, May 27.

This new plan offering looks to put more control in subscribers' hands. According to AT&T's announcement, it's meant to give you more choice and control while offering lower prices compared to T-Mobile and Verizon.

One way it does this is by letting you customize your plan from month to month, rather than being locked into a single contract for a specified period.

"By giving our customers the freedom to tailor their wireless service month to month, we are giving them an affordable way to connect to America’s largest wireless network and still control their budget," said Jenifer Robertson, AT&T's executive vice president and general manager of AT&T Consumer.

How 'Build-A-Plan' works

Build-A-Plan starts at $15 a month, which includes unlimited talk, text and 1GB of data.

From there, you can add data from one of four tiers: 5GB, 15GB, Unlimited Data with SD video streaming, or Unlimited Data with HD streaming. The increased data selections replace the 1GB from the $15 base plan.

For those who need Hotspots, you can add 5GB, 25GB or 50GB data options.

At its most expensive, you could pay $70 a month for unlimited data with HD streaming, 50GB of hotspot data, and unlimited text and talk.

Personally, I rarely, if ever, need Hotspot data, so I would probably choose the 15GB data plan, which only costs $25 per month all in. For a major carrier, that's a great deal and even beats some of the best cheap cell phone plans, including offerings from Mint Mobile — our top pick.

As mentioned, though, if you know you'll need hotspot data or more data, like when you go on vacation, you can bump up or reduce your plan month to month as needed.

AT&T doesn't specify, but it appears you'll need to bring your own phone to the plan. The announcement and website also don't specify how current AT&T subscribers can switch to this plan.

An AT&T spokesperson told Tom's Guide that the plan is bring your device, which must be eSIM capable. Additionally, initially, the plan is meant for new customers but we were told that as the company gains insights it will refine the experience and exapand the plan to more customers.

Build-A-Plan officially goes live starting May 27, and you'll be able to sign up at att.com/plans/build-plan/.

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It seems rare that major companies would want to collaborate on something to positively affect the regular consumer these days. But some of the best phone carriers are doing just that, in an attempt to end dead zones.

No, not the novel by Stephen King, or the excellent movie starring Christopher Walken. We're talking about wireless dead zones: areas with no compatible cell signal that cut you off from all mobile services — including calls and data. 

The announcement is fairly light on details, but according to Verizon, the deal will not involve building a bunch more cell towers across the country. Instead, it's going to focus on satellite connectivity and beam a connection to your device from space from a "unified platform."

The overall aim is to, in the words of the big three, "nearly eliminate" dead zones within the U.S. This will involve reaching areas that have been underserved by major carriers, and providing reliable backup connectivity options if traditional cell signal breaks down — such as during emergencies or natural disasters.

What other benefits are there?

Customers will also apparently benefit from a consistent and simpler satellite connection, regardless of which carrier they're signed up with. That means better connectivity and faster rollout of updates and new features for everyone at the same time.

The carriers say that this will also "drive industry progress by enabling competition, fostering innovation, expanding access, and simplifying integration." The main reason is probably that working together makes it easier (and cheaper) to offer improved satellite connectivity than going it alone.

The announcement does make a valid point about satellite spectrum being scarce, and teaming up means they don't have to constantly fight just to license a fraction of the available spectrum for their customers. More access to spectrum should mean better connectivity for the end user, so long as the big three aren't allowed to dominate the skies and prevent other satellite-based companies from getting a look in.

The deal hasn't been finalized yet, and since this is only an agreement in principle, there's always a possibility that these plans will fall through. Assuming the lawyers can push this through, there's no set timeline on when the plans will actually come to fruition. So we're just going to have to wait and see how these plans pan out over the next few years.

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After winning a waiver from the FCC, Verizon has been quick to update its unlock policies, making it harder for customers to leave with their devices for a rival carrier. The changes don't affect just people who use Verizon, but also several MVNOs that piggyback on Verizon's network.

Compared to AT&T and T-Mobile, the policies are largely the same, especially when it comes to prepaid devices. AT&T appears to still respect the 60-day window that was waived for Verizon.

Here's how the big three compare.

How we got here

In January, the Federal Communications Commission agreed to waive a 60-day phone unlock requirement that had been imposed on Verizon since 2008, when it acquired licenses to use the 700 MHz spectrum. It was reupped in 2021 when Verizon bought TracFone.

Verizon has argued that the shorter unlock window contributed to "device fraud" and increased phone prices. The FCC agreed.

“Today, criminal networks are specifically targeting Verizon handsets due to the company’s unique unlocking policies,” the FCC’s filing said.

As Ars Technica reported in January, the company almost immediately introduced a new unlocking policy for TracFone and other prepaid brands that enforced a 365-day lock period. That affects brands like StraightTalk, Total Wireless and Walmart Family Mobile.

Verizon associated MVNOs

If you're unfamiliar, an MVNO is a mobile virtual network operator. Simply, these are carriers that utilize a larger carrier's network to offer services.

Verizon partners with more than a dozen MVNOs that use its networks. Some of them are partially or wholly owned by Verizon like Visible and TracPhone. The largest and most visible one is Xfinity Mobile, which offers cell service for customers who also get internet from Comcast.

Verizon's key MVNOs are:

• Xfinity Mobile
• Twigby
• Ting
• Spectrum Mobile
• Page Plus
• Pix Wireless
• Credo Mobile
• Lively
• Net10
• Reach Mobile
• Red Pocket
• Straight Talk
• Total Wireless
• TracFone

Verizon struggling

Reportedly, Verizon is struggling to retain customers. The most recent earnings call reported a 32.6% decline in operating income and a cancellation rate of 0.95% among postpaid phone customers, a much higher rate than in previous quarters.

CEO Dan Schulman blamed it on price increases "without corresponding value," friction in billing, onboarding and customer service, and a shift to MVNO carriers.

A Market Force Information survey from 2025 found that Verizon customers, on average, spend $157 a month on their phone bills, the highest among the big three. Customer satisfaction was quite low as well.

Between price hikes, several major outages in the last six months, and now this harsher unlock policy, Verizon is doing itself no favors.

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The scores are in for the U.S.A.'s Big 3 mobile carriers in Ookla RootMetrics's State of the Mobile Union Report for the second half of 2025. And it's clear that Verizon comes out on top this time.

Reports like this can be a good way to judge which of the best phones carriers is going to be the best for where you live. And given that RootMetrics' findings are based on 3 million tests conducted from July to December 2025 across the country, and in 125 major urban areas, it's safe to say it's pretty thorough.

The big winner is Verizon, which won five of RootMetrics' eight headline awards outright, and tied for another two. Its haul of trophies includes wins for overall performance and reliability, plus it scored best for general 5G performance, while also improving its download speeds in metro regions.

AT&T tied for three awards, putting it in second place. It came second on a state-by-state basis too, and managed to improve both its metro test results, managing to meet gold standard of 100 Mbps download speeds in the 125 metro test regions for the first time.

T-Mobile shares just one award - U.S. Network Speed - with AT&T, earning it the bronze medal. That said, the UnCarrier still managed to have the highest 5G availability nationally, while also improving on a state and metro level too. City-dwelling T-Mo users do especially well, as it's the only carrier of the three tested to manage 100 Mbps download speeds in every metro tested, with all but one of those also hitting the 200 Mbps mark.

In the 1H 2025 report by RootMetrics, AT&T earned four outright wins and tied Verizon for data performance and text performance. And Verizon won for network responsiveness and video performance.

Good to know — especially if you're in the market for a new phone

While anyone subscribed to Verizon is probably feeling a little smug right now, none of the big three did disasterously badly in this set of testing, so don't feel like you need to immediately escape your contract to sign up to Verizon if you're not already a member. However, it's perhaps worth keeping in mind as phone releases for 2026 start to get into gear.

The big one to keep in mind is the Samsung Galaxy S26, which is should be revealed by the end of February and go on sale in March. But the crystal ball suggests we may see the Google Pixel 10a, and perhaps an iPhone 17e, shortly after that. If you're planning to upgrade, it could be worth investigating if buying any of these phones with a Verizon contract is the best option for you, or maybe T-Mobile if you live in one of the city regions where the network fared particularly well.

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You can't turn on your TV these days without clapping eyes on an actor touting the merits of one of the Big Three U.S. phone carriers. And in each one, the actor looks right into the camera to tell you the wireless carrier they're representing has the best network.

The latest instance features Luke Wilson strolling around a wind-swept prairie and declaring AT&T to be the phone network to beat. This ad echoes a T-Mobile spot that debuted a few months earlier, in which Billy Bob Thornton strolls around a different wind-swept prairie while singing the praises of the Uncarrier.

Meanwhile, Verizon offers neither wind-swept prairies nor late '90s leading men in its ads, but it does include the claim that its network happens to be the best.

Three ads for three phone carriers all claiming to offer the fastest, most reliable wireless service — so which one is correct? The answer depends on whose data you're using.

Comparing the phone network ads and their claims

Let's start with the T-Mobile ad, since it was the one that triggered this latest round of "My network is better than yours" back and forth. T-Mobile rolled out the spot in June around the same time it was previewing its soon-to-launch satellite connectivity, and the ad featured Billy Bob Thornton proclaiming that the Uncarrier had overtaken Verizon in the network performance rankings.

"Now the best mobile network in the U.S. is T-Mobile," Thornton says in the ad. "Some fancy experts finished a network test, and T-Mobile sort of opened a can of whoop-up."

The fancy experts in question are from Ookla, a mobile testing firm, which had just released its Speedtest Awards for the first half of 2025. In that testing period, T-Mobile posted the best Speedtest Connectivity score, which measures speed, video streaming and web browsing performance. T-Mobile scored 79.95 in that metric, compared to 75.49 for Verizon and 72.47 for AT&T.

If you thought AT&T was going to take that lying down, you were badly mistaken. The carrier dispatched Luke Wilson to tell its side of the story in an ad that's airing regularly during this month's World Series coverage.

"AT&T is America's first network and it's still the best," Wilson assures us. "That's not me talking, that's the scoreboard."

Or rather, that's the word from Rootmetrics and its testing report covering the first half of 2025. In that report, AT&T gets the nod for best overall network performance, while also winning top honors for network reliability, network speed and call performance. AT&T and Verizon were joint winners in Rootmetrics' data performance and text performance categories.

T-Mobile didn't exactly come up empty in the Rootmetrics report. It's cited for having the best 5G availability, meaning you're most likely to get a 5G signal in more locations. Rootmetrics also called out T-Mobile's "stellar speeds in major cities."

As for Verizon, its current ads are more focused on a promotion that lets AT&T and T-Mobile customers bring in their bill to see if Big Red can offer them a better deal. But the carrier does include a nod to its own network performance in those commercials.

"Better deal, best 5G network," the ad notes, with the fine print in the commercial pointing to the same Rootmetrics report cited by AT&T. And that report does recognize Verizon for offering the best 5G experience along with the fastest and most reliable 5G performance.

And the winner is ... everybody?

Normally, when you have three different companies claiming the same thing, you'd have to assume that two of them are incorrect. But in this instance, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon can all point to third-party reports that back up their claims.

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Two data breaches that resulted in a class action lawsuit against AT&T are coming to a resolution, with the phone carrier agreeing to pay $177 million. AT&T agreed to pay the sum to avoid a trial.

The settlement was preliminarily approved by a Texas judge in August. Under the terms of the deal, affected customers may be able to claim up to $7,500. A settlement website from Kroll, the risk and financial advisory firm acting as the settlement administrator, is now available.

How we got here

The class action lawsuit was filed against the telecom giant over two different breaches from 2019 and 2024. The 2019 breach was not reported by AT&T until 2024, when data from that breach was being sold on the dark web.

That breach involved the personal data of more than 73 million former and current AT&T customers. Sensitive data included Social Security numbers, legal names, and birth dates. AT&T was forced to reset passcodes for millions of its customers.

The second breach hit in 2024 with hackers getting into data stored in AT&T's cloud-based data warehouse, Snowflake. Reportedly, that breach affected 109 million AT&T customers.

The stolen data mostly surrounded call information like mobile and landline numbers, calls and texts sent over AT&T's network, aggregate call duration and some cell site identification numbers. This data could be enough to figure out the identities of AT&T customers.

Separate lawsuits were filed over both data breaches before being consolidated into a single class action lawsuit.

"Parties have settled the actions in their entirety without any admission of liability or wrongdoing," the settlement website says.

How to know if you have a claim

The agreed-upon settlement is being split into two tiers: AT&T 1 Settlement Class and AT&T 2 Settlement Class.

The first tier covers the 2019 breach and is eligible for $149 million of the payout. The second tier covers the 2024 breach and is eligible for the remaining $28 million.

The Kroll Settlement Administration should send you an email if you qualify for the settlement. So keep an eye on your mailbox, including the spam folder.

If you believe you qualify but haven't received communication, you can reach out.

You can call (833) 890-4930 or send an inquiry letter to:

AT&T Data Incident Settlement
c/o Kroll Settlement Administration LLC
P.O. Box 5324
New York, NY 10150-5324

How to file a claim

A claim can be filed on the Kroll website or through the mail using the address above. You'll need to have a Class Member ID to file a claim, which should be provided by Kroll once it reaches out to you via email or otherwise.

If you don't want to submit online, you can print out the claim form and mail it.

These are the forms you'll need:

• 2019 AT&T data breach
• 2024 AT&T data breach
• Claim for those affected by both breaches

The claim must be submitted or postmarked by December 18, 2025.

What the settlement could pay

For those affected by the 2019 data breach you have to prove documented financial loss because of the breach. If so, you're eligible for up to $5,000. If you were affected by the 2024 breach you can qualify for up to $2,500.

Technically, you may qualify for both, but you might need to provide Kroll with proof for each incident.

If you can't prove that the breach directly led to financial loss but you still qualify, you'll receive a pro rata share of the remaining money. This will depend on how many people make claims.

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SIM swapping is one of the more nefarious and difficult-to-deal-with cybercrimes that can affect phone users. However, a new feature from AT&T, called Wireless Account Lock, wants to help defend against it.

AT&T announced the feature in a news post that details how Wireless Account Lock can help to protect your phone. According to AT&T, users can turn the feature on and off via a toggle located in the AT&T app available for postpaid wireless accounts.

When activated, the Account Lock blocks the phone from performing certain functions, including:

• Upgrading a device
• Changing a SIM card or eSIM
• Initiating a phone transfer
• Adding a new line
• Changing billing information
• Changing authorized users
• Changing phone numbers

These features will remain locked until the Wireless Account Lock is deactivated within the app, which requires physical access to the phone. AT&T is also providing a Business Account Lock, which offers more power to an account administrator by allowing them to exempt certain lines from the lock, as well as being able to enable select lock functions if desired, rather than locking all of them.

What is SIM swapping?

The main reason for this new feature is to limit the number of SIM swapping scams, which can be a major issue for customers and businesses to handle. The scam involves the scammer faking a request to move your phone number over to a new SIM card, which then allows them to receive calls and texts meant for you. With that, they can do things like bypass two-factor authentication by receiving the call or text themselves.

It can be difficult to tell if you have been the victim of this kind of scam, but there are a couple of major red flags to be on the lookout for. The first is if you experience a sudden loss of service, blocking your ability to receive calls or texts. Also, make sure to check for any unauthorized transactions on your accounts, or if you lose access online.

This new feature should go a long way in helping to keep AT&T customers safe, but there are other steps that everyone can take to help protect themselves. Firstly, it’s wise to set up a PIN or a strong password with your network provider, which will be required when trying to make any account changes. On top of this, it is a good idea to set up biometrics, like Face ID or a fingerprint scan, on your accounts as an extra level of security.

For more help with security, we have breakdowns on how to protect your phone from viruses and malware, as well as guides on how to protect your new devices. We also have a breakdown of the best password managers, as well as the best VPNs, to help you keep your devices safe.

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A judge in Texas has granted preliminary approval for a deal that will grant a $177 million total settlement to address two recent AT&T data breaches.

According to reporting from PCMag, eligible customers will receive notifications this summer via email or physical letter from the settlement administrator. Ideally, the funds will be distributed before the final approval hearing on December 3rd.

A court document indicates that the settlement program should officially begin on August 4th, with payments to be sent out beginning early next year, depending upon the judge granting final approval.

The total amount of money offered to each individual will depend on the number of affected users who submit claims and the varying degrees of personal data exposed. Users may be eligible for up to $5,000 for the 2019 data breach, and up to $2,500 for the Snowflake incident if they submit documentation to show the losses they suffered.

The settlement is meant to address two data breaches, including one that occurred back in 2019 and went on for years.

As a result of that breach, threat actors had access to the personal information including names, Social Security numbers, and birth dates of 51 million former and existing customers. AT&T confirmed the breach only this past March; several class action lawsuits followed accusing the company that it hadn’t properly safeguarded the stolen data.

The second data breach involved AT&T’s account with Snowflake, a cloud storage provider, and a hacker that gained unauthorized access during April of 2024.

The hacker responsible for the breach obtained call and text records for almost all of AT&T’s customers; though AT&T claims no customer names were included in the exposed information. Additional class action lawsuits alleging corporate neglect followed. Law enforcement did arrest two individuals alleged to be involved in the Snowflake breach though.

AT&T has said in a statement that it has “agreed to this settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation,” but the company denies the allegations in the lawsuits that suggest it was responsible for any criminals acts.

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In a trend that absolutely no one wants to get behind, another older data leak has been paired with additional customer information to get re-released as a new data leak to expose even more customer info and personal details.

As reported by BleepingComputer, an old 2021 AT&T data leak which contained millions of phone numbers has been linked with Social Security numbers and birth dates of the individual users.

The company has stated that cybercriminals will commonly repackage previously disclosed data for financial aim, which is what they believe is happening here, and that when they learned of the data going up for sale on the dark web they began a full investigation.

While the threat actor who leaked the data onto a popular Russian-speaking hacking forum claimed it was the data stolen during the 2024 AT&T ‘Snowflake’ cyberattack, which is what was initially reported by HackRead. However, after BleepingComputer analyzed the exposed information, the news outlet determined it was actually from the 2021 data leak which was caused by a hacker dubbed ‘ShinyHunters.’

This is not the first time the 2021 ShinyHunters data has been leaked or even linked to additional personal information. For instance last year, the data was leaked along with names, addresses, mobile phone numbers, encrypted date of birth, encrypted Social Security numbers and more. This leak has cleaned up that data to remove internal AT&T information and added the unencrypted Social Security numbers and dates of birth to each customer record.

There are reportedly over 86 million unique records of this nature, with more than 48 million unique phone numbers that have associated customer information. This is due to customers having multiple records with the same phone number being used at different addresses.

We were contacted by a representative from AT&T who informed us that "After analysis by our internal teams as well as external data consultants, we are confident this is repackaged data previously released on the dark web in March 2024. Affected customers were notified at that time. We have notified law enforcement of this latest development." AT&T also informed us that they had offered credit monitoring and identity theft protection to the customers who had sensitive personal information compromised as part of the breach in 2024.

How to check on your data and what to do next

Not sure if you were one of the customers affected by these breaches? At this point, if you're an AT&T customer, you should be taking steps to see if you've been affected and then to lock down your own data in order to keep yourself safe.

As with all data breaches, the biggest threat will be phishing attacks and online fraud. Now that hackers can easily figure out your identity, they might try to reach out to you posing as AT&T. That means you'll need to be extra careful when checking your inbox and messages.

Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from unknown senders as hackers often set up fake pages to steal your credentials, credit card data and other sensitive info. For this reason, you want to go directly to AT&T’s page instead of clicking on any links on search results, social media or even ads that claim to take you to it.

If you haven't signed up for one of the best identity theft protection services, now might be a good time to look into them. You can also consider putting fraud alerts on your files with the Big Three credit-reporting agencies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and even instituting a credit freeze (although doing so can complicate getting a loan or opening new payment accounts).

This 2021 data leak seems to be the gift that keeps on giving for hackers, so I wouldn't be surprised if this stolen info is used in future attacks. Don't worry though as we'll be keeping a close eye on this one.

