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Verizon's rebranded TracFone prepaid service includes Disney+ with some plans
Verizon has relaunched TracFone as Total, and the new prepaid carrier offers both 5G and perks like Disney+.
Cricket brings 5G to all of its phone plans
Cricket is enabling 5G for all its phone plans, and it's doing away with the 8Mbps cap as a result.
Cricket customers will get free HBO Max, if they don't mind ads
Cricket now gives Unlimited plan customers HBO Max for 'free' — if they're willing to live with the ad-supported tier.
T-Mobile temporarily drops its prepaid unlimited data plan to $50
T-Mobile is the latest carrier to discount its prepaid unlimited data plan. For a limited time, the company is offering unlimited talk, text and data for $50 per month, which is $10 less than its T-Mobile Essentials Prepaid plan. The move comes after rivals Verizon and AT&T both recently knocked a few bucks off of their prepaid unlimited plans.
Verizon cuts the price of its unlimited prepaid plan
Verizon (Engadget's parent company) appears to be feeling the heat from T-Mobile's Metro relaunch. It's shaking up its prepaid plans with an emphasis on better value at the high end. The price of the unlimited plan has effectively dropped by $10 to $65 when you set up Auto Pay -- it's still more expensive than Metro's offering, but it's at least in the ballpark. You'll also get an extra gig with the $45 plan (again with Auto Pay), which now offers 8GB of full-speed LTE data.
T-Mobile's prepaid service will offer 5G in 2019
You won't have to spring for a 'premium' carrier to use some of the earliest mobile 5G service. T-Mobile has formally relaunched its prepaid Metro service, and with it comes word that the sub-brand will launch 5G service sometime in 2019. It's not certain how that will affect plans, if at all. However, it could be your ticket to next-gen wireless at a relatively low price -- and frankly, rather handy for included services like Google One and Amazon Prime.
Walgreens' and Sprint's partnership expands to Chicago and Dallas
If your options for a new phone are limited by your budget, transportation options or not wanting to sign a contract, an expanded partnership between Sprint and Walgreens could help you out. The pair recently announced that by year's end, between the Chicago and Dallas-Ft. Worth metro areas the there will be some 80 new Sprint Express locations at the corner-store chain. The two promise further details will be announced within the next few months.
MetroPCS' prepaid deal gives you two unlimited lines for $75
With the upcoming school year about to kick off, MetroPCS is rolling out a new plan for the entire family. Starting today, you can get your first line of unlimited LTE data (courtesy of T-Mobile), talk, and text for just $50. On top of that, every subsequent line you add to the package will cost you $25 each (for up to four extra lines). That means you can get two lines for $75 -- which MetroPCS claims is its best-ever deal on unlimited.
ZTE's Blade Spark raises the bar for $100 smartphones
If you're wondering what $100 will get you in a smartphone nowadays in the US, ZTE has a solid reply with the Blade Spark. Available for AT&T Prepaid customers, it offers some nice things like a 5.5-inch HD display and 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera. That's well and good, but there are some other surprising touches for such a cheap device: a rear fingerprint sensor, dedicated selfie button, Gorilla Glass 3, Dolby audio and Android 7.1.1, the very latest version.
Verizon beefs up its prepaid plans' data allowance
Verizon's prepaid plans will look a lot more enticing come June 6th: the mobile carrier has tweaked its current offerings, giving each tier a bigger data allowance. You'll now get 3GB of data instead of 2GB for $40 and 7GB instead of 5GB for $50. The 10GB tier will stay, but it will now cost you $60 rather than $70 -- makes sense, considering Big Red recently introduced an unlimited tier for $80. Like the new unlimited plan, though, these revamped options come with a downside. You won't be able to stream videos in their full glory and will be limited to 480p, no matter which tier you choose.
Verizon's $80 prepaid plan is unlimited but also imperfect (updated)
Verizon has launched a new prepaid plan that sounds more enticing than many of its competitors'. At $80 a month, it offers unlimited data, talk and text in the country. The carrier also tacked on unlimited text to 200 other international destinations and unlimited talk if you're calling numbers in Mexico and Canada. However, it's not as "unlimited" as we all would want. For starters, it can only stream videos in 480p, putting your new phone's HD screen to waste. More importantly, tethering and mobile hotspot aren't part of the package, meaning you won't be able to share your phone's connection with your other devices.
