Most Americans are signed up with one of the major carrier brands—AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless—or runner-up US Cellular, but many more choices are available to US cell phone customers looking for a bargain. Dozens of MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) and prepaid carriers offer big discounts by piggybacking on the major networks to deliver lower prices.
All the major carriers have low-cost brands and their deals are worth checking first. AT&T runs Cricket Wireless. T-Mobile currently owns Metro. Verizon owns Visible. If you're looking for a wide range of stores and solid customer service, these brands have excellent prices and should be your first shopping stops. We'll mention them below where appropriate.
For the other brands, which typically don't have stores, pay attention to their reputation for customer service and their enabling networks. Some MVNOs give you an option to choose between different enabling networks, while others are tied to only one. One company, Google's Project Fi, uses T-Mobile's and US Cellular's networks interchangeably on some phones, but for the rest, you have to choose which network you want when you buy your SIM card.
Boost Mobile is a major MVNO player with competitive pricing, but think twice before switching to it. When Dish purchased the company in 2020, Boost Mobile originally planned to use T-Mobile's network for the foreseeable future. Dish now claims T-Mobile is uncompetitive and has signed a contract to lease service from AT&T for the next decade. This is likely to spell big trouble for current Boost customers who still use T-Mobile's CDMA network or bought carrier-locked devices.
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