More from Tom's Guide

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• Meta called out for tracking Android users across the web without their consent — what you need to know
• Dangerous new Android malware adds fake contacts to your phone while draining bank accounts — how to stay safe

It’s been a long time since I was on a cell phone plan from any of the big three wireless carriers, but it looks like more people are ditching them as well, at least according to the latest data reports. I’m not surprised by this sudden shift either, especially when some of the best cheap cell phone plans come from MVNOs and regional wireless carriers.

From increasing prices to severe outages, it hasn’t been easy for traditional wireless carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to keep their customers. In fact, they’re losing out to cable companies of all things.

What’s really surprising is that the MoffettNathanson report shows that cable companies are tacking on new customers at an impressive rate — led by Charter Communications, Comcast and Altice USA. They added 886,000 lines during the first three months of the year, which is up from the 804,000 accounted for during the same period in 2024.

Charter Communications alone added 514,000 lines in Q1 2025, which outperformed the 495,000 lines that T-Mobile gained for the same period. Meanwhile, rivals AT&T added 324,000 — while Verizon was red for the period with a loss of 289,000 customers. Verizon recently added a 3-year price lock guarantee to entice customers, a move that aims to mitigate fears about phone plan rates continually increasing.

Comcast also saw positive gains, adding 323,000 customers in Q1 2025, with Altice gaining 49,000 customers. In total, cable companies added 19.05 million mobile lines, which indicates that more people are interested in other cell phone plans beyond those from the big three carriers.

Even though cable companies have long established themselves as budget alternatives and particularly target the lower end of the market, they’re now branching out by offering a wide range of cell phone plans — with a bigger focus on adding premium plans and devices. It also helps that these phone plan services are sometimes bundled in with home broadband service.

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If you've been holding out on upgrading to one of the best phones, a new report offers another reason why you should consider a new handset, and it may be for a reason you haven't really considered — faster download and upload speeds.

That's the conclusion that network testing firm Ookla reached after running network speed tests on the Galaxy S25 series, along with the last four generations of Samsung flagship.

The takeaway? Today's Galaxy flagships deliver much faster connectivity, thanks to improvements in both the phones' chipsets and modems. And one U.S. network carrier in particular stood out for delivering the fastest speeds.

The data from Ookla should be interesting to anyone mulling over a new Samsung phone purchase, whether it's the already available Galaxy S25 models or the upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge release. And it also offers a look at which phone carriers are providing faster 5G speeds right now.

Galaxy S download and upload speeds

For its report, Ookla tested download and upload performance across the last five generations of Galaxy S phone, from the current Galaxy S25 Ultra, dating all the way back to the Galaxy S21 Ultra released in 2021. Tests were conducted on the networks of all three major U.S. carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.

When running Ookla's speed text, the Galaxy S21 Ultra's fastest download speed was 269.34 Mbps, which it reached on T-Mobile's 5G network. The Galaxy S25 Ultra posted a top speed of 442.69 Mbps on that same network — a 64% improvement over the four-year-old Ultra model.

Even more recent releases lagged behind the Galaxy S25 Ultra, with the S23 Ultra and S24 Ultra posting respective download speeds of 334.22 Mbps and 358.7 Mbps on T-Mobile.

Ookla also tested upload speed numbers for its report, with the Galaxy S25 Ultra reaching speeds of 23.72 Mbps on T-Mobile's network. That's a 57% improvement over the Galaxy S21 Ultra's 15.08 Mbps result. The Galaxy S25 Ultra improved upon the S24 Ultra upload speeds by 23%.

The Galaxy S25 models benefit from Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite system-on-chip, which has been optimized specifically for Samsung's phones with a faster core CPU. But that chipset also comes with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X80 5G modem for fast connectivity.

Even though all three Galaxy S25 models feature the same Qualcomm chipset, you'll get faster connectivity from the larger phones in Samsung's lineup. The Galaxy S25 Ultra posts the fastest download and upload speeds of the current models across all three networks.

On T-Mobile's network, download speeds for the Galaxy S25 Ultra were 9% faster than what the Galaxy S25 Plus produced. The Galaxy S25 Ultra was also 12% faster on downloads than the Galaxy S25.

Which carrier should you choose?

You might notice that we've been referring to performance numbers on T-Mobile's network. That's because in Ookla's testing, T-Mobile consistently produced the best results for both upload and download speeds. (One exception: The Galaxy S23 Ultra's best download speeds were on Verizon.)

Looking specifically at download speeds from a Galaxy S25 Ultra, the 442.69 Mbps result was 40% faster than the 315.12 Mbps result on Verizon's network. AT&T brought up the rear with 216 Mbps download speeds.

That's relevant data if you're not only considering a new phone but a switch to a new carrier as well. Lots of factors determine who the best phone carrier is, but Ookla's new report would certainly suggest that T-Mobile has the edge on 5G download and upload speeds.

While Ookla's results spotlight the current Galaxy S25 lineup, it could also prove to be relevant for the upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge.

While Samsung has yet to disclose any official specs for that phone, rumors suggest that the phone maker will use the same Snapdragon 8 Elite system-on-chip found on the other Galaxy S25 models. That would mean the same X80 modem that delivered such impressive speeds here.

We should find out very soon what silicon Samsung is using in the Galaxy S25 Edge, along with the other specs of the ultra-thin addition to the S25 lineup. Rumors point to a May 13 release for the phone.

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Whenever there’s a big event like Super Bowl 2025 this Sunday in New Orleans, the best phone carriers take the opportunity to talk up the upgrades they’re making for the big game. Only when the final whistle blows at the end of Sunday’s game, the improvements around the Caesars Superdome and New Orleans at large will remain long after the Super Bowl LIX circus packs up and moves on.

AT&T, billed as the “neutral host provider” that will support other carriers, is building on work done in 2022 with an upgrade to its distributed antenna system (DAS) that it claims will provide reliable service in and near the Superdome as well as the adjacent Smoothie King Arena. There’s an improved outdoor antenna system to handle tailgaters. The telecom is also highlighting longer-term upgrades in New Orleans, including at hotels, and will have 11 “COWs” (Cells on Wheels) in the area for temporary boosts.

All of the upgrades beyond the wheeled sites are permanent, AT&T’s Madelynn Taylor tells Tom’s Guide.

Other carriers are promising similar network revamps. T-Mobile is refreshing its stadium antenna system, and boasts that its major cell sites near the Superdome will support downloads up to 920Mbps. Capacities at the airport, convention center, hotels, Smoothie King Arena, and French Quarter have also jumped, T-Mobile adds, with download speeds peaking at 975Mbps. There will be few temporary upgrades — just one COW and a SAT/COLT (Satellite Cell on Light Truck) to support NFL broadcasts, spokesperson Mason Miller says.

Verizon, in turn, is promising high-speed C-Band and Ultra Wideband 5G in “every seat, suite, and concourse” in the stadium, along with new fiber optic infrastructure rollouts that will cover highly frequented areas including the Smoothie King Arena, airport, convention center, and Bourbon Street. C-Band sits in a frequency sweet spot, so it ideally offers the meaningful speed boost of 5G without as many coverage problems as high-frequency Ultra Wideband (aka millimeter wave, or mmWave in Verizon-speak).

These upgrades are not only lasting, Verizon’s Lauren Peterson explains, but are reportedly strong enough that the carrier doesn't see the need to parade “fleets of vehicles” to show that it’s upgrading connectivity in the city. That’s as much practical as it is a marketing flex, as just over half of the 61,629 attendees at last year’s Super Bowl were Verizon customers, according to the carrier.

Beyond Super Bowl Sunday

No matter which phone carrier you talk to, you’ll hear vows that these phone network upgrades will help New Orleans residents long after Super Bowl LIX is over.

AT&T is adding more C-Band 5G spectrum downtown, and has four new small cell nodes with C-Band overlaying 69 of them. Meanwhile, T-Mobile president of technology Ulf Ewaldson stresses that bolstered 5G will support businesses and their customers well beyond the football spectacular. Verizon says it’s adding more than 200 small cells and matching antennas that cover the “hottest spots in town,” not just sports arenas and other fan gathering places.

As proof that these aren’t one-time initiatives, the telecoms point to their track record for 2024’s Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, not to mention other sporting events.

T-Mobile blanketed Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium with distributed antennas, added 17 small cell sites city-wide, and made strategic network upgrades at both the airport as well as hotels like Cosmopolitan and Fontainebleau. Verizon spent over two years preparing its network for the game with both stadium upgrades (such as nearly triple the 5G bandwidth versus 2023) and across-the-city capacity growth that included C-Band access.

All of Verizon’s Las Vegas upgrades were meant to stay, Peterson says. That included additional millimeter wave and C-Band radios at Allegiant Stadium as well as better coverage at city fixtures like the Strip, the airport, and the convention center. While there were half as many radios added then as for New Orleans in 2025, that didn’t appear to be an issue given data speeds that were supposedly three times faster than with competitors.

Why the focus on enduring network upgrades? It largely comes down to public perception. At a minimum, this is marketing: by associating permanent upgrades with the Super Bowl, carriers burnish their image and potentially attract more subscribers. You may be more likely to sign up if you know that you’ll get fast speeds when you attend a Saints game next season thanks to all those Superdome upgrades.

There’s a political aspect, too. Congress, regulators, and local governments have routinely investigated cellular availability, including coverage gaps, spectrum allocations, and 5G deployment funding. If carriers highlight what they’re doing to improve service, they theoretically remain in politicians’ good graces.They might receive contracts, secure funds, and avoid regulatory battles.

Why these network improvements matter

Moreover, the firms have acknowledged that forward-thinking network investments can pay off in not-so-direct ways. Taylor notes that many of the AT&T teams involved in Super Bowl LIX upgrades worked on past Super Bowls, and that each event is a learning experience. The “number one lesson is to start planning early,” Taylor adds. AT&T was already prepping the New Orleans overhaul soon after the 2022 NCAA Men’s Final Four basketball weekend in New Orleans.

The communications giant also got to test its revamped service before the football final when Taylor Swift swung by for the Eras Tour in late October 2024. That was an “amazing pressure test,” according to AT&T’s Taylor. While the company says the refined New Orleans network performed “spectacularly” for Swift’s visit, Taylor notes that optimizations have been underway since. The Smoothie King Arena upgrade is currently wrapping up, too.

Other carriers see comparable benefits. Miller says that T-Mobile views major events as a “great way to double down” on permanent network upgrades that are already underway. The carrier has been tying these expansions to events for over a decade, he adds. Verizon, in turn, mentions that this is the first event “of its kind” to be monitored by cloud-based vRAN technology that lets it shift and optimize capacity in real time.

As such, there’s evidence that Super Bowl-linked permanent upgrades will continue, or at least will be heavily advertised when they take place. It’s an opportunity to grab the spotlight, of course, but it also serves as a motivator for the carriers themselves. It tests their ability to manage huge amounts of traffic in concentrated areas, and the know-how they gain can translate to other cities and events. For AT&T and T-Mobile, these are also chances to overtake Verizon and score both practical and symbolic victories.

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With data breaches hitting millions of Americans repeatedly this year, it's not often clear who is behind these hacks and what they're doing with the sensitive information which they've gained access to.

Recently, Chinese hackers have been to blame for a surge of cyberattacks in the United States targeting everything from corporations to government systems and infrastructure.

This week, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint statement (via TechSpot) confirming that Chinese hackers were behind several breaches of US telecommunications providers. However, they also compromised wiretap systems used by law enforcement for surveillance.

In the statement, the agencies described the cyberattack campaign as "broad and significant" while tying the breaches to a group called "Salt Typhoon" that the agencies say is backed by the People's Republic of China.

Reportedly, the group infiltrated several telecommunications providers. The statement does not name any specific companies but the Wall Street Journal has reported that AT&T and Verizon were among the affected providers.

Apparently, the group had "carte blanche" access to network systems, however, US officials stated that compromised data was only taken from select individuals, mainly people involved with the government or political activities.

One of whom may have been Senator JD Vance, who told podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan, that he had been targeted by Salt Typhoon during a a recent interview. He claimed that the group only got "some offensive memes" and texts to his wife.

In the statement, the FBI and CISA stated they would assist any affected organizations or companies, "continue to render technical assistance, rapidly share information to assist other potential victims, and work to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector."

The hackers are said to have copied information related to law enforcement requests and wiretaps, which could hinder ongoing investigations.

How to stay safe

While the agencies said that Salt Typhoon and other Typhoon-esque state-sponsored hacking groups didn't access the data of all Americans in the providers' systems, it doesn't mean they didn't take any data which could later be used in other attacks.

Regardless of whether your data was stolen or not, you definitely don't want to rush when going through your inbox. Scammers often instill a sense of urgency in their emails in an effort to make you stressed and more willing to go along with their instructions. Stay calm and cautious when handling an message in your inbox and you should always be on the lookout for phishing and other suspicious emails.

Hackers often disguise themselves as well-known brands by faking a company's email address. Look out for red flags like misspelled words or poor grammar and double-check the sender's email address or phone number to make sure it's correct. If you're not 100% confident, then err on the side of caution.

To keep your computer safe from malware and other viruses that could come from opening a phishing email, it's important to install and use the best antivirus software on your PC, the best Mac antivirus software on your Mac and one of the best Android antivirus apps on your Android smartphone.

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Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a new rule that would make unlocking phones and switching carriers easier. 

The initial announcement was made on June 27, but the FCC officially proposed the rule change less than a month later on July 18. When a rule is officially proposed, typically, the FCC allows for comments and responses from the public. 

Network carriers T-Mobile and AT&T released their response to the rule this week. The proposal would require carriers to unlock phones with 60 days of activation, even if under contract and not paid off.

The two carriers are arguing that unlocking phones so soon is actually harmful to their customers claiming that locking a phone to a provider makes the phones cheaper for both the companies and their customers. Consumer advocacy groups have said that the FCC's rule helps give people more choices and would lower their costs.

"If the Commission mandates a uniform unlocking policy, it is consumers—not providers—who stand to lose the most," the company wrote in an October 17 filing to the FCC. "T-Mobile noted that consumers risk losing access to the benefits of free or heavily subsidized handsets because the proposal would force providers to reduce the line-up of their most compelling handset offers

In July's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, T-Mobile was specifically highlighted by FCC because of a policy where prepaid handsets sold by the sub-brand Metro are locked to the network for at least a year after purchase.

In T-Mobile's response (seen by Gizmodo) the company said, "A handset unlocking mandate would also leave providers little choice but to limit their handset offers to lower cost and offer lesser performing handsets."

In the proposal the FCC argues that "Even after fully paying for the phone, [customer's] ability to switch to another provider is limited by the locked phone. Additionally, locked phones, particularly those tied to pre-paid plans, can disadvantage low income consumers, as they often lack the resources to switch carriers or buy new phones."

As we found in June, three big carriers are all over unlocking after 60 days, T-Mobile actually offered 40 days, as long as your device is completely paid off.

How carriers lock you in

Typically though, these contracts have customers locked to higher-tier plans with "free" devices that get paid off as part of the contract. As an example, T-Mobile is currently offering the iPhone 16 Pro for free with "24 monthly bill credits" with those credits going away if you cancel before two years is up and it requires a Go5G Next plan, which is T-Mobile's highest available tier and costs $180 per month (for up to 3 lines). In the FCC's plan, there would be a hard requirement for unlocking to solve some of the confusion around plans like this.

Verizon, which has not made a public comment, doesn't have as stringent requirements surrounding their contracts possibly because of requirements imposed on the company after it purchased new wireless spectrums. That said, they do still push customers into higher tier contracts to receive "free" devices, like T-Mobile and AT&T.

"When you buy a phone, you should have the freedom to decide when to change service to the carrier you want and not have the device you own stuck by practices that prevent you from making that choice," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said at the time of the proposal.

At the end of the day, two-year contracts and "subsidized" smartphones hide the true costs of the devices in people's pockets. Unbinding contracts and handset pricing might reveal the true cost of phones and how much you're actually paying. Locking obscures the price and keeps people stuck with carriers longer than they potentially want to be.

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Google just announced a refresh of the Pixel lineup at its Made By Google event, and already it turns out you might not be able to find one of the devices at every carrier. 

A new report from CNET, claims that the network carrier AT&T will not be offering the new Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Outside of unlocked phones, the decisions appears to lock Google out of reaching the 88 million mobile subscribers the carrier reportedly has, according to a Statista report.

It's a surprising omission by AT&T considering the Pixel 9 Pro Fold might quickly become one of the best foldable phones. AT&T currently offers the original Google Pixel Fold and has done so since it launched last year. Product pages on the company's website suggest AT&T is planning to sell the rest of the Pixel lineup, including the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro XL, as well as the two new Pixel Watch 3 smartwatches.

Without a clear explanation from the company it's hard to say why AT&T is opting to forgo the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Our chief speculation is that the original Pixel Fold may not have sold well enough for AT&T to consider offering the next generation. 

Tom's Guide reached out to AT&T for more details and to ask if AT&T will honor unlocked Pixel 9 Pro Fold phones. As of this writing, AT&T has not responded.

The new version of Google's foldable phone is more integrated into the main Pixel 9 lineup now and has many of the same hardware and software features that you'll find in the Pixel 9 series. This includes the new powerful Tensor G4 chip, integrated Gemini AI, and a super thin design.  In our hands-on Pixel 9 Pro Fold review, Tom's Guide Global Editor Mark Spoonauer said, "I'm excited with everything Google has brought to the table with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It's not only the most improved foldable, it could be the new foldable phone to beat."

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold will officially go on sale on September 4 starting at $1,799, and Verizon and T-Mobile appear ready to sell Google's new foldable phone.

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Two new studies from the mobile analystics company RootMetrics have been released with a look at how network carriers performed through the first-half of 2024.

The first study took a look at the state of 5G connectivity in the United States. T-Mobile took top spots for speed and coverage in a speed study from Ookla. Surprisingly, and for the first time in awhile, a different network carrier took the top spot in RootMetrics' 5G testing. 

Of the three major metrics that were looked at, Verizon was awarded the winner in two: speed and reliability. T-Mobile won for availability, confirming data from the previous Ookla report. AT&T was generally in third place.

It's a pretty significant shift from the 2023 report that came out earlier this year. In that study, T-Mobile was tops in availability and speed. Verizon still won for reliability in that study.

Across the board, what seemed to separate Verizon from its competitors was the company's network speed outside of major metropolitan areas. Seemingly, the big 3 carriers all have very similar performance in cities, but once you leave high-population centers it can get more spread out.

Based on the most current study and the earlier 2023 one, the difference is what data Rootmetrics used. Previous studies apparently mostly just looked at metropolitan areas or combined urban stats and rural stats. 

The newer study separated out data for rural areas and shows a marked difference between the carriers as they get away from cities.

Accordingly, Verizon also won its seventh straight "Most Reliable 5G" award from RootMetrics, which was bolstered by the new inclusion of rural scores in this year's study.

Perhaps T-Mobile will catch up as the company is showing a commitment to be available everywhere.

The second study from the firm was on the state of mobile through the first half of the year. 

For the most part its a summary of "awards" for how each carrier performed in various markets across the country. However, there are some insights that can be gleaned. 

T-Mobile continued to have the best download speed across major markets capable of hitting 100 Mbps in every market. 

In general, every company was able to improve their download speeds, though AT&T trailed the other two by quite the margin in most tests. Though the report claimed that AT&T performed better in categories like call and text performance. 

Should you consider switching carriers if the numbers speak to you? 

Perhaps. Verizon appears to have the most consistence performance across the board, while AT&T looks to be decent at everything, and T-Mobile has the coverage and speed.

None of that guarantees that you will be able to connect to the network and get those services. Tom's Guide editor Mark Spoonauer recently switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and found that his devices did not enjoy the speed and coverage that the network supposedly provides.

And they are close enough in score that you should find pretty good service everywhere, especially metropolitan areas. 

If the network isn't working, you could always check out some of the best carriers that aren't the big three. 

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T-Mobile continues to blanket the country in pink speed as the "Un-carrier" was reported to have the fastest mobile network in the US. 

The report furnished by Ookla, a web testing and network diagnostics company, looked at several metrics over the first half of 2024. T-Mobile was either comfortably ahead of competitors Verizon and AT&T or blowing them out of the water. 

