Prepaid wireless service isn’t a compromise in quality

When you think of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, you probably think of their postpaid networks, the kind that sends you a bill after you’ve used their service.

You may cringe when you think of prepaid service, imagining they are low quality and not worth your time. Reset your thoughts because prepaid is worth a look. Prepaid service could deliver you most of the coverage of your favorite cell network at a much lower cost, if you’re willing to put up with some occasional (and only potential) inconveniences.

Prepaid services are provided by the big guys

All major providers have a prepaid service. AT&T has a version called AT&T Prepaid and also owns a brand called Cricket. Verizon has Verizon Prepaid and owns a prepaid brand called Visible. T-Mobile has T-Mobile Prepaid and Metro by T-Mobile (OK — that one is easy to tell). These same companies also sell their service to other virtual operators, that basically just resell their service under a different name and different system.

In many cases, you can get prepaid service for a big discount over the name brand postpaid service. For instance, the cheapest unlimited plan on AT&T postpaid costs $65 plus taxes for a single line. Meanwhile, AT&T Prepaid will sell you service for $50 plus taxes, and AT&T-owned Cricket will sell you unlimited data for $55, taxes included. Verizon-owned Visible sells unlimited data for $40, taxes included.

Just like with postpaid, these prices even go down if you add more people to the plan. If you are able to find 4 people to share, Cricket or Visible will sell you unlimited data for $25 per month, taxes included. That’s a great deal if you have a data hungry family or friends who you can split the cost.

Postpaid bundles coverage and services you might not need

Postpaid services are the superior service, compared to prepaid, but possibly in ways that don’t matter to you.

Postpaid plans usually include roaming throughout the US, including that tiny small town with one cell tower, miles from the interstate. Postpaid providers will lease access to those low traffic towers from small companies because building a tower for just a few customers is expensive.

As a postpaid subscriber, the costs and convenience of being connected in the smallest of towns in the most remote places are passed onto you. If you don’t live in or visit places like that, there’s really no benefit for you. Prepaid would have you covered in most places because almost every major provider has a significant build out in a city of any size, and most of them also have most of the interstate system covered.

Postpaid service might also bundle in services that you already have or you don’t want. Postpaid Verizon has bundles Apple Music and Disney Plus, and AT&T Postpaid has bundles with HBO Max. Even if you want these services, it still might be cheaper for you to pay for them out of pocket, especially because you can then cancel them if you want to take a few months off.

Prepaid prioritization

The main drawback of prepaid service is the prioritization of service. In almost all cases, you’re going to be a lower priority customer. This is mainly a problem if you are in an area that has too many customers and not enough service. You might find this at large gatherings such concerts and street festivals (although these are presently in short supply due to the pandemic). In those cases, the companies will potentially slow your internet to favor those who pay for more premium service. In some cases, they could slow it so much that it becomes unusable. Basically, it might look like you have full service, but the service may not work well.

Is there a chance this could happen? Absolutely. Will it happen all the time? Unlikely. In cases where you lose service due to crowds, the answer is to move to a less crowded area, or better yet, find Wi-Fi. That being said, there’s also no guarantees that postpaid customers will always have service if the area is extremely crowded—that’s simply a drawback of cellular service.

In addition to deprioritization, some services may slow your speeds. For instance, on AT&T’s Cricket, the cheapest $25 unlimited plan limits your speeds to 8 megabits per second. Read the fine print of your service agreement, if speed is important to you. Keep in mind, though, 8 megabits per second is more than fast enough for sending iMessages, WhatsApps, and emails, in addition to watching steaming videos.

Some companies will tell you postpaid (and sometimes even prepaid) will give you 5G. However, the utility of 5G at this point is minimal for most people. If you don’t know why you need 5G at this point, other than to keep up with the latest tech, you don’t need 5G.

Technical support might not meet your needs

One thing that might trip up less technical people is the lack of in person technical support. The branded companies will provide much better support for both postpaid and prepaid. You can simply go into their physical locations.

However, prepaid providers, such as Cricket and Metro by T-Mobile, are usually sold out of franchised locations. Support may be possible at those locations, but if they can’t solve the issue, they may just tell you to call a phone number or chat on a website. Visible doesn’t even have physical locations; they will only provide technical support via chat on their website or phone app.

Of course, this lower support level is also how prices are kept low. Regardless, it should be rare that you need technical support for your phone service, and if you do, if you’re having enough of a problem, it may be easier to leave for another service.

I’ve used it, and it works fine

I’ve been using Visible on the north side of Chicago and in downtown Chicago since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. I’ve rarely had a connection slower than 5 megabits per second. Most of the time, I see speeds above 20 megabits per second, plenty fast for most people. In the suburbs and certain parts of the city, my speeds have gone as high as 50–100 megabits per second.

Recently in December 2020, as an added bonus, Visible activated 5G for customers. On my iPhone 12, I saw speeds on 5G anywhere from 2.5 megabits per second (as slow as 3G) to 200 megabits per second (super fast). I still contend, for most, 5G is not a real selling point right now because you don’t need fast data to do most things.

Will my Visible speeds change when the pandemic is over and more people are away from their homes? Maybe. But if the service changes such that this prepaid service no longer works well enough for me, as mentioned, easy switching is one of the benefits of prepaid.

I’m not a very important person and don’t like contracts

Prepaid isn’t for everyone. If you absolutely need your phone at all times and locations because of a critical job, you’re probably better off sticking with an expensive postpaid plan (hopefully paid for by your employer). Postpaid will give you the benefit of the strongest network and the highest priority connection — but for a price. Keep in mind, though, cell phone service is never guaranteed, regardless of price.

For those of use who don’t need to have the strongest connection every second of the day, and are willing to put up with some potential minor inconveniences, prepaid is a good way to lower our bills. The prevalence of companies, including the biggest names, makes it an easy bet. The best part is there are no contacts. If you find that one company isn’t working for you, simply move to a new company, and take your phone number with you when you leave.

Finding the best plan

Try a few prepaid services to find out which works the best for your situation. Pre-pandemic, I had AT&T Prepaid’s 8GB of data plan, for about $45 per month, with local taxes. Once I saw I could switch a few of us on a family plan to Visible, in order to save $10 per month and get unlimited data (of which I probably don’t use 8GB), I was game. So far, so good.

Keep in mind, in most places, there are really only three wireless networks that you can sign up for: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. If one service doesn’t work for you, other services, prepaid or not, using the same network might also not work.

Here’s a sampling of lower price individual plans by carrier (most let you save more by adding more people to your plan):

• AT&T Prepaid: $30+taxes for 5GB of LTE data
• Cricket (uses AT&T): $30 flat for 2GB of LTE data (8 megabits per second speed limit)
• T-Mobile Prepaid: $40+taxes for 10GB of LTE data
• Metro by T-Mobile: $30 flat for 2GB of LTE data
• Verizon Prepaid: $35+taxes for 6GB of LTE data
• Visible (uses Verizon): $40 flat for unlimited LTE data
• Boost Mobile (uses T-Mobile): $15 flat for 2GB LTE data

There are other prepaid plans out there, and all of them resell service from one of these carriers. You can usually find out which, by searching the internet. Happy hunting!

At this time of great need, please consider giving to your local food bank. In the Chicago area, I recommend the Greater Chicago Food Depository.