Get your internet off-contract with Comcast's prepaid Xfinity service
Following hot on the heels of Verizon's new prepaid FiOS plan, Comcast announced on Thursday that the company will offer a prepaid version of its own Xfinity internet.
Verizon offers pre-paid FiOS service plans
Verizon announced on Monday that it is making its FiOS fiber-optic data, voice and television package available as a pre-paid service. That means you won't need to submit to a credit check, pay a deposit fee or even leave a credit card number to get access.
Starz will let you pay for streaming TV with prepaid cards
Conventional TV networks, as a rule, are very fond of subscriptions. Don't tell that to Starz CEO Chris Albrecht, though. He told guests at the Code Media conference that the premium channel will soon offer prepaid cards for its streaming service. It's a matter of accessibility, he argues: there are people who want to watch premium TV shows but can't justify the cost of a cable subscription (or buying show downloads, for that matter) and don't have a credit card.
Verizon's new prepaid plans give customers even more options
More prepaid offerings are coming to Verizon soon. Today, the carrier revealed that two new plans will be available starting next week, on November 13th. The cheapest option includes 5GB of rollover data, unlimited talk and text in the US, mobile hotspot and international texting for $50 per month. If that's not enough for you, $70 gets you everything mentioned above plus unlimited calling to Mexico and Canada, as well as double the data (10GB).
Teen claims you can get free T-Mobile data through a proxy
One teen may have just achieved the dream of every cost-conscious wireless user: free, no-strings-attached mobile data. High school student Jacob Ajit claims to have discovered a trick that gets you all the T-Mobile data you want by using a proxy server. Reportedly, T-Mobile doesn't block sites with "/speedtest" in the address when you've run out of data on prepaid service. If you use the proxy to make it look like every site link has that text, you can surf to your heart's content at no charge beyond what it cost to get the SIM. Before you ask: sorry, folks, Ajit's proxy is down.
AT&T's prepaid GoPhone plans get 1GB of extra data
AT&T definitely isn't being stingy with data on GoPhone these days. In the wake of healthy improvements over the past year, the carrier is raising its data caps by 1GB across the board as of May 27th. If you're on the $45 plan, you'll get 3GB of full-speed data to play with instead of 2GB; roll with the $60 plan and you'll get 6GB instead of the current 5GB. You'll still get $5 off your bill if you agree to automatic refills, to boot. While this isn't the absolute lowest price you can pay for gigs' worth of data (just ask T-Mobile users on the coveted $30/5GB plan), it's a solid bargain if you need unlimited calls and texts at the same time.
$60 gets you 6GB of mobile data on Verizon pre-paid plans
Verizon is bumping its pre-paid data allotments up. Folks on the $45, 1GB month-to-month plan will have an additional 2GB of mobile data available at their fingertips come May 15th, and the $60 plan jumps from 3GB of data to 6GB. Of course, that's if you're enrolled in auto-pay. If not? Each plan's data drops by 1GB. The plans include unlimited texts to Canada and Mexico, but if you want to make unlimited calls to either of our immediate continental neighbors, you'll have to pony up for the most expensive plan.
Boost Mobile goes after Cuban-Americans with new prepaid plan
Now that the political relations between the US and Cuba have taken a turn for the better, American companies are pushing out marketing schemes to fit the bill. Today, Boost Mobile, Sprint's prepaid branch, announced a monthly plan that's geared toward customers who have loved ones in Cuba. The caveat, unfortunately, is that it's only available in Miami right now -- but the strategy makes sense, since it's a city with a dense population of Cuban-Americans. If you're there, $50 a month gets you unlimited text and 15 talk minutes to Cuba at 33 cents per minute -- which the company claims to be the lowest rate among prepaid carriers. Boost's Cuba Monthly Connection deal also includes 5GB of data and all-you-can-have texting and calling within the US, while $10 more monthly doubles your data.
T-Mobile lets you roll over your unused prepaid data
T-Mobile's Data Stash is helpful if you want to save unused bandwidth on a regular plan, but wouldn't it make more sense if you're on prepaid service, where every gigabyte is precious? Apparently, the carrier agrees: as of March 22nd, it'll let you use Data Stash with prepaid Simple Choice phone plans. Like before, you'll start out with a 10GB reserve of full-speed mobile internet access. Once that runs out, you'll bank any leftover data for up to a year. While this probably won't be big enough to get you to switch carriers (not when AT&T and others are improving their no-contract data options), you'll at least have a better reason to choose Magenta's network if you're still on the fence.