Ookla studied the speed of the network carriers' mobile networks, their 5G network speed, network consistency, video experiences, gaming experiences and how consumers felt about their carriers. 

In the mobile network and 5G tests, T-Mobile's network showed median download speeds of over 220 megabits per second (Mbps). Verizon and AT&T were further away at around 110 Mbps on their mobile networks. The report notes that Verizon has significantly improved since last year, with their 5G speeds hitting 191 Mbps compared to 146 in 2023.

All three companies were relatively similar in consistency, as Ookla tests found that they all exceeded 80%, meeting the threshold of 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload throughput. T-Mobile was the highest at 86%.

Similar stories can be read in video and gaming for the trio of network carriers. And they weren't far off in consumer sentiment, with AT&T being rated the lowest at 3.14 stars out of 5, while T-Mobile was at 3.79 stars out of 5.

It should be noted that these tests are a general outlay of the United States. On a state-by-state level, it can be a different story. For example, Illinois had the fastest median download speeds of around 160 Mbps. Meanwhile, states like South Dakota, Maine and Vermont hover around only 42 Mbps, an astounding drop-off. T-Mobile led the pack in every state except North Dakota, where Verizon is the fastest.

Should you switch to T-Mobile?

With all this talk of superior speed and consistency, should you consider switching to T-Mobile? 

Maybe.

Since acquiring Sprint and its network in 2020, T-Mobile has been integrating the yellow carrier's network into a nearly 100% pink coverage map. This isn't to say that the coverage is always good, though.

Our global editor-in-chief, Mark Spoonauer, recently switched from Verizon to T-Mobile; in his words, it's been a total disaster. 

Based out of New York, the T-Mobile network consistently had problems staying connected or getting connected for him.

"Overall, I’ve not been satisfied with T-Mobile’s network based on my experience so far. It has simply not been reliable enough for calls. Even while writing this story and talking to my wife on the way home, she cut out every few sentences or so, and I kept having to ask her to repeat herself. That's not sustainable."

Is one man's anecdotal evidence enough to say you shouldn't try it?

Not necessarily, but it is something to consider if the speed tests made your eyes go wide with network envy. 

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AT&T is the latest major company to fall victim to a massive data breach after customer data was stolen from an online database associated with its Snowflake account.

As reported by BleepingComputer, the call and text records of 109 million of the company’s customers or nearly all of its mobile subscribers were stolen by hackers between April 14 and April 25th of this year. However, it’s not just AT&T users who are affected but also Cricket, Boost Mobile and Consumer Cellular customers as well since these companies also use the carrier’s mobile network.

In a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), AT&T revealed that the stolen data includes mobile and landline telephone numbers, the number of calls and text messages sent over the network, aggregate call duration for a day or month and a subset of records containing one or more cell site identification numbers.

Fortunately though, sensitive personal data such as customer names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth were not exposed as a result of this breach. However, the logs accessed by the hackers behind the breach do contain enough communications metadata to figure out the identities of affected AT&T customers. 

Immediately after identifying the breach, AT&T contacted the FBI to report it and the mobile carrier is now working alongside law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to catch those responsible. In fact, at least one person has already been apprehended as part of the investigation into the matter.

Yet another Snowflake victim

AT&T is the latest company to be added to a growing list of businesses that have suffered a data breach after using Snowflake’s cloud-based data warehouse and analytics platform.

Back in June of this year, the cyber threat intelligence firm Mandiant revealed that a financially motivated threat actor (tracked as UNC5537) was responsible for multiple attacks against Snowflake customers. All of these attacks were possible through the use of stolen Snowflake credentials obtained as a result of info-stealing malware. In the time since, Snowflake has made multi-factor authentication (MFA) mandatory for all of its customers to prevent further data breaches through its platform going forward.

In addition to AT&T, Ticketmaster, Neiman Marcus, Banco Santander, Advance Auto parts, Pure Storage and Los Angeles Unified have all been hit with similar data breaches as a result of using Snowflake to house their online databases.

How to see if your data was exposed and what to do next

If you’re an AT&T customer worried your call and text logs may have been exposed, there are some steps you can take right now to see if you’re affected by this breach.

While the mobile carrier says that it will contact all affected customers by text, email or through the mail, this support document recommends that you also check your myAT&T account here. Likewise, there it also contains links for business customers as well as FirstNet users.

As with all data breaches, the biggest threat for AT&T users are phishing attacks and online fraud. Now that hackers could figure out your identity, they might try to reach out to you posing as AT&T. As such, you need to be extra careful when checking your inbox and messages.

You should avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments if a message from an unknown sender arrives in your inbox or over text. Hackers often set up fake pages as means to steal your credentials, credit card data and other sensitive info. For this reason, you want to go directly to AT&T’s page instead of clicking on any links that claim to take you to it.

While companies often provide free access to the best identity theft protection services after a data breach, AT&T hasn’t yet in this case. That could change in the future but given as call and text records instead of personal information were exposed, this seems rather unlikely.

We’ll be following this story closely and will update it accordingly as we learn more about this massive data breach and others like it.

More from Tom's Guide

• AT&T data breach victims need to take these 3 steps right now
• Google is making it easier to see if your info is on the dark web
• Apple issues urgent spyware warning for iPhone users in 98 countries 

I keep tabs on what phone carriers charge for wireless data plans, so I can recommend the best cell phone plans overall based on a mix of price, perks and coverage. If money's really tight, I can even point out the best cheap cell phone plans under $40 that deliver value beyond their low cost.

But what if money is not just a concern, but the only concern? What if you're looking for the cheapest plan available, regardless of any perks it contains.

Well, I can help you there, too.

When the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) expired in 2024, I started compiling the absolute cheapest data plan options out there. I figured that without an ACP subsidy helping defray the costs of wireless phone service, low-income households might be desperate to find ways to keep recurring costs as low as possible.

Prices haven't abated since then. In fact, I'm sure that even if you've never heard of the ACP before this, you've been going over your budget, looking for ways to cut costs.

I've kept my list of the lowest-priced options at the best phone carriers updated, even adding some lesser-known services I've since evaluated. If you've decided that your monthly wireless bill is the place to start cutting, use this list of low-cost data plans as your reference point.

Cheap unlimited data plans

We've focused on tiered data plans because they tend to be the more affordable option. But as our research into the best unlimited data plans has found, you don't need to pay big bucks to enjoy unlimited data.

One way to keep the cost of unlimited data down is to pay for service up front. Just like Mint Mobile's 5GB plan gives you the best rate when you pay for a year in advance, so does the unlimited data plan at the carrier. A full year of service costs $360, which breaks down to $30 a month, though Mint runs promtions that can lower the upfront cost.

AT&T has a lower ceiling to its prepaid unlimited plan — just 16GB — but its upfront cost is lower than Mint's too. You'll pay $240 for a year of AT&T's service, which translates to $20/month for unlimited data.

Not everyone can swing that big upfront cost. Here are the three lowest monthly rates we've seen for unlimited data.

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People looking for the best cell phone plans have discovered a trick long embraced by shoppers at Costco, Sam's Club or any one of a number of big box stores — sometimes, it pays to buy in bulk. Only in this case, people aren't buying an industrial-sized jar of mayonnaise or a palette stacked with canned beans — instead, they're buying up a year's supply of wireless coverage by paying for their cell phone service in advance. And phone carriers are only too happy to oblige them.

Typically, cell phone bills are a monthly affair. You use your wireless service, and at the end of the month a bill shows up telling you what you owe. Even with prepaid phone plans, where you pay for service ahead of time, the default approach is to go month-to-month with your bill paying.

But a growing number of wireless providers are giving their customers another option. Pay for your service well in advance — the most popular length of time is a year, but there are three- and six-month options, too — and you can enjoy a discounted rate that saves you money over the long haul. In exchange, the wireless carriers get a locked-in customer who's no threat to jump to a rival service for the next 12 months.

Does prepaying for a year of cell phone service make sense for your needs? To answer you question, you have to weigh whether the big upfront cost — and we are talking hundreds of dollars — justifies the savings over time. 

If you're debating whether paying for a year's worth of cell phone service in one fell swoop make sense, here's a closer look at what it entails, along with the pros and cons approach. We can also point you to some of the top options at carriers who offer these kinds of plans, which include some of the best unlimited data plans we've seen.

What's the advantage of paying for a full year of cell phone service in advance?

Pay for your smartphone service ahead of time, and you know exactly what your wireless costs are going to be over the next 12 months. Prices may rise on plans, but since you've locked in your rate, that won't affect you at all. (The reverse is also true: when carriers cut their rates, you're still tethered to your year-long plan, but that circumstance happens rather rarely.)

More important than locking in a rate is the discount you'll enjoy by preparing for a year. Phone carriers want the certainty of steady customers, so they're willing to give you a break on your monthly rate if it means keeping you around for a full year — especially since they're betting you'll stick around when your year commitment is fulfilled.

Here's a look at what kind of savings we're talking about on a monthly basis when you pay for a full year. To get the total amount saved, we take the discounted monthly rate you'd pay if your lump payment were spread out over 12 months and deduct it from the cost of what you'd be charged by going month to month with a carrier for a similarly sized plan.

Two notes about the chart above: 1) Mint does offer month-to-month plans so the number in the month-by-month column reflects the monthly rate of its three-month option; and 2) AT&T's $300 annual unlimited plan doesn't have a monthly option, so we're comparing it to the least expensive unlimited data plan available through AT&T's prepaid service.

Those caveats aside, you can see what the savings are like when you commit to a full year of service — anywhere from $48 annually for a tiered data plan to $180 for unlimited data.

What's the disadvantage of paying for a full year of cell phone service in advance?

Paying upfront means exactly that — having enough money on hand to take care of a year's worth of cell phone service, even if it is at a discounted rate. If the $360 that Mint wants in advance for its unlimited plan is too much for your budget, then paying in advance is not going to suit your needs.

Even if you can afford the upfront payment, you're essentially locking yourself into a year-long commitment with a phone carrier. For some people, that won't matter, but if one of the appeals of prepaid plans to you is the ability to change wireless providers at will, you will be giving up that flexibility. 

There's a workaround to this, though. Mint lets customers try out the best Mint Mobile plans for three months at the lower annual rate before you have to commit to a full year to keep that low cost in place. You still have to pay for service upfront, but the $90 required for three months of unlimited data is certainly less than the $360 you'll need to pay for the full year.

Similarly, Visible, Ultra Mobile and Boost all have month-to-month versions of their plans, which you can use before deciding if you like the service enough to commit for a full year.

What should I consider before buying a full year of cell phone service in advance?

The same considerations you would put into picking a wireless provider apply when deciding whether to commit to a phone carrier for a full year, only doubly so. After all, you don't want to lock yourself into a service that doesn't meet your needs.

First, confirm that the network coverage of a carrier is particularly strong where you live and work. If you're going with an MVNO — that's mobile virtual network operator — find out which network provides their service. Visible is owned and operated by Verizon, for example, while Mint and Ultra Mobile are both owned by T-Mobile. Boost uses a mix of AT&T and T-Mobile along with Dish's wireless network for its coverage.

Next, check to see if there are any perks that come with your annual plan besides a discounted rate. Ultra Mobile includes calling and texting to 90-plus countries, while the Visible Plus plan gives you one day of international coverage each month along with the ability to connect a smartwatch to your plan for free. AT&T's year-long plan includes 10GB of hotspot data each month.

If you're signing up for an unlimited plan, find out just how unlimited it actually is. Most carriers put a cap on how much data you can use each month and will slow down your speeds if you go over it. AT&T's plan promises 16GB of high-speed data, for example, while the unlimited plan at Mint Mobile has a 40GB ceiling.

What phone carriers should I consider if I'm looking to pay for a full year of phone service?

We're constantly reviewing different plan options, including the best cheap cell phone plans. These are the annual phone plans that stand out from our research.

1. Mint Mobile: Best annual plan overall

Mint Mobile specializes in plans where you prepay for a full year — in fact, that's the only way to get Mint's best option on plans ranging from 5GB ($15/month) to unlimited data ($30/month). For your first three months of service, Mint will charge you a discounted rate; after that, you would need to sign up for a full year to keep that low rate. (You also have the option of three- and six-month plans, though those options will cost you more on a per-month basis.)

As of this writing, Mint is running a promotion where all of its plans are $15/month for the first three months of service, giving you the chance to try out its unlimited option for just $45 upfront.

2. Visible: Best perks

There are just two plans at Visible, both of which feature unlimited data. You may be tempted by the cheaper $25/month plan, though the savings for prepaying for a full year of service aren't substantial — just $25 over the course of 12 months.

The Visible Plus plan may be more expensive at $45/month, but paying annually saves you $145. You also get better perks including access to Verizon's faster 5G ultra wideband network — regular plans only see regular 5G coverage — along with smartwatch service and a free day of international coverage should you travel.

3. AT&T: Best major carrier annual plan

Among the major carriers, AT&T has the best annual plan option through its prepaid service. Pay $300 up front, and you get 12 months of unlimited data, which works out to $25/month. To put that number in perspective, AT&T's postpaid Unlimited Starter plan costs $65.99/month so you can save yourself $40 each month by prepaying.

4. Ultra Mobile: Best for international calls

Ultra lets you pay for plans in monthly, three-month, six-month or annual lumps, but it's the one-time annual payment that brings you the biggest savings. The cheapest plan is a $15/month talk and text plan that comes with 250MB of data, but you can also pick from 3GB, 5GB, 10GB, 15GB and unlimited data plans.

We're focusing on the 5GB plan as it's a good mix of data and price. We also like that Ultra Mobile includes free calling and texting to 90-plus countries with its plans, which is appealing if you have friends and family living overseas.

As of this writing, Ultra is running a promotion where the best discounts are actually on its three-month plans if you find a full-year commitment — and the larger upfront payment — to be an impediment.

5. Boost Mobile: Impressive savings

Boost Mobile has a $40 monthly unlimited plan that features 12GB of hotspot data and a 35GB cap on high-speed data use. (In other words, your speeds slow down after you hit that limit.) Make an upfront payment of $300, and you can save $180 over what you would have spent going month-to-month.

Previously a Sprint MVNO, Boost Mobile is now owned by Dish and uses that company's network along with the networks of AT&T and T-Mobile to provide coverage.

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AT&T has informed current and older customers about a major data leak, including sending emails and resetting passwords to prevent unauthorized account access.

In a recent statement, AT&T said, “AT&T has determined that AT&T data-specific fields were contained in a data set released on the dark web. While AT&T has made this determination, it is not yet known whether the data in those fields originated from AT&T or one of its vendors.

With respect to the balance of the data set, which includes personal information such as social security numbers, the source of the data is still being assessed. Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier, impacting approximately 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former account holders. Currently, AT&T does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in theft of the data set.”

This statement confirms that the data recently put up for sale on the Dark Web does include some legitimate customer data. However, AT&T remains adamant that the data was not pulled from its systems. The company has maintained that the leak did not come from a security fault in their systems, but it should be noted that the investigation is still ongoing.

While AT&T is adamant that its systems are not at fault, it has offered affected customers complimentary identity theft and credit monitoring services for those whose personal information has been compromised. This isn't the first time AT&T has been in the news, as they recently had a massive signal outage that affected more than 70,000 users.

If their information has been stolen, customers can take several steps, including changing their passwords and turning on two-factor authentication for their accounts. There have also been recommendations that customers freeze their credit, which prevents the major credit reporting agencies from disclosing the information required to establish new lines of credit. Finally, it is recommended not to click links from emails claiming to be from AT&T without authenticating them first.

Large data leaks are a growing problem as hacking techniques improve. The question of where this leak came from is important, as it could reveal whether there is an issue with AT&T systems that needs to be addressed. For the time being, we can only wait until the official report is finalized. 

If you want more safety while using your phone, then it might be worth checking out our Best VPN Service in 2024 and the Best Anti-virus Software of 2024 articles to make sure you have the best personal defense possible

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Telco giant AT&T has revealed that it has suffered a massive data breach, including the personal data of a combined 73 million current and former customers.  

The data appeared on the dark web approximately two weeks ago, AT&T says, adding that it appears to be “from 2019 or earlier.” It is “not yet known whether the data in those fields originated from AT&T or one of its vendors,” the company adds.

The good news is that it “does not contain personal financial information or call history.” The bad news is that it does include customer names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and encrypted passcodes. 

The 7.6 million current customers impacted have had their passcodes reset, the company said, though obviously there’s less it can do for data lifted and used for identity theft. 

“We will be reaching out to individuals with compromised sensitive personal information separately and offering complimentary identity theft and credit monitoring services,” says a page on the official site, where you can also find more information on how to keep your AT&T account secure in the wake of the data breach. 

Passcodes, not passwords

It’s important to note that the data includes passcodes, rather than passwords. Passcodes are (typically four-digit) numbers used for extra security when accessing a customer account via phone, in store or online. 

That may make the breach appear less immediately threatening to the 65.4 million former customers, but those impacted should still be vigilant if other passcodes of theirs replicate the combination. 

That’s because there’s potentially enough data within the breach to guess the PIN. As security researcher Sam Croley told TechCrunch, passcode data could be unscrambled without the encryption cipher, thanks to customers’ frequent use of associated digits for their four-number passcodes. In other words, with Social Security, phone and house numbers all potentially leaked at the same time, there are a number of ready-made combinations for criminals to try.  

Talk of a breach first surfaced earlier this month, when the X account @vx-underground claimed that over 70 million records were leaked onto Breached. At the time, AT&T suggested this was likely a rehash of a dataset it dismissed back in 2021. 

It’s been a rough start to the year for the telco. Last month, it was forced to deny that a near day-long outage was not the result of a cyberattack.

It appears that AT&T is planning to offer customers impacted by the recent massive blackout of their service with a small amount of credit on their accounts. 

In a statement made on Saturday night, AT&T apologized again for the issue and then said that each customer affected by the outage would receive credit for “the average cost of a full day of service.” It has been specified by AT&T that this will mean “one $5 credit per account.”

When it comes to who will receive this credit AT&T has said that it is for small businesses and consumers who were most affected by the outage. In regards to when this will occur, AT&T said "customers will see the credit in 1-2 bill cycles depending on when their bill closes. Most credits will be posted in the next billing cycle."

AT&T's outage was one of the biggest in recent memory, with customers across the US waking up early on Thursday morning to find that their phones would not connect. It wasn’t long until AT&T acknowledged there was a problem and stated that it was investigating the problem. However, it wasn’t until 4 p.m. ET on the same Thursday that the issue was finally resolved for all customers.

The most pressing concern for many since has been regarding what caused the outage in the end. There were many rumors and even claims that it was a cyber attack. AT&T has been adamant that the issue was down to a software fault, and both the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI arrived at the same conclusion.

We won’t know if this $5 credit will be enough to comfort customers, and we won’t likely know the full extent of the fallout for a while. However, it appears that AT&T is doing what it can. While some may argue that $5 is not much for potentially losing an entire day of business it is better than nothing. We will keep our eyes open in case this story develops and will get back to you with any news as it comes.

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A nationwide cellphone outage that affected hundreds of thousands of customers on Thursday was the result of an error not a cyberattack, AT&T has revealed. 

AT&T customers woke up to find they couldn’t make phone calls or access the internet and this continued through to early afternoon before the service was finally restored.

A spokesman for the company said it was the result of an error made while expanding the network and that they would continue to assess the issue.

What exactly happened?

The first reports started coming in early in the morning, with some 70,000 customers taking to outage reporting website Downdetector to express concern.  

Issues with access continued throughout the morning on the East Coast, although there were hot spots of reported issues in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles. 

While there were also reports from a number of other operators including Verizon and T-Mobile, those issues seem to have been tied to trying to reach AT&T customers.

Fortunately, AT&T's network outage wasn't an extended one. By the late afternoon, the company released a statement saying that its service was fully restored. Although, the cause of the network outage was still unknown — prompting the FCC to look into the matter.

What was the problem?

At the height of the outage there were speculation over the cause with some suggesting a potential cyber attack or even a solar flare. While these are normally harmless, solar flares have the potential to significantly disrupt cellular communications.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said both the FBI and Department for Homeland Security were looking into the outage. 

The specific details are fairly limited from AT&T but the company says network expansion efforts led to an error and this caused the mass outage on Thursday. 

AT&T finally issued a short statement explaining: “Based on our initial review, we believe that today's outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack.”

Adding: “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve.”

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AT&T customers woke up Thursday morning to realize they couldn’t make any phone calls. More than 70,000 customers were without cellular service and internet, according to outrage report website Downdetector — and it continued well on throughout most of the late morning on the east coast. Most of the outages were reported by customers located in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles.

In am earlier message on its site, AT&T said that “some customers in your area are having trouble making or receiving calls. As a result, we are experiencing long hold times. We apologize for this inconvenience and we are working to resolve this issue.”

It was also believed that Verizon and T-Mobile customers were reporting service outages as well through Downdetector, but it appears as though it wasn't because of their service. Rather, their customers were trying to reach those on AT&T. 

Fortunately, AT&T's network outage wasn't an extended one. By the late afternoon, the company released a statement saying that its service was fully restored. Here's what happened.

According to Downdetector, a website where customers can report service outages, over 70,000 AT&T outages were reported so far Thursday morning. The first crop of reports came in at around 4:00 a.m. and increased substantially by the early morning.

Not surprisingly, Cricket Wireless had the second most outage reports with nearly 13,500 customers without service at around 8:00 a.m. ET according to Downdetector.  Cricket is a prepaid wireless carrier owned and operates under AT&T.

Despite reports of disruptions from fewer customers than AT&T, Verizon posted a statement on its site saying the following:

"Verizon's network remains fully operational. Some customers may have experienced issues this morning when calling or texting those served by another carrier. Our network continues to function normally."

As of 10:50 a.m. ET, there were 2,500+ reports of Verizon Wireless service disruptions through tracking website Downdetector. However, that figure is starting to trend downward after hitting a peak of 4,219 at 8:05 a.m. ET.

On X, formerly Twitter, AT&T has been replying to messages from customers about their service disruptions with the company posting the following:

"Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored."

Many local emergency services have been inundated by callers about the outage, which is preventing those affected devices from placing phone calls to 911. The San Francisco Fire Department, for example, are telling AT&T customers to use a landline to reach 911 for emergency.

AT&T is still investigating the cause of the service disruption, but it doesn't appear to have an official reason just yet. Although, the problem could somehow be related to a common cellular service called peering according to an industry source who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity. It's the process where cell service is handed off from one carrier to another, which could also explain why customers on other carriers are reporting outages.

MVNOs such as Consumer Cellular and Straight Talk are showing a slight increase in reported outage as of 11:41 a.m. ET. Downdetector is showing this rise with Consumer Cellular after hitting a peak of 2,458 reports at 9:26 a.m. ET.

At roughly the same time AT&T customers were first reporting outages early Thursday morning, Verizon customers were also reporting service disruptions. While it was nowhere as many people, it did hit a peak of 4,219 reports at around 8:00 a.m. ET through Downdetector. That has gone down significantly since then, with reports at about 2,365 most recently.

In an attempt to keep customers connected, AT&T is encouraging customers who are affected by the service disruption to lean on Wi-Fi calling until service is restored. We've detailed how to enable Wi-Fi calling on iPhone and Android, which uses your home's Wi-Fi network to route phone calls and text messages.

Trying to uncover the issue that caused these network outages will be the next according to multiple experts that spoke to CNN. This would be carried out by the FCC because the agency requires wireless carriers to provide reports that are linked to service disruptions.

"The carriers are required to report their outage numbers over time, and the commission can track the number of consumers and cell sites down and things like that," said a former FCC official that spoke with CNN.

It's still unclear if the disruption was caused by a cyberattack or something else.

It appears that outages for AT&T are starting to dwindle at a rapid rate, with roughly 18,155 reports in the latest report on Downdetector at 12:33 p.m. ET. The first set of reported outages happened in the earlier hours at around 3:00 a.m. and peaking at 9:00 a.m. ET with over 70,000 reports.

Even though Verizon and T-Mobile customers reported outages that coincided with reports from AT&T customers on Downdetector, it's worth pointing out this could be the result of these Verizon/T-Mobile customers trying to reach AT&T customers who were without service due to the disruption.

Similar to Verizon, T-Mobile also made a statement on the nationwide network issues explaining that it did not experience an outage. But rather the reports on Downdetector is presumably due to T-Mobile customers attempting to connect with other users on other networks. As it currently stands, T-Mobile's network is operating normally.

Service disruptions aren't new, but when they happen for an extended period of time, customers can often express their disappointment in many ways. One of them would be to cancel the service.

Google Trends show that there was a spike in the search term 'cancel AT&T' at around 4:00 a.m. ET, which coincides with the start of the outage. It's been up and down throughout the day, but it's unclear if AT&T will somehow reimburse its customers for the inconvenience. 

AT&T confirms service has been restored

AT&T has confirmed through a statement that its wireless service has been restored, while also apologizing to the customers who were affected by the disruption.

"We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers. We sincerely apologize to them," said AT&T in its statement. "Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future."

Now that service has been fully restored, the next step is to investigate what caused the problem. The Federal Communications Commission also confirmed that it will also investigate the outage.

After an investigation, AT&T says that yesterday's outage was the result of a self-inflicted error when expanding its network, and not a cyberattack, as some had feared. 

AT&T issued a short statement explaining: “Based on our initial review, we believe that today's outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack.”

AT&T has recently announced a new service that allows businesses to make branded calls out to AT&T wireless customers. It's the phone carrier's latest attempt to try and halt the influx of robotic telemarketing calls made in the US. 

If you happen to have an Android phone that uses AT&T, then you will not need to do anything to start receiving branded calls from verified businesses. Instead, when one of the companies calls you, their logo will show up while the phone rings. If you happen not to pick up, then the logo will also appear in the call details.

If you're using another type of mobile OS — that means you, iPhone users — you'll need to make sure your phone is either unlocked or has facial recognition on to receive branded calls. This will make the service slightly more effective on Android devices, but it still could be a welcome addition in the fight against the influx of telemarketing calls. 

Over the past decade, the number of complaints regarding telemarketing made to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has increased massively. This new plan from AT&T, which is teaming up with a credit reporting company, will theoretically allow businesses to differentiate themselves from potential spam calls.

“Our customers will be able to connect with greater confidence to the brands they may want or need to connect with,” Erin Scarborough, AT&T's senior vice president of mass markets product management, said in a press release

AT&T isn’t the only company included in this new offering; reportedly, Neustar is also involved. While Neustar is not a household name, it has a major impact on many people's daily lives as the company that maintains one of the central databases of phone numbers in the US. It's been called “the most important company you’ve never heard of” by Buzzfeed for complying with law enforcement surveillance requests in 2012.

Businesses will be able to participate by signing up for TruContact Branded Call Display which is accessible through credit reporting agency TransUnion. When businesses sign up to participate, they will find that their calls will use the same anti-spoofing protocols that Federal Communication Commission’s mandated carriers implement, called the STIR/SHAKEN protocol.

This is an interesting feature, and it may bring some relief to people deluged by spam calls.One of the biggest security concerns recently has been the rise of generative AI-based phone calls that can mimic everything from businesses to the voice of a loved one. However, there is no information as of yet on how this will affect cloned numbers being used or if the feature will make its way overseas in time. 

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Editor's Note: The main event is here, and we are covering all the best Cyber Monday phone deals right now! Whether you're an iOS or Android user, we've found the cream of the savings crop.

Now that people are turning their attention to the best Cyber Monday deals, I hope any search for a discount on a phone includes checking out the offers that wireless carriers are making this weekend. Because if you want a top Cyber Monday phone deal, chances are you'll find it with the company that provides wireless service for that device.

This time of year, all of the best phone carriers are looking to bring in new customers, and they figure the best way to do that is by offering phones at a very low cost — and in some instances, no cost at all.

Wireless providers aren't letting you have the latest iPhone, Samsung device or other handset at considerable discounts out of the kindess of their hearts — they want something in return. Namely, by distributing credits for your free phones over 24 to 36 months, phone carriers can ensure a couple of years of you paying for their wireless service.

Which is not to say you should turn your nose up at any of these offers — getting a free flagship phone is almost always a winning proposition. You should just know the terms of these deals heading into your shopping spree, so that you know what's required of you, whether it's a device trade-in, committing to an unlimited data plan or both.

I lead the coverage for wireless carriers here at Tom's Guide, so I'm always keeping an eye out for the deals they're offering on smartphones and monthly service. If your holiday wishlist includes a new phone, these are the best offers on phones I've found this weekend. I've also included a few deals that look to reduce what you spend on your monthly cell phone bill instead of your next phone.

Black Friday phone deals at wireless carriers — Quick links

• Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: was $999 now free with Galaxy Watch 6 @ Verizon
• iPhone 15 Pro: was $999 now free with trade-in + unlimited plan @ AT&T
• Google Pixel 8 Pro: was $999 now free with trade-in + unlimited plan @ T-Mobile
• iPhone 15 Pro: was $999 now $60/month @ Boost Infinite
• Buy 3 months of wireless service, get 3 months free @ Mint Mobile
• Buy an iPhone or Pixel, save up to $240 on service @ Visible
• Sign up for 1 line of unlimited data, get a 2nd line free for 12 months @ Xfinity Mobile

Best Black Friday deals available at wireless carriers right now

There's one other deal I want to call your attention to, though since it only runs through Sunday (November 26), it may be gone by the time Cyber Monday rolls around. Still, if you want one of the better midrange phones to come out this year, you can pick up a Samsung Galaxy A54 for $139 @ Straight Talk. When I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy A54, the phone cost $449, so that's a considerable discount, especially when you consider that the A54 features the same 50MP main camera used by the pricier Galaxy S23.

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Deciding which mobile device is the best phone for you is only the first decision you’ve got to make when getting a new handset. There’s also the matter of lining up wireless coverage, which includes trying to figure out just how much data you need in your monthly plan.

These days, wireless carriers want to steer you toward unlimited data, and it’s a tempting argument. The best unlimited data plans give you more than enough data to stream all your favorite shows and music on the go — not to mention handle all your gaming, browsing and app use. But more often than not, unlimited data is the most expensive option available at a wireless carrier — hey, there’s a reason they’re pushing you in that direction — and for some people, all that data can be overkill.

Unfortunately, there’s no definitive answer on what the best cell phone plan is — it really depends on how you use your mobile device. Some people use their phones as their primary device throughout the day, making unlimited data a more practical choice. Others may only use their phones sparingly, making them a better fit for low- or tiered-data plans. And there’s plenty of smartphone owners between those two extremes.

Add to that the differences in what kind of streaming content you consume. If you’re watching movies in HD and playing online games, you’ll undoubtedly need more data than the person who just streams some music and visits the occasional website.

If you struggle to know just how much data you should be paying for each month, consider this a guide on how to determine your data needs when you’re searching for a new data plan.

Knowing your data plan options

Depending on who your carrier of choice is — or who you might be switching to — you’re going to find a host of data usage options. The Big Three carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon — emphasize unlimited data for their postpaid plans, but if you consider their best prepaid phone plans, you’ll find tiered data geared toward people who don’t want or need unlimited data. T-Mobile, for example, lets you spend as little as $15/month for 3.5GB of data. (The disadvantage with that low-cost plan is that once you’ve used those 3.5GB, you’re out of data for the remainder of the monthly billing cycle.)

As you might expect, the more data you plan to use with one of the Big Three carriers’ plans, the more your plans will cost. Take Verizon, which has a $35/month prepaid plan offering 15GB of data. Switch over to the carrier’s postpaid unlimited plans, and you’re looking at a nearly twice that for the entry-level Unlimited Welcome plan.

Unlimited data doesn’t have to be expensive — provided you’re willing to look beyond the major carriers’ offerings. At discount providers like Mint Mobile, Visible and Tello, for instance, you can find unlimited data plans for $30 or less. And those plans all use the networks of more established carriers (T-Mobile in the case of Mint and Tello, Verizon for Visible). The catch is you won’t find as many perks, and your traffic will get deprioritized if the network your own is congested. (Mint also requires you to pay for a year of service upfront for its $30/monthly unlimited plan pricing.)

Just remember that even unlimited data plans aren’t entirely unlimited. Many carriers set limits on just how much data you can consume in a given month before your speeds are slowed, especially on lower-cost unlimited plans. Visible’s cheapest $25 unlimited plan will slow your speeds whenever there’s heavy traffic, while you get 50GB of data on Visible’s $45 unlimited plan before your speeds are slowed. Mint Mobile can start slowing things down once you hit 40GB. At the larger carriers, caps on high-speed data vary from plan to plan.

You can consult our assorted guides to cell phone plans for more information on different pricing options, including a look at the best cheap cell phone plans under $40 a month.

Determining your data usage

In addition to pinpointing how much you might have to pay, it’s helpful to figure out how much data you’re using. Fortunately, that calculation is a lot more straightforward than figuring out what different carriers charge for data.

Instead of evaluating your daily habits, you can instead head over to your phone’s settings to see how much data you’ve used over a period of time. On an iPhone, you can find that by tapping to Settings > Cellular, Cellular Data, or Mobile Data (depending on your version of iOS) and see your data usage. Android users can find their usage by tapping Settings > Network & Internet > SIMs > App Data Usage.

Armed with that data, you can then get a sense of which plans may be best based on how you currently use your devices.

Data usage by mobile activity

Maybe you’re wondering what’s taking up all that data. Or maybe you’re new to mobile hones and haven’t really developed a steady history of usage. In either case, consider how you plan to use your device and how much data that’s going to require.

Determining data usage is a decidedly more difficult task, but companies like Verizon and AT&T have tried to provide general estimates so you can get a sense of your data usage. Here’s a rundown of common tasks based on that data to give you a better sense of where all the data goes.

That info from AT&T isn’t based on specific apps, but it still provides a framework around how the apps you use will greatly affect your data consumption. For instance, if you spend most of your time in Netflix and YouTube streaming video, you’re more likely to hit a lower data cap than if you spend your time listening to music or podcasts. Indeed, just streaming a one-hour video in 4K on Netflix will cost you nearly 6GB of data, compared to an hour on Spotify, where your music streaming will account for roughly 4MB of usage.

Useful data usage calculators

Since everyone’s phone usage differs, there’s a handful of reliable data usage calculators available for you to calculate your own expected consumption. 

AT&T’s calculator offers sliders that let you see how data usage changes based on the amount of time you watch video or how many emails you send. T-Mobile and Verizon both offer sliders and filters so you can check on data usage based on time. All of the calculators keep a tally as you go, so you can see just how much data you may use.

Tips for saving data

No discussion on data usage is complete without looking into ways to conserve the data you have. After all, if you want to consume content on your device, finding ways to do that without hammering your pool of data can save you in the long run.

For one, consider using your phone’s settings to turn off the ability for certain apps that use a lot of data to work on a cellular network. You may also find some apps that come with data-saving features that you can turn on in-app.

Background refresh in apps running on your device, along with GPS tracking can also put a hit on data usage. Follow our guides on how to turn off background app refreshes on your iPhone and restrict background data on Android. 

When it’s time to download files like podcasts or videos, doing so over a Wi-Fi connection instead of cellular can keep your data count low, too. In fact, whenever you can safely  jump on a wireless network instead of using your data network, do it. You’ll use less data over time.

More from Tom's Guide

• Best phone carriers
• How to activate an eSIM on an iPhone
• What is RCS messaging — and what it means for Android and iPhone users

Whether you're looking for new wireless service to go with a phone you received as a recent gift or ready for a new start this year with a different service provider, it helps to know who the best phone carriers are. And since we spend lots of time tracking phone plans and coverage for Tom's Guide, let us point you in the right direction.

T-Mobile remains the best pick among phone carriers, thanks to an array of unlimited data plans that offer unbeatable perks plus extensive high-speed coverage across the U.S. In the event that T-Mobile's service is spotty where you live, although Verizon is a great alternative. In fact, it's the wireless service I use, as I live and work in an area where Verizon's signal strength is particularly strong.

In either case, both carriers deliver reliable service at an affordable cost while responding quickly to questions about your bill or device. And that's what we look for when choosing the best phone carriers.

These rankings draw on my decade of experience tracking the best cell phone plans for Tom's Guide, so we know what each carrier charges for data and what changes they've recently made to their plans. Coverage in specific areas is harder to pin down, but we do look at how a carrier ranks overall, using third-party testing firms that rank the performance of different networks. Though 5G coverage is pretty well-established at this point, we take into consideration how carriers are working to improve both 5G speeds and reach.

All of those factors influence my picks below. And while T-Mobile and Verizon lead the charge, don't be afraid to look at MVNOs that rely on the towers of bigger providers for their service. Trying a smaller carrier like Visible or Mint is a great way to wind up with a lower monthly bill — and some very dependable wireless service to boot.

Best phone carrier overall

There's more to being the best phone carrier than offering low-cost plans. For proof, look to T-Mobile, whose Experience More and Experience Beyond plans cost a little bit more than previous options at the carrier while packing on the perks. T-Mobile also offers an extensive 5G network that has a greater reach than the competition.

Let's look a little closer at that Experience More plan. The $85 monthly rate for one line of data is $10 more than what T-Mobile's old Go5G plan used to cost, and both AT&T and Verizon offer less expensive alternatives. But Experience More also comes with perks such as 60GB of hotspot data, a free Netflix Standard subscription and 5GB of high-speed data travel when you travel in 215-plus countries. (Sadly, T-Mobile has dropped free Apple TV from its perks, though you can add the streaming service at a discounted monthly rate through the Uncarrier.) In contrast, comparable streaming and travel perks at Verizon require you to sign up for a series of $10 add-ons to your regular plan.

T-Mobile continues to offer discounts as you add more lines to your plan, making it a strong choice for families. An ongoing promotion waives the cost of a third line on the Experience More and Experience Beyond options, keeping your monthly costs lower than you might think.

T-Mobile does have a few low-cost options. A family of four pays a total of $100 per month for the bare-bones Essentials unlimited plan. A T-Mobile Better Value plan launching in January promises three lines of data for $140/month — that's around $47 per line — with better perks like Netflix and Hulu subscriptions, 30GB of high-speed data when traveling abroad and 250GB of high-speed data stateside.

If your data needs are more modest, you can get a low-cost T-Mobile Connect plan that starts at $15/month for 5GB of data. (Use that data up before the billing cycle is over, though, and you've got to pay for additional coverage.) Anyone 55 years or old should take a long look at T-Mobile's specially-priced plans which I consider to be the best cell phone plans for seniors, even after AT&T loosened restrictions on its own plan that used to be limited to Florida residents.

I mentioned T-Mobile's network, which Ookla now recognizes as the best in the U.S. overall. In a January 2026 report from OpenSignal, T-Mobile makes a clean sweep of the overall experience awards, while posting the best 5G speeds and coverage. Rootmetrics ranks other carriers higher, but gives T-Mobile top marks for 5G availability.

Other efforts by T-Mobile put it over the top when it comes to ranking phone carriers. Its satellite service with Starlink is now available, offering connectivity when you're out of cellular range. The feature is included with an Experience Beyond plan and available as an add-on for other customers.

If all that sounds attractive, T-Mobile says it's simplifying the process of switching carriers, promising that a switch can be completed in as little as 15 minutes. It's that kind of innovation that keeps T-Mobile ahead of its competitors, even if the difference in rates isn't as big as it once was.

Best flexibility

Verizon may fall behind T-Mobile in our rankings, but that's no reason to dismiss Big Red as an option for your phone service. Verizon continues to offer flexible unlimited plans and a 5G network that's rising rapidly in the rankings.

Focusing on the latter, Verizon offers faster Ultra Wideband 5G coverage to around 280 million people. In its report covering network performance for the first half of 2025, Rootmetrics cited the speed and reliability of Verizon's 5G network, saying it offered the best 5G of any carrier. OpenSignal's January 2026 report rates Verizon highest for overall coverage.

Verizon's plans have been on the pricey end traditionally, though changes at T-Mobile have made the cost of plans at either carrier more comparable. Verizon plans start at $65/month for an Unlimited Welcome option that offers nationwide 5G coverage and little else.

For $80/month, you get faster Ultra Wideband 5G coverage plus 30GB of hotspot data with the Unlimited Plus plan. There's also the Unlimited Ultimate plan ($95/month) which doubles hotspot data to 60GB and adds high-speed data when you travel to other countries. All of these plans become $15 bucks a month cheaper if you sign up for automatic payment and paper-free billing.

Once you have a plan in place, you can pick add-ons as you wish — get Disney's streaming bundle or three days of TravelPass benefits for overseas trips, all for $10/month per bundle. (Verizon's Disney bundle — which I pay for with my Verizon plan — is around half of what I'd have to pay for that package outside of my Verizon service.)

Verizon offers a dozen different add-ons in total, so those extras can add up quickly. Fortunately, you're able to add and drop them as needed on a monthly basis. For example, other than the Disney bundle, I don't have any add-ons linked to my personal Verizon plan, though the next time I head to Europe, I would activate the TravelPass add-on ahead of time to reap the travel benefits from that addition.

Verizon's prepaid offerings are tops among the major carriers, with an autopay discount dropping the cost of the carrier's 15GB prepaid plan to $35 a month — enough data for most people. Prepaid plans with unlimited data start at $50. You can now add multiple prepaid lines and even get discounts on unlimited data plans.

Verizon also makes it easier to experience 5G by accepting any phone you trade-in — even broken ones — to reduce the cost of upgrading to a 5G phone. The carrier has moved to 36-month agreements, increasing how long you need to tie yourself to Verizon if you buy your phone in instalments or get some of the best Verizon phone deals.

Verizon has fared well when we've tested customer service for phone carriers, and I have no complaints about the times I've interacted with the company over the phone. You'll find an extensive selection of phones, including Ultra Wideband versions of some phones designed specifically for Verizon's network.

If you don't mind paying a little more on your monthly bill, Verizon provides the performance and service to challenge T-Mobile's reign as the top-ranked carrier.

Best phone carrier for low-cost unlimited data

Unlimited data is cheaper than ever at Visible, a Verizon-owned discount carrier. The entry-level Visible plan starts at $25 per month, with taxes and fees included. It's a bare-bones offering, but you have two other options that also deliver better perks to go with all that data.

I think the Visible Plus plan is the best choice for most people at Visible, and the $35/month rate is $10 cheaper than it used to be. Visible Plus subscribers get 50GB of premium data before they see any slowdowns. 5G coverage is on Verizon's faster Ultra Wideband service.

The lower Visible Plus plan price means that some of its perks move over to the Visible Plus Pro offering, which costs $45/month. That plan includes the faster 5G speeds, plus international calling and texting. You also get two Global Pass days per month with Visible Plus Pro that cover data usage when you're overseas; Visible Plus has a single Global Pass each month.

Visible has resumed discounts for when you add multiple lines to an account, though it's just a $5 discount on Visible Plus and Visible Plus Pro plans. The nice thing about Visible's approach is that anyone in the group can handle their own payments, making it ideal for roommates, friend groups and others looking to save on their monthly wireless plan. Visible offers annual pricing, too, with discounts compared to month-to-month plans, if you don't need that flexibility.

Visible routinely offers discounts where new customers can lock in lower rates for a year when they sign up for service. A current promo running through February 2 takes $6, $9 or $12 off the Visible, Plus and Pro plans, respectively, when you sign up with the 'SWITCH26' code. Better still, that reduced rate stays in place for the next 26 months.

Visible sells phones — iPhones as well as Android devices — or you can bring your own handset to the carrier. If you've got a Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel phone that supports eSIM, you can try out Visible for free for 15 days — a perk that iPhone users have long enjoyed.

I've used Visible's service in the past and found it pretty comparable to my experience as a Verizon customer in terms of network performance; my colleague John Velasco currently uses Visible and has high praise for its service. The company has an online-only approach to customer service, which worked well enough for me at the time, though I have heard from some customers who found support wanting.

Best way to save

Note: Mint increased the data allowances of all its plans in June 2026. The unlimited plan also now has a higher hotspot data cap.

Mint Mobile offers some of the lowest rates around, provided you're willing to pay for coverage up front. Mint has a three-month introductory rate for each of its plans — $15/month in the case of the 6GB option, all the way up to $30 for its unlimited data plan. Switch to Mint, and you'll pay for your first three months at that low rate.

At the end of that trial period, you've got a decision to make. If you want Mint's lowest monthly rate, you need to prepay for a full year of service. In the case of the 6GB plan, that's $180 for the lowest rate. The best rate on the unlimited data plan at Mint is $30/month, so you'd pay $360 if you opt for that plan. We've got a look at the pros and cons of paying for a year of cellular service in advance.

Like Visible, Mint runs frequent promotions that knock the cost down on already low rates. A current promotion cuts the rate of the unlimited data plan in half when you pay for a year in advance. So for an upfront payment of $180 — the same amount you'd pay for the 6GB plan — you're covered with unlimited data for the next 12 months.

Mint offers family plans but without the escalating discounts you get as you add more lines. (Parent company T-Mobile does this, for example.) Instead, every plan on the plan is subject to Mint's discounted rate for prepaying for service in advance. You're able to mix and match different plans for each line of data you have — something T-Mobile doesn't offer its family plan customers.

Mint's betting that you'll want to stick with its service, not just for the lower monthly cost, but also because Mint wireless coverage is available via T-Mobile's network. Having tested Mint's service for three months, I can confirm that the service is every bit as speedy and reliable as what I'd if I used T-Mobile directly. While Mint traffic can get deprioritized if T-Mobile's network is congested, that never happened to me when I was using Mint for my coverage.

Mint sells both iPhones and Android handsets, at a wide range of prices. You can also bring your current phone to Mint if you prefer.

Best range of plans

AT&T may be one of the Big Three carriers, but it's somewhat easy to overlook this wireless provider, given the size of Verizon's network and the headline-grabbing announcements that come out of T-Mobile. Dig beneath the surface, though, and there's a lot more to AT&T than meets the eye.

Take AT&T's plans, which seem somewhat pricey if you focus on the $86/month Unlimited Premium option. That particular plan has no cap on data consumption, and you can use talk, text and data for free when traveling in 20 Latin American countries. The $76/month Unlimited Extra and $66/month Unlimited Starter plan round out the main offerings, with fewer perks than what Premium users enjoy.

I think the best family cell phone plan at present is AT&T's Unlimited Extra offering, which costs $164/month for four lines. That breaks down to $41/line, which is just a little less than what you'd pay for four lines of Experience More at T-Mobile — and that's with T-Mobile's promotion that waives the cost of a third line of data.

If you just need one line of data, it's hard to beat the $51/month Value 2.0 plan. It's free of perks beyond 5G access and the ability to use your plan in Mexico and Canada, but you get unlimited data and 5G coverage for much less than AT&T's other offerings. (Previously, you couldn't add multiple lines of Value Plus at a discount, but now AT&T's website indicates that discounts apply once you add a third line of data.)

AT&T also has some pretty attractive prepaid options, including a deal that gives you unlimited data, with a sizable 16GB cap until your speeds are slowed. To get this plan, you have to pay $240 upfront, but that works out to a rate of $20/month — lower than what Mint and Visible both charge. If the big upfront payment puts you off, there's also a $30/month prepaid unlimited plan at AT&T with an even larger 30GB cap on high speed data.

It should be said that AT&T typically fares well in performance testing, with Rootmetrics giving it the nod for the best overall network performance in the first half of year. In addition to low-band 5G spectrum covering 316 million people, 285 million people have access to AT&T's faster 5G+ coverage.

Best guaranteed rates on unlimited data

Boost wants you to think of it as another nationwide carrier that serve as an alternative to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. And it just might have a point, as the carrier operates its own wireless network and has pushed out some aggressively priced plans to win over new customers.

The most traditional plan at Boost is the Infinite Access offering that delivers unlimited data, with 30GB of that data served up at high speeds. As part of Infinite Access, you get a phone — either an iPhone 17 or your choice of a Galaxy S25 or Galaxy Z foldable — with the ability to upgrade your device annually. That plan will cost you $60/month — about what you'd pay for the cheapest plans at one of the big-name carriers.

Personally, I prefer Boost's discount offerings, highlighted by the carrier's $25/month unlimited plan, which also comes with a 30GB cap on high speed data. Perks are minimal here, but Boost will guarantee that rate stays locked in at $25 for as long as you remain a customer. A current promotion lowers the rate to $10/month for the first three months of service.

Boost has two other unlimited plans with $50 and $60 monthly rates that offer better perks like a higher cap on high-speed data, hotspot data and taxes and fees included in the monthly rate.

As for the Boost network, the carrier mostly relies on its own towers, using coverage from AT&T and T-Mobile to extend its reach to 99% of the U.S. My colleague John Velasco tested Boost's service and found data speeds to be reliable and fast — faster than Visible in the places where he tested. John also found setting up a Boost account to be a breeze, and like me, he finds that $25 lifetime rate on unlimited data to be a big selling point.

Best phone carrier plans compared

Here's a look at the best cell phone plans from each of our best phone carrier recommendations. Remember, we're looking at more than just the cost of the plans when we assess our carrier picks, which is why T-Mobile — our top new choice — heads this list with a more expensive unlimited option than comparable plans at Verizon and AT&T.

It's no surprise that Visible and Mint have the cheapest plans on our list, since they are discount carriers who emphasize low-cost service over any perks. While Mint's monthly cost is low, keep in mind that you need to pay for a full year of service up front to get the carrier's best rate. That's also required for the specific AT&T plan we've highlighted here.

Boost Mobile matches the lowest rate at Visible with its $25 unlimited plan, though there aren't many perks with that offering, other than its lifetime price guarantee. Other options at Boost deliver more perks but at higher rates that are more comparable to what you'd pay at AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon.

T-Mobile's Experience More plan now costs more than the Unlimited Plus option at Verizon, but it comes with more perks baked into the monthly rate. With Verizon, you pick your own perks through monthly ad-ons that cost extra.

Other phone carrier options

We consider many different options when looking for the best phone carriers, and while we're restricting our picks to a half-dozen recommendations, we have come across several other wireless providers in our research who may pique your interest. The following carriers may not be the best choice for everyone, but they do have some appeal to select groups of wireless users who may want to consider options beyond what we've outlined above.

Consumer Cellular

Seniors have embraced consumer cellular, and it's easy to understand why. The carrier's plans are straight-forward, and AARP members can count on a 5% discount on their monthly rate. We think Consumer Cellular's most attractive plan is the 10GB option, which costs $35 for a single line, but you can find plans ranging from 1Gb ($20/month) all the way up to unlimited data. Seniors 50 and older pay a discounted $40 monthly rate for unlimited data; for everyone else, that plan costs $60.

The carrier uses both AT&T and T-Mobile for its coverage, so it's likely you'll get good network performance no matter where you are. Consumer Cellular does take some criticism for customer service, but it's generally regarded as any easy service for managing your plan and keeping your cell phone costs low.

See Consumer Cellular plans

Cricket Wireless

Owned by AT&T, Cricket provides a way to benefit from that carrier's network reach without having to pay as much for a monthly plan. As with any MVNO, your data speed with Cricket can slow down if AT&T's network gets congested, but Cricket has long since done away with speed caps on its plans, which make it a far more attractive option than it was a few years ago.

Cricket plans start at $30/month for 10GB of data, with per-line discounts on other plans as you add more lines. Our favorite Cricket option is the carrier's $55/month unlimited plan — it's $60 without an autopay discount — as it delivers the kind of perks (15GB of hotspot data and a free subscription to the ad-supported tier of the Max streaming service) you don't normally see from prepaid carriers. If you want a cheaper unlimited plan at Cricket, you've got $45 and $35 monthly options that scale back on perks.

See Cricket Wireless plans

Google Fi

There are two reasons to turn to Google Fi, the wireless service offered by Google that uses T-Mobile's towers to deliver coverage. If you've got a Pixel — one of the latest Pixel 10 flagships, say, or you're picking up a cheaper Pixel 9a — those phones are optimized to run more efficiently on Google Fi. (That said, any device is compatible with Google's wireless service, including iPhones.)

The other appeal to Google Fi involves travel. If you head overseas a fair better, it's easy to use your Google Fi data plan just like you would at home. Either the $65 Unlimited Plus plan or Google Fi's By the Gig option ($20 for talk and text, plus $10 for each gigabyte of data you use) works in 200-plus countries at no additional charge. Other Google Fi plans — a $50 Unlimited Standard option and a stripped down $35 Unlimited Essentials offering — don't include this benefit, so choose your plan accordingly.

See Google Fi plans

Xfinity Mobile

With studies claiming that more people are turning to cable companies for their phone coverage it's easy to understand the appeal of Xfinity Mobile. Unlimited plans start at $40/month — more than what Visible and Mint charge — but you can add more lines for $20 each. That means a family of four pays $100 total, or $25 per line. Current promotions at Xfinity offer discounts on the initial line of service for customers with a qualifying internet plan via Comcast.

Xfinity relies on Verizon's network for its coverage, including 5G, with Xfinity mobile hotspots augmenting those cellular towers. Xfinity sells a mix of current flagships, and lets your bring your own device to its service if you prefer.

See Xfinity Mobile plans

Twigby Mobile

I had the opportunity to try out Twigby Mobile's low-cost service, which is available on Verizon's network, and I found the data speeds and call quality to be comparable to my usual coverage from Verizon. That's significant, as Twigby's plans cost a fraction of what Verizon charges.

You'll pay $35/month for unlimited services at Twigby. (And that's after a discounted rate for your first three months of service.) That's around half of what Verizon charges, though Twigby's rate is more in line with what other discount carriers offer. You'll find tiered data plans at Twigby, ranging from 2GB to 10GB.

My Twigby Mobile review notes that plans offer few perks. and not everyone is going to be comfortable with the carrier's online-only approach to customer support. But service is cheap and reliable, and you're able to bring your own phone, making Twigby a compelling budget option.

See Twigby Mobile plans

What to look for when choosing a phone carrier

The first thing to consider when determining the best phone carrier for your needs is to figure out who has the best coverage in your area. Concentrate on the places where you spend a lot of time and need cell phone service, such as your home, office and frequent hangouts. Our network performance testing looks at download speeds in select cities, and third-party testing can give you an idea of how networks perform on average. But to truly get a picture of local network coverage, you'll need to ask friends and family about their experience.

If you're comfortable looking beyond one of the major cell phone providers, you can always try a discount carrier. These MVNOs turn to the larger networks to provide cellular service, so be sure to find out which network a discount carrier uses to make sure it's one that provides good service to where you live and work.

Once you've figured out which phone carriers offer the best coverage in your areas, look at plans and pricing. You'll need to figure out how much data you need — whether an unlimited plan is required or if you can opt for a cheaper plan with tiered data. We've analyzed the best cell phone plans overall to help you find one that fits your needs.

One other thing to consider when picking carriers is perks that come included with a monthly streaming service subscription. You'll find more of these with larger carriers, while discount carriers and prepaid cellular service tends to skimp on the extras. Besides streaming services, Popular perks include high-speed hotspot data and the ability to use your plan while traveling overseas.

How we test phone carriers

We've previously tested network performance by heading out to eight US cities and running Ookla's Speedtest app to measure download speeds. For real-world testing, we download a sizable app off of Google Play and time how fast it takes to get the app on a smartphone. The coronavirus pandemic impacted our ability to travel in recent years, so we've placed a great weight on network performance reports from third-party firms including RootMetrics, Opensignal and Ookla.

Below, you'll see a round-up of the most recent data from each third-party testing firm, with the median download speed recorded for each of the three major carriers. (MVNO customers can expect speeds similar to that of their parent network, with the caveat that an MVNO's speeds might be slowed down if a network is congested.)

We continuously review cell phone plans to compare how much data each carrier offers and how unlimited plans vary at each provider. We also look at the best prepaid phone plans, including extras you have to give up for the lower price to evaluate whether those are good deals or not.

We've done customer support testing in the past where we contact carriers incognito to ask them questions both about their service as well as phones they offer. We conduct this undercover testing both over the phone and through social media support accounts on Twitter and Facebook.

Finally, we make a note of the different perks that are available through each carrier, whether it's plan add-ons like streaming services and hotspot data, regular giveaways or the ability to use data when traveling in other countries.

FAQs

Your days with the physical SIM card are numbered. Apple launched the iPhone 14 models in the US as eSIM-only, leaving out physical SIM cards altogether, so you can expect new models from now on to follow suit.

While eSIM is not a new concept, Apple is swimming against the tide by not including a SIM tray on the new iPhones.

This drew a lot of concerns from people saying that it will be difficult to use the new phones while traveling to developing countries. Apple has since then published a support document that highlights different options of using eSIM on the new iPhones.

eSIMs are embedded SIMs that can be electronically programmed. It is a more secure way of enabling a carrier on a phone as it can’t get lost or stolen. It also eliminates the need to obtain, carry, and swap physical SIM cards. Apple introduced eSIM with the iPhone XS and every iPhone model after that has supported the digital SIM card. Many of the best Android phones have also had eSIM capabilities for years. 

Apple allows you to store up to 8 eSIMs and use two numbers simultaneously (the eSIM version of dual SIMs). We recently found traveling with an eSIM (on an iPhone XR even) is not a hassle as there are many different carriers that offer good voice and data plans abroad. 

The good news for U.S. users is that some of the best carriers in the country offer eSIM and it is very simple to set up. So if you’re in the US and have just got yourself the new iPhone 14 or later, here’s how you can set up eSIM on it.

 How to activate eSIM on iPhone

Installing a SIM might sound like a daunting process, but Apple has made it pretty simple, with on-screen instructions doing most of the set up for you. There are different ways to add or enable any eSIM from a carrier on your new iPhone. 

If you have bought an eSIM online and need to activate it, you can do so manually by tapping into Settings > Mobile Data > Add Data plan.

You will see a screen that says “Set up mobile service” and will give you two options: transfer from a nearby iPhone or use QR code. Scanning the QR Code will walk you through the quick process to set up the eSIM.

You can directly scan a QR Code to enable eSIM as well without going into Settings. 

Most carriers send push notifications once the QR Code is scanned that then hand holds you through the rest of the steps. You can also use your carrier’s mobile app, which will also guide you through instructions on the screen to complete the setup process.

Transferring an eSIM or a physical SIM

Chances are that you would want to transfer your existing number to your new iPhone 14. Luckily, there is a snappy way of doing that. The eSIM setup option on iOS is called eSIM Quick Transfer that allows users to transfer their previous iPhone SIM (whether physical or eSIM) to an eSIM.

This is one of the easiest ways to transfer SIMs if you’re upgrading from a previous iPhone. The only catch is that both the iPhones have to be running iOS 16 or later.

For Quick Transfer, open your Settings app, tap on Mobile Data and then “Add data plan”.

Now choose a mobile data plan to transfer from another device. If you can't see a list of numbers, tap on “Transfer From Another Device”. Your previous iPhone should confirm the transfer and might ask you to enter a verification number on your new iPhone. 

The mobile data plan should get activated automatically on your new device. Apple says “Your previous SIM is deactivated when the mobile data plan on your new iPhone is activated."

To continue setting up the new eSIM for voice and text, tap on “Finish Setting Up Your Network Provider's Data Plan” that should pop up as a banner. This will take you to the carrier's website to transfer your eSIM.

How to activate an eSIM through carriers

If you want to set up a new number on your iPhone then this is the route to take. 

Most leading carriers provide eSIMs, some of which have the same plans that are offered for physical SIMs. Here’s how to set up eSIMs from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile on your new iPhone. There are other carriers like Mint Mobile that also provide eSIMs, we are focussing on these three carriers in this guide. 

Do note that if you experience any issues while setting up your eSIM, it is best to call your carrier provider to complete your set up.

AT&T 

•  Sign in to your AT&T account 
•  Click on “My devices” 
•  Find your iPhone or any other phone you are setting up and click on “Manage” 
•  The click on “Options and Settings” 
•  From here you can click on “Get a new eSIM” 
•  Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the set up 

 Verizon 

• Sign in to the Verizon app or website 
•  Find the device you want eSIM on and set up an eSIM profile 
•  You can also scan a QR code to activate an eSIM 

T-Mobile 

• Sign in to your T-Mobile account on the app or website 
•  Find your device you want the eSIM on and select a phone number 
•  Follow the on-screen instructions to set up a new eSIM 
•  You can also can a QR code to activate an eSIM 

For more iPhone tutorials, get started with how to enable Sound Recognition on iPhone, which can listen out for and notify you about doorbells, smoke alarms and babies crying. Want a nicer feeling keyboard? Learn how to enable haptic keyboard on iPhone.

Not long ago, getting one of the best unlimited data plans from a major wireless carrier meant a big monthly bill each month. And to be sure, the top plans that come packed with perks still cost a pretty penny if you turn to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.

But back in 2018, T-Mobile rolled out Essentials, a stripped-down version of its unlimited data plan available at a lower price. Eventually, T-Mobile's biggest competitors — perhaps feeling pressured from the best cheap cell phone plans that also include low-cost unlimited data — took notice. 

In the past year, AT&T and Verizon have both added entry-level unlimited data plans of their own. You won't find much in the way of perks, but you may not mind when your cell phone bill arrives at the end of each month.

Knowing what unlimited data plans are out there is especially vital at this time of year when phone makers are rolling out their fall flagship devices. Samsung just introduced the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4, its latest foldables, and the iPhone 14 should soon be arriving from Apple. If you're in the market for a new phone, it may pay to look for a new wireless plan as well — particularly one that doesn't charge you a lot for unlimited talk, text and data.

With that in mind, we wanted to compare the lowest-priced unlimited data plans available at the three major phone carriers. You'll find less expensive options at mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, and AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon all offer more feature-packed plans at higher monthly rates. But consider this cheap unlimited data phone plan comparison a good starting point for understanding the going rate for unlimited data these days — especially if you run across the best cell phone deals that require you to sign up for an unlimited data plan.

Cheap unlimited data plans compared: AT&T vs. T-Mobile vs. Verizon

Cheap unlimited data plans: AT&T Value Plus Plan

What it costs, one line: $50/month

What it costs, four lines: N/A

AT&T's Value Plus plan is ideal for people who just need one line of unlimited data and don't require a lot of perks. For just $50 a month, Value Plus gives you talk, text and data with no limits, though AT&T reserves the right to slow your data speeds if its network is congested. That's what separates Value Plus from more expensive AT&T unlimited plans, which include a set amount of "premium data," or high-speed data that you can use without having to worry about throttling.

AT&T includes 5G coverage through its nationwide network with the Value Plus plan, and you'll be able to use your talk, text and data when traveling in Mexico or Canada. You can also enjoy unlimited texting from the U.S. to 200-plus countries. But that's about it when it comes to perks.

The biggest limitation with AT&T's Value Plus plan is that families can't take advantage of it — AT&T restricts Value Plus pricing to just one line. If you want to add multiple lines, you'll have to opt for one of AT&T's more expensive unlimited plans like the AT&T Unlimited Starter plan ($140 for four lines or $35/line) or AT&T Unlimited Extra ($160 for four lines or $40/line). Of course, those plans come with extra perks.

AT&T's next cheapest plan: AT&T Unlimited Stater costs $65 a month for a single line of data. That extra $15/month gets you 3GB of mobile hotspot data per line, and you can add multiple lines. Otherwise, perks aren't that much different from the Value Plus plan. If you aren't sure either of these is the plan for you, it's worth looking at our AT&T Mobility promo codes for other ways to save.

Cheap unlimited data plans: T-Mobile Essentials plan

What it costs, one line: $60/month

What it costs, four lines: $105/month ($26.25 per line)

T-Mobile's Magenta plan gets all the hype, but there's a cheaper option than the $70/month unlimited plan that's the carrier's flagship offering. T-Mobile Essentials offers unlimited data for less, though the perks aren't as generous as what you would get with Magenta or the even more expensive Magenta Plus option.

Still, Essentials offers more perks than you might expect. In addition to 5G coverage from T-Mobile's top-ranked 5G network, you can enjoy unlimited hotspot data, though it's restricted to 3G speeds. You can enjoy 50GB of unlimited data before T-Mobile can slow your speeds, which gives Essentials a leg up over the cheap unlimited plans from AT&T and Verizon. 

Normally, to get streaming services included with your wireless plan, you have to pay up for more expensive options, but Essentials customers do get a year of Paramount Plus for free. 

Unlike AT&T's Value Plus plan, Essentials supports multiple lines. As of this writing, a four-line plan costs $105/month or $26.25 for each line. But note that reflects a current promotion where T-Mobile is waiving the fee on the third line of data. Normally, four lines of Essentials will set you back $140 each month.

One big drawback to T-Mobile Essentials is that the rate doesn't include taxes and fees. Other T-Mobile unlimited plans bake taxes and fees into the monthly rate so that you're always paying the same amount.

T-Mobile's next cheapest plan: From Essentials, you can step up to the $70/month Magenta plan, which will cost a family of four $140 total, thanks to that discounted third line. Magenta doubles your premium data cap to 100GB, and your hotspot speeds increase to high-speed with a 5GB cap. Multi-line plans get a free Netflix subscription, and there are travel benefits like in-flight Wi-Fi, too.

Cheap unlimited data plans: Verizon Welcome Unlimited

What it costs, one line: $65/month

What it costs, four lines: $120/month ($30 per line)

Verizon's Welcome Unlimited is the relative newcomer to this mix of cheap unlimited plans, giving you a low entry price for unlimited data through Verizon's far-reach service. You can also get 5G coverage through Welcome Unlimited, though that's via Verizon's nationwide 5G network and not the much faster C-Band and mmWave-based 5G available in select cities.

As is commonplace among these cheap unlimited plans, perks are few and far between with Welcome Unlimited. You can expect to enjoy talk, text and data when you travel to Mexico and Canada, but that's about it. Verizon will slow your speeds if you its network gets congested.

Welcome Unlimited's greatest appeal is for families, where escalating discounts drop the per-line cost to $30 each month for four lines of data. While Verizon's other unlimited data plans let you mix and match plans, you don't have that luxury with Welcome Unlimited.

Verizon's next cheapest plan: If you want more perks with your unlimited data, the next step up at Verizon is the 5G Start plan, which costs $70 a month for just one line. Families pay $35/line for four lines of data. The extra perks include 5GB of hotspot data, plus assorted 6-month streaming trials to Disney Plus, Discovery Plus, Apple Music and whichever gaming service (Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass) strikes your fancy. 5G Play More, with its more extensive benefits, ups your cost to $80/month. You can also check our Verizon promo codes for other ways to save.

Other cheap unlimited data plans

There are cheaper unlimited plans available, if you're willing to look beyond the major wireless carriers, turning instead to discount services. Mint Mobile, for example, charges $30 a month for its unlimited plan, though after a three-month trial, you need to pay for a full year of service to get that low rate.

Visible, which just shuffled up its plans, now charges $30 a month for its entry-level unlimited plan, without the year commitment that Mint requires. For $45 a month, Visible includes perks like international calling and texting plus access to Verizon's fastest 5G network. (Visible is owned by Verizon and uses that carrier's network for coverage.) Tello offers the cheapest unlimited data plan by a $1, charging $29 for unlimited talk, text and data.

As we noted with Visible, these discount services use the big carriers' towers for their service — Verizon's in Visible's case, and T-Mobile's for Mint and Tello. On the bright side, that includes 5G coverage through those networks. On the down side, your data speeds can be slowed if the parent network is experiencing a lot of traffic.

Cheap unlimited data plans: Which should you pick?

As with any cell phone plan, picking the best cheap unlimited data offering from a major wireless carrier comes down to more factors than just price. However, if that's your primary concern, AT&T is the low-price champ with its Value Plus plan, provided you don't need more than one line of data. Families would be better off considering the Welcome Unlimited plan from Verizon, particularly if they live in an area where Verizon's coverage is strong.

Perks also play a role in picking a good unlimited plan, even if those perks aren't numerous for plans this cheap. Still, T-Mobile Essentials includes hotspot data (albeit at slow speeds) and a year of Paramount Plus. It's also the only unlimited plan to promise that your data speeds won't be slowed, at least for the first 50GB of data use. Because T-Mobile has the top-ranked 5G network, it's also best for 5G coverage, even with its cheapest unlimited data plan.

We've past the midway point of 2022, and as far as one wireless network testing firm is concerned, the rankings for 5G performance look a lot like they did at the start of the year. And that's good news if you're getting your wireless service from T-Mobile.

According to the latest report from RootMetrics, T-Mobile retained its spot as the best 5G network in the U.S., thanks to both speed and availability. While those factors are making it tough for rivals Verizon and AT&T to unseat T-Mobile among the best phone carriers for 5G coverage, the two networks made strides in the first half of the year.

Verizon in particular looks promising with the addition of integrated C-Band 5G, which came online at the start of the year. In the areas where C-Band spectrum was available, RootMetrics found that it provided significant speed improvements, reaching speeds of more than 250 Mbps in one market. Combined with Verizon’s continued dominance in 5G data reliability in RootMetrics' rankings, the mobile phone provider may soon be within striking distance of T-Mobile.

T-Mobile continues to have the best 5G availability 

Based on RootMetrics' numbers, T-Mobile dominates in terms of how much 5G coverage is available in a given market. The Uncarrier had the highest 5G availability in 100 markets, crushing AT&T (39 markets) and Verizon (3 markets). 

In fact, T-Mobile was the only carrier that didn’t record less than 55% 5G availability in any market. 5G availability also increased in 110 markets for T-Mobile, which was more than either of the other two mobile carriers.

That said, Verizon and AT&T did make some improvements — particularly Verizon. Big Red improved in 99 markets and improved to 85% or greater 5G availability in five more cities than it did during the last six months of 2021. 

AT&T fell short in some markets, with less than 25% 5G coverage in 36 markets. However, the carrier did make strides in 85 markets and had more markets than Verizon with 85% or greater 5G network coverage. 

Verizon C-Band improves 5G speed but still falls short of T-Mobile 

While Verizon and AT&T were probably hoping to catch T-Mobile with their new C-Band spectrum 5G networks, they still have a bit to go before they can claim the top spot. T-Mobiles median download speeds were phenomenal, with more than 250 mbps in nearly 40 markets; it also boasts the only network that did not record speeds below 25 mbps.

However, C-Band did provide major benefits for Verizon. C-Band is a type of mid-band 5G spectrum that AT&T and Verizon acquired access to and have only just started rolling out in the U.S. 

For AT&T, the gains appear to be middling, partially because its rollout is more limited than Verizon's approach. RootMetrics only recorded C-Band spectrum in 23 markets for AT&T, but in 81 markets for Verizon. This allowed Verizon to increase 5G speeds in 63 cities where it utilized its C-Band spectrum.

T-Mobile uses mid-band 5G, though it will not launch C-Band spectrum networks until 2023. Still, its mid-band spectrum holdings acquired in the Sprint merger have given the Uncarrier a massive boost. It's a big reason why T-Mobile has now held the title of fastest 5G network for 12 months in a row.

5G reliability remains a strong suit for Verizon 

This was one area where AT&T’s 5G network stood out. AT&T phones successfully connected to the 5G in their market 99.5% of the time in 107 markets, better than any other network. 

Unfortunately, that’s the end of AT&T's highlights, where the carrier only managed to stay connected in 54 of those markets, well behind T-Mobile and Verizon. T-Mobile made small improvements in both areas but remained third in getting connected and second in staying connected.

Verizon was the clear winner in terms of 5G reliability. It had a connection success rate in just five few markets than AT&T but stayed connected in more than 100 markets, which no other network came close to. This was the third straight 6-month period where Verizon’s 5G network won best reliability for RootMetrics.

T-Mobile is still RootMetrics' top-ranked 5G network

Despite having C-Band spectrum access that produced genuinely significant improvements, Verizon and AT&T could not catch T-Mobile in the first half of the year. Honestly, we’re not surprised, as that's consistent with previous test results.

Speed data during the second quarter of this year showed that T-Mobile was the fastest mobile network in the U.S., and that dominance is showing in its 5G networks as well. The 5G market is constantly shifting, but for now, T-Mobile's reign is proving to be pretty constant.

Update: T-Mobile just became the first carrier to offer this iPhone plan.

Ookla, the company behind one of the best speed testing apps, has released a report on the fastest mobile carriers in the U.S., revealing that T-Mobile took the top spot during the second quarter of this year.

According to extensive testing by the network intelligence and connectivity firm, T-Mobile had a median download speed of 116.54 Mbps on modern chipsets which can take full advantage of the carrier’s network.

Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless remained in second place with a median download speed of 59.67 Mbps while AT&T finished third at 54.64 Mbps.

When it came to upload speeds, T-Mobile also came in first at 11.72 Mbps followed by Verizon at 9.14 Mbps and AT&T at 7 Mbps. Latency was yet another win for T-Mobile with a median latency of 31 ms, just ahead of Verizon at 32 ms and AT&T at 34 ms.

5G performance and availability

As 5G smartphones have become more common, users want a mobile carrier that will allow them to take full advantage of their new devices.

If you recently upgraded to a 5G phone, you may want to consider making the switch to T-Mobile as the carrier had the fastest median 5G download speed in the U.S. according to Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence.

In Q2 2022, T-Mobile had a 5G median download speed of 187.33 Mbps (up slightly from the previous quarter) followed by Verizon Wireless at 113.52 Mbps. AT&T had the poorest showing in 5G performance with a median download speed of just 71.54 Mbps.

In terms of 5G availability, T-Mobile once again claimed the top spot at 68.5 percent, though AT&T actually beat Verizon in this area at 55.8 percent versus 31.2 percent, respectively.

Most popular (and fastest) smartphones in the US right now

As part of its testing, Ookla also looked at the most popular devices in the U.S. during the second quarter of this year to see which were the fastest.

Smartphones from both Samsung and Apple were the most popular during Q2 and of these, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra was the fastest with a median download speed of 105.26 Mbps. The iPhone 13 Pro Max came in second with a median download speed of 95.44 Mbps followed by the Galaxy S22+ (94.07 Mbps), the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (93.08) and the iPhone 13 Pro (92.39 Mbps).

As such, Samsung devices had the fastest median download speed in the U.S. in the second quarter at 62.75 Mbps, with Apple close behind at 58.14 Mbps.

Ookla also looked at popular chipsets in the U.S. to discover that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (found in the Samsung Galaxy S22 series, OnePlus 10 Pro, Motorola Edge Plus (2022) and other newer devices) was the fastest with a median download speed of 100.85 Mbps. 

The states and cities with the fastest mobile speeds

The District of Columbia took the top spot for the fastest median mobile download speed during Q2 2022 at 82.27 Mbps, followed by Minnesota (80.84 Mbps), New York (78.73 Mbps), New Jersey (78.66 Mbps) and Rhode Island (77.39 Mbps).

As for the cities with the fastest download speeds during the second quarter of this year, Tampa, Florida had the fastest median mobile download speed at 123.18 Mbps followed by Arlington, Texas (119.38 Mbps) and St Paul, Minnesota (112.80 Mbps).

Even if your state or city didn’t appear in Ookla’s latest report, it’s clear that T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T have been working hard to improve the performance of their respective networks across the U.S.

Your wallet may be feeling the pinch of higher prices on everything these days, leaving you to wonder if there's any way you can save some money in your monthly budget. You cell phone bill might be a good place to start looking.

We're not talking about getting rid of your smartphone bill completely. For many of us, our mobile phone is our primary — if not only — way to make calls. Throw in text and data, and having a mobile phone close at hand is pretty much an essential expense.

No, what we had in mind was going over what you pay each month and finding out if there are ways to save a few bucks here and there. Maybe it's as simple as changing the amount of data you pay for or finding some hidden cost that's causing you to pay more than you need to. In more extreme cases, you may need to take your business to another wireless service to find the best cell phone plan for your needs.

Whatever the solution winds up being, there are plenty of ways to save money on your smartphone bill. Here are seven tips that could reduce how much you pay each month for your wireless service.

Make sure you're paying for the right amount of data

Since the majority of cell phone plan bills these days include unlimited talk and text, data plays one of the biggest roles in determining what you pay to your wireless provider every month. And chances are, you're paying for more data than you probably need.

Major wireless carriers tend to push you to unlimited data plans, which certainly mean stress-free streaming and binging but also can result in costly monthly bills. If you can get away without requiring an unlimited data plan, why pay for one?

To find out what amount of data you need, dive into your wireless account to find out how much you've been using on a monthly basis. It's usually a matter of signing into your wireless account and heading to the billing section. Some wireless carriers even let you check from your device, whether in their mobile app or by calling a specific number. (Dial *3282# on AT&T, #932# on T-Mobile and #3282 on Verizon.)

If you're using more than 10GB of data, then you should be on an unlimited plan. If your data usage never goes over 5GB, though, you should start shopping for tiered data plans that are less expensive than what you're paying for now.

Sign up for autopay

Paying your bill electronically is not only convenient and saves a tree or two by going paperless, it can also knock a few bucks off your bill. For example, T-Mobile's Magenta unlimited plan will cost you $75 a month, but sign up for autopay and you can lower that cost by $5 to $70. AT&T and Verizon offer discounts of their own with autopay on their unlimited plans.

In most cases, you can expect around $5 in savings from autopay, which can add up over the course of a year. In some instances, you can save even more. (AT&T's unlimited prepaid plan lowers its costs by $15 to $50/month after autopay enrollment, for example.)

Chances are, you may have already signed up for autopay, but if you haven't, check with your carrier to see if that can lower your monthly bill any. And if you're shopping for a new plan, make sure to check out the autopay options and discounts at your new wireless provider. 

Look beyond the big carriers

We've only mentioned the Big Three carriers so far — AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon — but there's a whole world of options for cell phone service if you're willing to go off the beaten path. 

MVNOs — that's short for mobile virtual network operators — use the networks of larger carriers to offer service, usually at a lower rate. The trade-off for the lower bill is fewer perks than you might get with a more expensive plan from one of the bigger wireless providers. It's also possible your data speeds could be slowed if the network is congested, as major carriers prioritize their own customers first. Still, those are reasonable sacrifices if it means cutting your bill in half.

Some MVNOs rank among the best phone carriers we've tested. These lower-cost options include Mint Mobile, Visible, Google Fi, Boost Mobile, Xfinity Mobile, Consumer Cellular and Metro By T-Mobile. Turn to those carriers, and you'll usually find cheaper plans than what the bigger wireless carriers charge — even for unlimited data.

Pick plans where taxes and fees are included

Ever look at your monthly cell phone bill and think, "Well, that's more than I thought I was paying when I signed up for this plan?" Those are taxes and fees you're being charged on top of your monthly rate. They can  fluctuate from month to month and — even worse — increase, even if your base rate is locked in.

Some phone carriers have taken to baking the taxes and fees into your monthly bill, so that you're always paying the same rate. At the very least, it locks in your monthly phone expenses, so that you can expect to pay the same amount each month. And it could save you money, if those local taxes creep upward.

T-Mobile has been a pioneer in this regard, including taxes and fees in the cost of its Magenta and Magenta Max unlimited plans. (Alas, the lower cost T-Mobile Essentials and T-Mobile Connect plans don't include taxes and fees in their pricing.) The T-Mobile-owned MVNO Metro by T-Mobile also covers taxes and fees, as do Visible, Boost and Cricket Wireless.

Pay upfront for a lower monthly cost

Buying in bulk works when you're shopping for toilet paper and other household goods. Why not apply the same principle to cell phone service. Some wireless carriers let you prepay for services months in advance to get a lower overall monthly fee. 

Mint Mobile is the best example of this practice. The discount carriers offers some of the lowest fees we've seen on its monthly plans — from $15 per month for 4GB all the way up to unlimited data for $30 per month. But to keep these lower rates after an initial three month trial, you have to pay for 12 months of service. That's a big outlay upfront, but the lower monthly cost over time is worth it.

Even bigger carriers are beginning to offer this approach. AT&T's prepaid service includes an 8GB monthly option that only costs $25 per month. To get that rate, though, you've got to pay for the full year of service — an outlay of $300. Still, that monthly cost is a lot cheaper than what you'd pay at other carriers if you opted for monthly bill payments instead of one lump sum.

Add other lines to your account

When shopping for cell phone plans — particularly the best family cell phone plans — it's important to pay attention to the per line cost. Most carriers lower the cost of each line of data you add to your plan, with the discounts escalating as you add more.

For instance, Verizon's 5G Play More plan costs $80 for one line of data. (That's after a $5 discount for autopay enrollment, by the way.) A second line of data adds $60 to the total bill, but reduces the per line cost to $70. By the time you add a fourth line of data, you're paying $45 per line. AT&T, T-Mobile and several MVNOs take a similar approach with multiline discounts.

That may not save you much money if everyone on your family plan is living under roof, but who's to say that a family plan is restricted to one address. Add parents, siblings or anyone else to your wireless plan, and you can all enjoy the benefits of a lower per-line cost.

Visible has the best approach to this with its Party Pay option. With Party Pay, you can lower the cost of unlimited data from $40 for a single line to $25 per line for a plan covering four people. Those people don't have to be part of your family — Visible encourages you and your friends to pool your cell phone coverage, even offering to send the bill electronically to different people.

Call up your carrier and ask for a lower rate

Sometimes, getting a better, more affordable cell phone plan simply means calling up your provider and asking if they can offer you anything cheaper than what you're paying now. It doesn't always work out, but it's worth a phone call.

Last year, I had to get in touch with Verizon on a separate matter to troubleshoot a problem with runaway data consumption on my wife's iPhone. Over the course of that call, the Verizon representative pointed me in the direction of a different plan that nearly doubled my data allotment, while lowering my monthly bill when I signed up for autopay. I'm now paying about $5 to $10 less each month for coverage, and while that's not a huge discount, it's certainly beats what I was paying before.

Bigger carriers have an incentive to keep you as a customer, as declining subscriber numbers can drive up the cost of attracting new business. Call your current provider and politely ask if you can switch to a less expensive plan. You may be surprised by how willing they are to keep your business.

T-Mobile ended last year with the leading 5G network, according to a new report by a third-party testing firm. But the phone carrier shouldn't get too comfortable in the top spot, given how its rivals have spent the early part of 2022.

The latest report from RootMetrics says that T-Mobile has the fastest 5G speeds of any carrier and the greatest 5G availability. Only when measuring 5G reliability did a different carrier — Verizon, in this case — come out on top.

But the timing of testing for this RootMetrics report is significant. It looks at the 5G performance of the best phone carriers during the second half of 2021. At the start of the New Year, Verizon flipped the switch on its new C-Band 5G deployments, which bring faster average speeds to a a wider number of people — currently more than 90 million, according to Verizon. AT&T has launch its C-Band 5G, too, though in only a handful of cities at this point.

Because of those faster installations, both Verizon and AT&T — though especially the former — are expected to see some gains the next time a testing firm like RootMetrics runs its report. But for now, expect T-Mobile to make a lot of hay out of the claim that its 5G coverage comes out on top in some critical categories.

T-Mobile 5G: What RootMetrics found

RootMetrics ran its tests in the largest 125 cities in the U.S., and found that T-Mobile had the fastest 5G download speeds in 48 markets, compared to three for Verizon and zero for AT&T. Median download speeds for T-Mobile, topped 100 Mbps in more than half the cities RootMetrics tested in. In 26 markets, the Uncarrier's speeds topped 200 Mbps.

T-Mobile can also boast having the best 5G availability based on RootMetrics' findings. With the highest availability in 83 tested markets, T-Mobile topped AT&T (62 markets) and Verizon (6 markets).

It wasn't a clean sweep for T-Mobile, though. Verizon had the best 5G reliability in 93 markets, topping AT&T 67 markets and trouncing T-Mobile's 19-market tally.

The RootMetrics findings are consistent with what we've seen from other third party testers. Back in January, OpenSignal published a 5G testing report in which T-Mobile not only had the fastest 5g download speeds, but was 93.9 Mbps faster than its closest rival. T-Mobile also finished on top for availability and reach in that 5G performance report.

T-Mobile took a different approach from other carriers when building out 5G coverage, using sub-6GHz spectrum to create a far-reaching nationwide network. The carrier was the first to launch a nationwide 5G network, which now reaches more than 310 million people. It's now using mid-band spectrum — much of it obtained through the merger with Sprint — to boost speeds. Some 210 million people have access to this Ultra Capacity 5G service from T-Mobile.

How Verizon and AT&T could respond

Early efforts from Verizon and AT&T concentrated on mmWave-based 5G, which is very fast but has a limited range. Those mmWave-based towers are in select cities, with Verizon and AT&T using slower sub-6GHz 5G to build out nationwide coverage of their own.

In mid-January, though, both networks got a boost in the form of improved high-speed 5G through C-Band spectrum. The higher band spectrum has a wider reach than mmWave, enabling both carriers to reach more people with faster 5G service. (We saw this first-hand during a C-Band 5G preview hosted by Verizon.) In Verizon's case, that means more than 90 million people are now getting the carrier's fastest Ultra Wideband 5G. AT&T is rolling out its C-Band-based 5G on a more limited basis at this time.

C-Band already seems to be improving performance for Verizon. Right after C-Band 5G went live, testing firm Ookla published a report claiming that Verizon's average 5G download speed jumped to 116.3 Mbps from 76.5 Mbps within the course of a week. (T-Mobile speeds increased from 182 Mbps to 187.1 Mbps in that same time period.)

The implication is that future 5G reports will take Verizon's improved network into account and that the final results could be very different from the one RootMetrics is publishing today — something the testing firm itself acknowledged.

"The 5G race is highly dynamic and prone to rapid change, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the leaderboard shift as we move further into 2022 and beyond," RootMetrics says in its report.

AT&T has a new unlimited data plan that's cheaper than any similar plan available through the carrier. But you'll have to look outside AT&T to find it.

The new prepaid option costs $45 per month and is an exclusive deal through Walmart. Activate this AT&T plan at a Walmart store, and you'll get unlimited talk, text and data, including faster 5G coverage. Other perks include 10GB of hotspot data, 100GB of cloud storage and HD streaming.

AT&T's Walmart offer matches the Unlimited Plus prepaid plan AT&T offers directly to customers. However, even after a $25 discount for autopay enrollment, that plan costs $50 a month. In other words, you'll be saving $5 each month by getting your service through Walmart instead.

You could also try AT&T's Unlimited Starter plan, which is available to postpaid customers at $65 a month for a single line. That plan includes 5G coverage as well as a 6-month Stadia Pro streaming gaming subscription. 

But you can stream video only in standard definition with the Unlimited Starter plan, and AT&T reserves the right to slow your speeds at any time should its network get congested. The Unlimited Plus plan for prepaid customers lets you consume up to 22GB before slowing your data.

The ability to stream video in high-definition sets apart AT&T's Walmart-based Unlimited Plus plan from the other best cheap cell phone plans that offer unlimited data. 

Verizon-owned Visible charges only $40 a month for one line of unlimited data, with discounts available as you add lines. Mint Mobile's unlimited plan costs $30 per month for the first three months, with the rate staying in place if you commit to a year of service. While both Visible and Mint include 5G coverage with their plans, neither supports HD video streaming as AT&T's prepaid Unlimited Plus plans do.

To get AT&T's discounted unlimited data plan, you'll need to go to a Walmart store in person and select a phone through the retailer. You'll also need to activate your new line of service while you're still in the store to get the $45 monthly rate.

To further entice you, Walmart is offering several AT&T-compatible phones at a discount. The Moto G Pure ($19, instead of Walmart's regular price of $79), Samsung Galaxy A03s ($29 instead of $79) and Samsung Galaxy A12 ($69 instead of $129) are among the Android phones being offered at a discount as part of this AT&T promotion. iPhone fans can get the iPhone SE for $149 and iPhone 11 for $299, which are also discounts from Walmart's regular prices. 

Just be aware that none of these discounted phones offers 5G compatibility. Walmart is selling phones that work on AT&T's 5G network starting at $149.

Several foreign airlines have made the decision to cancel flights to certain U.S. cities over concerns that U.S. cellular carriers AT&T and Verizon’s C-band 5G network rollout today (Jan. 19) might interfere with instruments that many aircraft use to land in bad weather. 

Reuters reported that Emirates, Air India, Japan Airlines, Korean Airlines, China Airlines, Cathay Pacific, All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and ANA were scrambling to rejig their flight schedules. 

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is concerned that C-band 5G could mess with the radio altimeters that deliver height readings aircraft need when landing in conditions of poor visibility and for helping with automated landings. 

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) insists there is no such danger and that C-band 5G has been successfully deployed in other industrialized countries with no effect on aircraft. (Here's an explanation of what's going on with the C-band 5G rollout.)

Despite AT&T and Verizon both saying they would pause their C-band rollouts near major airports, flights to cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Miami and more have been suspended by overseas carriers this morning. 

Only certain models of aircraft could be affected

Emirates noted it was suspending Boeing 777 flights to these destinations “until further notice” as that model of jet uses radio altimeters that the FAA fears may be susceptible to C-band 5G interference. 

This has seen the likes of Singapore Airlines, Austrian Airlines and British Airways change from the Boeing 777 to other aircraft for U.S. flights.

Other commercial passenger aircraft, such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A320, use more modern radio altimeters and have been cleared by the FAA for safe flying near C-band cell towers. But the FAA still advises that “passengers should check with their airlines if weather is forecast at a destination where 5G interference is possible.” 

U.S. airline operators had previously warned that the rollout of this band of 5G, which sits close to the frequencies used by airplane radio altimeters, could cause “catastrophic disruption” to flight schedules. This appears to be at least somewhat true, despite the fact that AT&T and Verizon both agree to temporarily limit C-band 5G deployment near select airports. 

But as it stands, neither telecom provider has reached an agreement with the FAA on the navigation of C-band 5G around airports. This will likely require the FAA to complete its assessment in how C-band 5G could affect altimeter performance before network rollouts continue and flights return to schedule. 

"We recognize the economic importance of expanding 5G, and we appreciate the wireless companies working with us to protect the flying public and the country’s supply chain," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The complex U.S. airspace leads the world in safety because of our high standards for aviation, and we will maintain this commitment as wireless companies deploy 5G.” 

No way, FAA!

However, in a scathing research note from consultancy firm Strand Consult has dubbed the FAA’s concern over 5G as a “charade” claiming there's “no evidence that 5G harms the operation of altimeters.”

“Ostensibly, the FAA is concerned about interference to outdated altimeters on old planes and helicopters but lacking technical or regulatory standards for altimeters, it appears the FAA has only limited idea of where these obsolete altimeters are and how many are there,” the research note detailed. 

“Despite its acknowledged lack of information, the FAA boasts that US airspace is the most complex in the world and its safety; the best. With more than 40 nations having rolled out 5G on some 200 networks without problems to aviation, the situation with the FAA has become a national embarrassment.”

And from there the note gets harsher: “In fact the FAA attests that it has no evidence of actual interference. The truth can be independently verified, but FAA chose not to do this. Instead the FAA has colluded with various aviation trade associations (pilots, airlines, and aircraft) in the hope that they can get the mobile industry to cough up $100 million or so to pay for altimeter upgrades.”

“Additionally 5G offers a potent opportunity for the FAA to distract public attention from airlines’ poor performance and many regulatory shortcomings. And the FAA has no qualms about bogus safety alerts to scare the public if it fulfills its larger goal: to maintain meaning and tribute from the aviation industry.”

Is there really a problem?

Some 40 other nations have rolled out C-band 5G with no known adverse effects. That, plus the fact that there's a 220-MHz buffer zone between the frequencies used by Verizon and AT&T's C-Band 5G and those of radio altimeters, means Strand Consult may have a point.

“The FAA and the aviation industry have known about 5G in the C-band for years but said and did little to nothing to indicate there was a problem. If 5G was a legitimate safety issue, aviation actors would have acted sooner to prevent deployment in the US and around the world,” Strand Consult explained. “Instead, the FAA and the aviation industry sensed an opportunity. By waiting until the last moment, they could exploit the situation to their advantage.”

Avi Greengart, lead analyst with Techsponential, discussed the topic with Tom's Guide and appears to back up Strand Consult's research note: "In the U.S., the 5G we’ve been using has either been used before for prior wireless networks, or it is on really high frequencies with no ability to penetrate a piece of paper, let alone an airplane."

"Barring someone walking in with a barrel of money to placate the airlines, carriers are going to turn on the frequencies with buffer zones around airports, and then we’ll see if the FAA actually mandates anything in terms of flight restrictions."

Nevertheless, as it stands, Strand Consult can make these scathing observations and claims, but until the FAA completes its investigation it seems more time will be needed before flight disruption and schedule changes will be cleared up for flights to certain U.S. airports.

If you’ve been looking for one of the best phones in 2021 without spending a fortune, the Samsung Galaxy S21 would be a great choice. Especially right now, as you can get the phone without spending a cent.

For a limited time, you can get the Samsung Galaxy S21 free with an unlimited plan at AT&T. It's one of the best Cyber Monday phone deals we've seen this year, and one of the best Cyber Monday deals period.

The Galaxy S21 has a 6.2-inch screen, a great camera system, and really strong performance. Getting it for free with AT&Ts unlimited data plan is an astounding deal, as you're only paying the cost of the data plan each month. The plan starts as low as $35 per month.

In our Samsung Galaxy S21 review, the performance of the phone impressed us a lot. Not only did it make our list of the best phones of the year, the Galaxy S21 ranked third in our best Samsung phones list, just missing out on the top to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Considering that it’s available for no cost at all thanks to AT&T's unlimited data plan deal, the value you get on this flagship phone is amazing.

No matter which way you look at it — getting a phone this amazing for no cost doesn’t happen too often, so grab it while you can. Keep up with our Cyber Monday deals coverage to make sure you're getting the best deals as they happen.

Of all Black Friday deals, cell phone carriers typically have the most eye-catching, so long as you trade-in your old phone and sign up for an unlimited plan. Even with those stipulations, you can often get a great deal for a new smartphone. 

AT&T is currently offering up to $800 off a new 5G phone, including the excellent Pixel 6 Pro. This is one of those trade-in/unlimited deals, where you buy the phone on an installment plan. That $800 off comes in the way of bill credits and you have to keep your service active for the length of the contract, lest you foot the remainder of the phone's value (sans the $800 off). It's one of the best Black Friday AT&T deals we've seen. 

While we think the Pixel 6 Pro is the best phone eligible for this offer, you can also get $800 of a Galaxy S21 Ultra or Galaxy Z Fold 3. A Galaxy S21 or Galaxy Z Flip 3 will end up being free over the course of the payment plan, if you want to go that route. The regular Pixel 6 is 50% off with no trade-in required, so long as you sign up for the payment plan and unlimited.

You can also get a Galaxy S20 FE for $5 per month on the same offer, but with no trade-in required. While it's a year old, the Galaxy S20 FE is still a very good phone, but the base model Galaxy S21 (which is free on this offer) outclasses it.

This promotion also includes a BOGO offer on the new Galaxy Watch 4 and 50% off the Galaxy Buds 2 with the purchase of any Samsung connected product (i.e. smartphone).

Updated with comment from AT&T.

A well-known hacker (or hackers) says they've stolen the personal data of 70 million AT&T customers, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and dates of birth.

In a statement to Bleeping Computer, however, AT&T said that it had looked into the claim and concluded that the data "does not appear to have come from our systems."

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ShinyHunters, the hacker(s) auctioning the data online, insists that the data is the real thing.

"It doesn't surprise me," ShinyHunters told RestorePrivacy.com. "I think they will keep denying until I leak everything."

If the data is real — and it could still be real even if it didn't come from AT&T's servers — then those 70 million people are in dire danger of identity theft. 

The stolen personal information is all an identity thief would need to open accounts in other people's names, pose as them in job applications, or get identification documents such as driver's licenses.

RestorePrivacy said at least some of the data samples they had seen appeared to be real, and an unnamed security expert told Bleeping Computer the same.

This news comes just a few days after the revelation of a data breach at rival phone company T-Mobile, which compromised the names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of at least 48 million people. T-Mobile has confirmed the incident.

Get ready to do these things

Regarding the supposed AT&T breach, we would normally advise anyone affected by such a serious incident to put fraud alerts on their files with the Big Three credit-reporting agencies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. 

We'd also ask affected individuals to consider instituting credit freezes with the Big Three, although doing so can complicate getting a loan or opening new payment accounts. 

If AT&T confirms a breach of its systems, it will offer identity theft protection to affected users. If you're one of those users, take up the company on its offer.

But because we don't yet know whether this claim of an AT&T data breach is valid, it might be premature to act without further information.

Credible allegations

ShinyHunters' standard mode of operation is to steal data and offer to sell it in cybercriminal marketplaces. If there are no takers, then ShinyHunters posts the data online for free.

In the past couple of years, he, she or they have broken into databases belonging to at least 40 companies, although few are household names. 

ShinyHunters has implied that the breached companies can sometimes buy the data back, and indeed they told RestorePrivacy that they were willing to come to such an "arrangement" with AT&T.

More importantly, ShinyHunters' claims of data theft almost always turn out to be true. AT&T customers should hope this claim turns out not to be.

Tom's Guide has reached out to AT&T for comment and clarification, and we will update this story when we receive a reply.

Update: AT&T responds

AT&T responded to our query with the same statement that was given to Bleeping Computer:

"Based on our investigation, the information that appeared in an internet chat room does not appear to have come from our systems."

Our AT&T contact added that the company could not speculate on where the data had come from, or whether it was real.

A new streaming service player has entered the game. Well, not so much new as newly-branded. Say goodbye to AT&T TV; say hello DirecTV Stream.

AT&T and global alternative asset firm TPG announced today that they have closed on their deal to establish DirecTV as a separate video company operating DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-verse video services. 

DirecTV Stream will become the overall brand for all video streaming services previously launched by AT&T — except HBO Max, which is part of the pending WarnerMedia Discovery merger.

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At the end of Q2 2021, DirecTV had approximately 15.4 million premium video subscriber. Current AT&T satellite and streaming customers will automatically keep their video service, as well as bundled wireless, internet or HBO Max services (plus discounts) with no action required. 

“This is a watershed moment for DirecTV as we return to a singular focus on providing a stellar video experience," said Bill Morrow, CEO, DirecTV. “Building on our recent momentum, we are well-positioned to bring unparalleled choice and value to all of our customers under one iconic brand, whether they beam it or stream it." 

This is just the latest rebranding for AT&T TV streaming service, which used to be called AT&T TV Now and DirecTV Now. It offered live TV channels, with its lowest tier starting at $70. 

The serviced touted itself as particularly suitable for sports fans, thanks to a lineup that included regional sports networks. And the DirecTV  announcement calls itself the "undisputed leader in sports programming" and trumpeted the inclusion of NFL Sunday Ticket in its offering. 

But that $70 monthly cost is $5 more than rival cable TV alternatives like YouTube TV and Hulu With Live TV. It remains to be seen if DirecTV Stream, now un-coupled from AT&T, will make its prices more competitive.

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The best phone carriers are so eager for you to hop on to their new 5G networks, they're even willing to give you a free phone to get you to check out the faster wireless standard. But which one is offering the best free 5G phone deal?

That depends entirely on what kind of phone you want, the device you have on-hand for a trade-in and — above all — the quality of the 5G coverage in your area.

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You can understand why carriers are willing to part with a phone if it means more people using their networks. In the two-plus years since 5G networks started going live, the major carriers have expanded aggressively, bringing coverage to a wider number of people. With 5G set to be with us for years to come, those same carriers want to plant their flag now and lock in subscribers. It also helps that many of these 5G phone deals require an unlimited data plan, thus securing recurring revenue for the cost of a smartphone freebie.

But customers can benefit from these deals, too. While we have a long way to go before 5G coverage is ubiquitous, it reaches enough areas to make upgrading worth your while. And when switching to a new phone, getting something for free is usually preferable to paying full price, especially if you're eying one of the more expensive entries on the list of best 5G phones.

Here's a closer look at the free 5G phone offers from each phone carrier and whether they're the right fit for your needs.

T-Mobile free 5G phone deal: The most straightforward offer

• Deal 1: Get a free OnePlus Nord N200 5G or Revvl V+ 5G when you trade in any functioning cell phone
• Deal 2: Get an iPhone 12 or Galaxy S21 free when you trade-in a phone and sign up for a Magenta Plus unlimited plan

T-Mobile’s best free 5G phone offer: Trade in any functioning cell phone (or activate a new line of service on an eligible wireless plan), and T-Mobile will give you a free 5G phone.

The eligible phones: You have a choice of two phones under this plan — either the OnePlus Nord N200 5G or the Revvl V+ 5G.

We can't speak to the quality of the Revvl V+, which is T-Mobile's in-house brand of phones built by TCL. But we do have a OnePlus Nord N200 5G review in which we declared that this $239 phone was the best 5G value out there.

With the Nord N200, don't expect great performance or cameras that measure up to the best inexpensive camera phones like the Pixel 4a. But OnePlus did equip this phone with a 90Hz refresh rate, and it lasts a long time on a charge.

No matter what phone you get in this deal, you pay the sales tax up front and receive monthly bill credits for 24 months. Leave T-Mobile before then, and you're on the hook for the balance of the phone.

The 5G network: T-Mobile 5G is, without question, the most extensive 5G network, reaching more than 300 million people. T-Mobile is in the process of converting its far-reaching Extended Range 5G network into a faster Ultra Capacity 5G network, with a goal toward completing that transition by year's end.

At least one testing firm already rates T-Mobile as the top-performing 5G network in the U.S. Opensignal says T-Mobile delivers faster download speeds than both AT&T and Verizon. In its reports, though, RootMetrics places AT&T ahead of T-Mobile in terms of speed.

Other T-Mobile free 5G phone deals: The OnePlus Nord N200 may be a good 5G value, but it's hardly the flashiest phone. T-Mobile also has a deal where you can pick up an iPhone 12 or Galaxy S21 for free, though you have a lot more hurdles to clear.

First of all, you have to trade in a relatively recent phone to get the full credit that would give you either the iPhone 12 or Galaxy S21 free. In the case of Apple phones, that trade-in has to be an iPhone X or later; the iPhone 8, released at the same time as the iPhone X, only nets a $730 savings. For Samsung phones, you'll need a Galaxy S20 or later to reap the maximum trade-in value. 

In addition to trading in a device, you must sign up for a Magenta Plus unlimited plan to get a big discount on the iPhone 12 or Galaxy S21. That's T-Mobile's most expensive unlimited data plan, at $85 a month, though you do get truly unlimited data plus HD video streaming among other benefits.

As before, the rebate value is paid out to you in bill credits spread over 24 months. You'll enjoy a much better free (or more accurately, "discounted") phone, but T-Mobile's other free 5G phone deal is a little bit more straightforward.

The verdict: Unless you need the latest and greatest device, a simple trade-in can get you a OnePlus Nord N200 5G, which is a perfectly fine phone for enjoying T-Mobile's 5G network.

Verizon free 5G phone deal: Generous trade-ins for good phones

• Deal 1: Trade in any phone, even damaged ones, for credit toward an iPhone 12 or Galaxy S21/Galaxy Note 20.
• Deal 2: Get a free Galaxy S20 FE by activating a new line of data on an unlimited plan.

Verizon’s best free 5G phone offer: Trade in your old phone, even if it's damaged, and get money back on your 5G phone purchase.

The eligible phones: Verizon lets you apply that credit to the four iPhone 12 models as well as any Galaxy S21 or Galaxy Note 20 device. In the case of the iPhone, you can get a maximum credit of up to $1,000, while Galaxy shoppers can get up to $1,100 back.

As with T-Mobile, you'll need a recent phone to get the biggest return, though Verizon is pretty generous with its rebates. My iPhone SE from 2016, for example, qualifies for a $350 credit spread out over 24 months. T-Mobile doesn't even offer a rebate when you trade in an original iPhone SE. It's also worth emphasizing that Verizon accepts broken phones, something other carriers do not. 

The iPhone 8 nets a savings of $700, essentially letting you get an iPhone 12 mini for free or an iPhone 12 for $99. 

You'll need to sign up for one of Verizon's unlimited data plans, but you'd need to do that anyway if you wanted to use the carrier's 5G network.

The 5G network: Verizon's nationwide 5G network reaches 230 million people in 2,700 cities. The carrier's Ultra Wideband service doesn't have that wide a reach — it's currently in parts of more than 70 cities.

Opensignal says Verizon 5G download speeds are equal to AT&T's, with both carriers trailing T-Mobile. Verizon also has the lowest 5G availability in Opensignal's rankings. That said, RootMetrics' last report rated Verizon the best for 5G availability.

Other Verizon free 5G phone deals: While Verizon's trade-in program favors current flagships, you can get a completely free 5G phone from Big Red, without even bothering with a trade-in.

Sign up for an unlimited plan with the carrier and activate a new line, and you can get a Galaxy S20 FE for free. (You'll receive bill credits over 24 months.) The Galaxy S20 FE offers the best features of Samsung's Galaxy S20 flagships, with few compromises. But it may soon be replaced by the Galaxy S21 FE, so you're not exactly getting a cutting edge phone.

The verdict: If you've got a broken phone, Verizon's trade-in deal makes perfect sense for upgrading to a new 5G phone. And you may be surprised by just how much your older phone can reduce the price of a 5G upgrade.

AT&T free 5G phone deal: Good phones and a strong network

• Deal: Get a free Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12 mini when you trade-in a working phone and sign up for unlimited data.

AT&T’s best free 5G phone offer: Get a free 5G phone from AT&T when you trade-in your current phone — it needs to be working — and you sign up for an unlimited plan.

The eligible phones: The free phone in question can either be a Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12 mini. Be aware, though, that not every trade-in device qualifies for the full discount; in other words, if you have a much older phone, you'll be getting your S21 or iPhone 12 mini at a reduced rate, but not free.

For example, the iPhone 8 or higher gets you the full trade-in value; anything older than that — as well as the iPhone SE (2020) merits just a $350 discount. A Galaxy S9 or later gets you the full rebate as well.

The 5G network: AT&T 5G now reaches 250 million people with its nationwide network. The faster 5G Plus service is currently available in 38 cities and 20 venues, with plans to hit 40 cities and 40 venues by the end of the year.

AT&T's 5G performance has gotten high marks from network testing firms, with RootMetrics previously saying the carrier has the fastest 5G speeds. OpenSignal says that AT&T trails T-Mobile in average download speed, but that its 5G reach is on the rise.

Other AT&T 5G phone deals: AT&T doesn’t have any other free promotions at the moment. But if you don't need a flagship phone, AT&T offers both the Moto G Stylus 5G and the Samsung Galaxy A32 for $5 a month over 36 months. The key appeal here is that you don't have to trade in any phone — just sign up for an unlimited data plan with AT&T.

The verdict: AT&T's 5G network impresses, and if you've got a phone that qualifies for the full rebate, a free Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12 mini can be yours.

• Best phones

Carriers shutting down 3G networks has been a long time coming, and AT&T has set a date for its shutdown. After February 22, 2022, many older devices will stop working on the network, but AT&T has published a list of which ones will still have access it.

Spotted by XDA Developers, the list is quite expansive and includes several phones and tablets released within the last five to six years. Essentially, if it supports LTE and VoLTE, you're safe. If you want to check the full thing, here's the list.

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Of all the carriers, AT&T has made things the most clear to understand. Not only has it provided a cutoff date, but the list it made is extremely helpful. That's more than we can say for Verizon or T-Mobile, which have repeatedly delayed 3G network shutdowns.

Verizon has delayed its 3G network shutdown to December 31, 2022 while T-Mobile has pushed its UTMS 3G network shutdown to April 2022. Sprint's CDMA 3G network will go offline on January 1, 2022. Neither of these two carriers have given as many details regarding what devices will continue to work, so kudos to AT&T.

There is some concern among those whose alarm systems rely on AT&T's 3G network. Many fear that there isn't enough time for consumers and enterprises to switch, and have asked the FCC to forcibly delay AT&T's shutdown.

Again, any device that supports LTE data and Voice over LTE (VoLTE), which AT&T calls "HD Voice," will continue to work. Some of these include iPhone 6 and newer, a lot of Samsung devices, Pixel 2 and up, and several more budget or lesser known devices.

Though a smaller one than the phones, the list of tablets is also quite large. Be sure you check out the full breakdown if you're worried about your phone continuing to work on AT&T come next February.

• More: All iPhone 13 models tipped to get sensor-shift stabilization

In our search for the best web hosting services, we decided to undertake a full AT&T web hosting review. AT&T offers a wide range of web design, hosting, and other professional services, including fully managed packages where the company builds your site for you akin to the best website builders. 

In this review, we take a closer look at every aspect of AT&T’s web hosting solutions. By analyzing its main features, prices, customer service, and more, we aim to provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision about its usefulness.

AT&T web hosting: Plans and pricing

AT&T offers a selection of hosting solutions, including three website plans that you can use to build your own site, and three advanced solutions for those who want their site built for them. 

The three DIY plans include a selection of tools such as one-click WordPress and Joomla installers, a highly functional website builder, and a free domain for the first year. You will also benefit from unmetered bandwidth and unlimited storage across the board. 

With the Basic plan (from $10 a month), you’ll get full access to the advanced web design tool, support for up to 100 email accounts, and advanced web analytics. However, you will only be able to connect one website. 

Upgrading to the Enhanced plan (from $16 a month) adds support for up to five sites and 250 email accounts. You’ll also get a suite of social media tools, access to automatic online directory listings, and advanced management features. 

At the top end of the spectrum, the Premium plan (from $25 a month) adds a selection of ecommerce tools to help you sell online. You will have support for up to 500 email accounts and ten websites, along with everything that’s included in the two cheaper plans.

If you want your website to be designed and built by the AT&T team, you will need to subscribe to one of the three Build It For Me plans. These range from $35 to $110 a month, and include a suite of professional services.

AT&T web hosting: Features

All AT&T web hosting plans come with a decent range of advanced features. For one, you will have full access to a mobile-first site creation tool. Using this, you can create mobile-friendly websites and online stores, which will help improve the user experience and boost your search engine rankings. 

There’s also a great range of online marketing tools, with premium email marketing add-ons available if required. Take advantage of the built-in analytics portal for insights into customer behavior and acquisition, then use this data to make informed business decisions. 

With one of the more expensive subscriptions, you’ll have access to a suite of ecommerce tools to help you build an online store. However, these certainly don’t compare to those offered by more ecommerce-focused providers.

AT&T web hosting: Interface and in use

Signing up for a new AT&T web hosting plan is as simple as adding the required subscription to your cart and working through the checkout process. There’s no free trial or free-forever plan, but this isn’t unusual among web hosting providers. Unfortunately, we were inundated with upselling attempts and add-ons whilst trying to complete payment, which was frustrating, to say the least. 

The management dashboard is simple yet functional. It includes a selection of options to help you look after your site, including website, marketing, and domain management tools. On the right of the screen, you’ll be able to view your current resource usage. 

AT&T web hosting: Support

If you need technical support from the AT&T team, you will benefit from live chat, phone, and online ticketing options. However, none of these are available 24/7. Despite claims that live chat is available at all times, there were no support agents online at any time during our testing. 

There’s also a knowledge base with a few self-help resources, but these are basic at best. The search tool is limited and hard to use, and it wasn’t able to provide relevant results for even the most basic queries. 

AT&T web hosting: Security

Unfortunately, AT&T provides very little information about its security practices. This is concerning, and it certainly makes it hard for us to recommend its hosting solutions. One thing worth noting is that you will be encouraged to upgrade to a premium SiteLock subscription, which suggests that base security features are far from perfect.

Alternatives to AT&T web hosting

There are numerous more attractive hosting options on the market. For example, Bluehost is a great option for beginners who are new to the web development space. Its feature-rich plans come with unlimited bandwidth, and prices start from just $2.75 a month.

Another decent choice is GreenGeeks, which offers eco-friendly hosting from just $2.95 a month. Every plan is backed by a 300% green energy offset, along with excellent management tools.

AT&T web hosting: Final verdict

At the end of the day, AT&T web hosting just doesn’t have enough going for it. There’s limited information available about exactly what its packages include, customer service is average at best, and it doesn’t appear to offer anywhere near good enough security services. 

Because of this, we’d highly recommend looking elsewhere. There are plenty of more powerful options on the market, so spend some time and find the best web hosting services for your needs. 

In the ever-growing battle for the best 5G network, T-Mobile has once again stolen the show. According to the latest Opensignal report, the Uncarrier managed to win Download Speed, Reach, and Availability awards, beating out AT&T and Verizon. 

T-Mobile also remained ahead for 5G Upload, but AT&T is closing on it fast. Meanwhile, Verizon and AT&T jointly won the 5G Gaming Experience awards, and AT&T took both the 5G Video Experience and 5G Voice App Experience.

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Opensignal gives plenty of information on how it came to its findings for the last quarter. T-Mobile excelled in Reach, Availability, Download Speed and Upload Speed. The 5G Reach award signals that T-Mobile has the best representation of "locations where 5G users have connected to 5G out of all the locations those users have visited."

For the 5G Availability award, T-Mobile proved itself the winner by providing the most 5G coverage and connectivity. 33.1% of users remained connected to 5G, while AT&T came in at 20.5% and Verizon at 11.2%.

More importantly, T-Mobile handily beat its competitors with an average download speed of 71.3 Mbps. The next closest was AT&T with 54.9 Mbps, then Verizon trailing behind at 47.7 Mbps. 5G Upload was a closer race, with T-Mobile on top with 15.2 Mbps, AT&T with 10 Mbps, and Verizon with 12.9 Mbps.

T-Mobile did not, however, win everything. AT&T and Verizon tied for the 5G Games Experience award, which measures latency in gaming over a cellular connection. These are real-world scenarios, testing to make sure that the game responds as quickly as possible over 5G. Both the carriers practically tied for the 5G Video Experience. T-Mobile fell behind in these categories.

AT&T won by hair on the 5G Voice App Experience. This award "measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger etc. — when users are connected to a 5G network."

T-Mobile continues to lead in most cases, but the other two might catch up quickly if the Uncarrier doesn't pay attention. For now, we'll look forward to Opensignal's next quarterly report.

• More: How to unlock your iPhone with an Apple Watch

Update: The fastest mobile network in the US just might surprise you.

A week after Ookla declared that AT&T had the best 5G performance at the start of the new year, more wireless testing firms have come out with reports of their own. And those dueling reports paint very different pictures about where you can expect the best 5G experience.

The winner in these looks at overall networking performance? That all depends on who's doing the counting.

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Testing firm RootMetrics puts Verizon as the top performing overall in a preview of its semi-annual study, but notes that T-Mobile's 5G network covered more cities than anyone else by the end of 2020. Meanwhile, T-Mobile took the crown for speediest 5G performance in a new report from Opensignal, while umlaut gave T-Mobile the best marks for 5G availability and speed in a four-city test. 

What's the truth behind the numbers? Let's dig into each report to find out.

RootMetrics network testing winner: Verizon

We’ll start off with RootMetrics, which is in the midst of preparing its "State of the Mobile Union" report on network performance in the second half of 2020. That's not stopping the testing firm from publishing its preliminary results, and Verizon came in first for six categories, sharing top honors with AT&T in the seventh.

That shared category was texting, as Verizon won the Reliability, Accessibility, Speed, Data, Call and Overall rankings. As for speed, Verizon recorded an average aggregate download speed of 40 Mbps, beating AT&T (33.8 Mbps) and T-Mobile (20.1 Mbps). Those numbers reflect national figures, as performance can vary from state to state and even city to city. T-Mobile usually does well on the state and metro levels, even if RootMetrics found the Uncarrier to be the weakest in terms of reliability overall.

RootMetrics' preliminary report doesn't break out 5G numbers, though it notes AT&T's 5G footprint expanded during the second half of 2020, while T-Mobile offers the most expansive 5G coverage. Even with those two givens, though, RootMetrics calls Verizon "the carrier to beat." RootMetrics' full report is due next month.

Opensignal network testing winner: T-Mobile

Opensignal's report concentrates on 5G coverage, based on data from more than two million devices with about 15.13 billion measurements. The tests were conducted from September 16 to December 14, 2020, and they paint T-Mobile as the 5G leader at the moment.

T-Mobile won the 5G Download Speed award for the first time with an average download speed of 58.1 Mbps. AT&T came in second with 53.8Mbps, and Verizon came in third with 47.4 Mbps. Opensignal credits T-Mobile's integration of Sprint's 2.5GHz spectrum for an overall improvement in download speed during the last six months.

Meanwhile, download speeds for AT&T and Verizon dropped during the same period. In Verizon's case, that drop was caused by Big Red launching a nationwide network that uses lower spectrum than the super-fast mmWave towers it previously relied on. (Ookla noticed a similar effect in its report from last week.)

T-Mobile also won the 5G Upload Speed award with an average upload speed of 14 Mbps. Verizon was second with 11.9 Mbps, and AT&T was third with an average of 8 Mbps.

All three carriers saw big boosts in 5G availability, which measures the percentage of time users are connected to 5G coverage. According to Opensignal, T-Mobile was available 30.1% (up from 22.5%) of the time, while AT&T saw 18.8% (versus 10.3%) availability, and Verizon a 9.5% (a huge jump from 0.4%).

Just because a carrier has the fastest speed doesn’t mean it’ll offer the best video viewing experience due to different mechanisms used to transmit different types of data over the network. Verizon won in this category, with a score of 64.9 on a 100-point scale. AT&T came in second with 62.5, topping T-Mobile and its 57.8 score. Verizon also finished first in 5G video user experience.

Umlaut network testing winner: T-Mobile

Rounding things out is a small report commissioned by T-Mobile from umlaut, a German firm, which measured 5G network performance in Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Houston. Though much less detailed than Opensignal’s report, it also names T-Mobile as the overall winner. 

The upload and download results are the average 4G/5G speeds.

In the D.C. area, umlaut found T-Mobile had an average download speed of 179 Mbps and upload speed of 45 Mbps, while Verizon got 87 Mbps and 20 Mbps. (those numbers reflect average speeds over 4G and 5G.) AT&T sat at 75 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up. However, T-Mobile’s new mid-band Ultra Capacity network pulled down a whopping 315 Mbps and 58 Mbps up. T-Mobile saw 94% availability, AT&T was at 95%, and Verizon trailed at 70%.

For Houston, T-Mobile’s average download speed was 87 Mbps and its upload speed was 31 Mbps. AT&T’s download was 62 Mbps and upload was 24 Mbps, while Verizon’s was 46 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up. However, T-Mobile once again led the crowd with its Ultra Capacity, coming in at 184 Mbps and 34 Mbps. T-Mobile and AT&T had the same 5G availability as they did in D.C., but Verizon fell further behind at 61%.

In New York City, T-Mobile led the group with an average download and upload speed of 148 Mbps and 50 Mbps, respectively. Verizon came in second with 66 Mbps and 32 Mbps, while AT&T came in third with 59 Mbps and 18 Mbps. T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity saw 178 Mbps and 54 Mbps. For availability, T-Mobile had 94%, AT&T 90%, and Verizon 51%.

Finally, in Chicago, T-Mobile won once again with 105 Mbps down and 40 Mbps up. AT&T saw 78 Mbps and 23 Mbps, and Verizon had 59 Mbps down and 34 Mbps up. T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity had an average of 194 Mbps down and 34 Mbps up. 5G network availability ranked T-Mobile first with 99.6%, Verizon second with 91.6%, and AT&T third with 87%.

5G performance outlook

5G is still relatively new and the emerging network standard will continue to grow as time goes on. The 5G modems in phones will get better and the coverage areas will also improve as the technology continues to evolve and carriers build out coveage. 

The answer to the question of which is the best 5G carrier ultimately depends on where you live. Two of the four reports we know of list T-Mobile as the winner, both in speeds and availability. However, there are areas where Verizon and AT&T push into first place, so you’ll need to figure out what will be best for your area.