A few others
While the first four are fairly unique in both coverage and service offered for the price, there are a slew of others that offer very similar service to one another. I actually consider most of these to a rip-off in comparison, but they may work for someone out there, so here they are.
The providers: Red Pocket Mobile, Jolt Mobile, SkyView Wireless, and Black Wireless.
Each and every one one of those are AT&T MVNOs, and offer very, very similar service and coverage (which is the same as AT&T's GoPhone, shown below). For $60 a month, you get unlimited talk and text, as well as 2GB of data from SkyView and Black Mobile (hey, at least these guys are clear on that). For the same price, Jolt offers the same features, but only allowing 1GB of data. Red Pocket's plan is the same as Jolt, but only costs $55 a month.
Past those small differences, I couldn't really find any good reason to choose one over the other. Or, really, to choose any of these over the aforementioned four. Maybe you can.
T-Mobile Pre-Paid
I wasn't going to include this one on the list, but after looking into a bit more more, I thought it might appeal to someone out there. It probably goes without saying that this runs on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, so let's just skip into the plan details.
For $30 a month, T-Mo will give you 100 minutes of talk time, along with unlimited text and data (throttled after 5GB). For those who don't do much actual talking on the phone, this plan's a no-brainer. It's only thirty dollars!
If you need more talk time, though, the plans change pretty drastically. $50 a month will get you unlimited talk, text, and data, but the throttling starts after a meager 100MB. Boo! For $10 more a month, you can bump bump the throttle cap up to 2GB, which is a much better deal. But if that's still not enough un-throttled data for you, $70 gives you unlimited everything with 5GB of HSPA+ bandwidth before the slowdown. The only issue there, though, is that after fees and taxes, you're approaching post-paid pricing. Speaking of...
Post-Paid
AT&T vs. T-Mobile
For whatever reason, you may not want to jump on with a pre-paid carrier. There's nothing wrong with that, because being on a post-paid carrier does offer some benefits, like family plans for example.
When it comes to post-paid GSM carriers here in the U.S., there's no doubt that AT&T is the top dog. It offers an expansive HSPA+ network, an up and coming LTE network (not that it matters if you're getting the Nexus 4, though), and coverage basically everywhere you could possibly want to go. The downside? It's pricey. Far more than any of the other providers we've mentioned thus far.
Where most pre-paid providers offer one or two different plans to choose from, you have a plethora of decisions to make with a post-paid carrier like AT&T. Do you want an individual plan, or a family plan? If the latter, do you want to share a data bucket? Are you going to need more than 2 or 4GB of data? How many voice minutes will you use? These are all questions that you'll have to answer if making the jump to Big Blue. It can be overwhelming, especially when you consider the price between "traditional" plans and shared data.
Honestly, I could probably do an entire post covering nothing but the difference between the Big Four's plans and how they compare to each other. Ergo, it's really hard to sum up which plans are the best buy, since it really depends on your situation, how many people you'll be sharing a plan with, and so many other variables. I will say this, though: if you know someone who already has an existing Family Play with AT&T, you may want to see about jumping onboard with them. For roughly $40 a month (granted they're on a "traditional" plan), you can get service with 3GB of data. Of course, you'll have to share minutes, so it's up to you and the plan owner to decide if that's a feasible option.
And then there's T-Mobile, the exclusive launch partner for the Nexus 4... though I'm not sure why anyone would actually pay $200 and sign a two-year contract for the phone when you can get it for $300-$350 directly from the Play Store without a contract. That's probably why you're reading this post, after all.
While the first four are fairly unique in both coverage and service offered for the price, there are a slew of others that offer very similar service to one another. I actually consider most of these to a rip-off in comparison, but they may work for someone out there, so here they are.
The providers: Red Pocket Mobile, Jolt Mobile, SkyView Wireless, and Black Wireless.
Each and every one one of those are AT&T MVNOs, and offer very, very similar service and coverage (which is the same as AT&T's GoPhone, shown below). For $60 a month, you get unlimited talk and text, as well as 2GB of data from SkyView and Black Mobile (hey, at least these guys are clear on that). For the same price, Jolt offers the same features, but only allowing 1GB of data. Red Pocket's plan is the same as Jolt, but only costs $55 a month.
Past those small differences, I couldn't really find any good reason to choose one over the other. Or, really, to choose any of these over the aforementioned four. Maybe you can.
T-Mobile Pre-Paid
I wasn't going to include this one on the list, but after looking into a bit more more, I thought it might appeal to someone out there. It probably goes without saying that this runs on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, so let's just skip into the plan details.
For $30 a month, T-Mo will give you 100 minutes of talk time, along with unlimited text and data (throttled after 5GB). For those who don't do much actual talking on the phone, this plan's a no-brainer. It's only thirty dollars!
If you need more talk time, though, the plans change pretty drastically. $50 a month will get you unlimited talk, text, and data, but the throttling starts after a meager 100MB. Boo! For $10 more a month, you can bump bump the throttle cap up to 2GB, which is a much better deal. But if that's still not enough un-throttled data for you, $70 gives you unlimited everything with 5GB of HSPA+ bandwidth before the slowdown. The only issue there, though, is that after fees and taxes, you're approaching post-paid pricing. Speaking of...
Post-Paid
AT&T vs. T-Mobile
For whatever reason, you may not want to jump on with a pre-paid carrier. There's nothing wrong with that, because being on a post-paid carrier does offer some benefits, like family plans for example.
When it comes to post-paid GSM carriers here in the U.S., there's no doubt that AT&T is the top dog. It offers an expansive HSPA+ network, an up and coming LTE network (not that it matters if you're getting the Nexus 4, though), and coverage basically everywhere you could possibly want to go. The downside? It's pricey. Far more than any of the other providers we've mentioned thus far.
Where most pre-paid providers offer one or two different plans to choose from, you have a plethora of decisions to make with a post-paid carrier like AT&T. Do you want an individual plan, or a family plan? If the latter, do you want to share a data bucket? Are you going to need more than 2 or 4GB of data? How many voice minutes will you use? These are all questions that you'll have to answer if making the jump to Big Blue. It can be overwhelming, especially when you consider the price between "traditional" plans and shared data.
Honestly, I could probably do an entire post covering nothing but the difference between the Big Four's plans and how they compare to each other. Ergo, it's really hard to sum up which plans are the best buy, since it really depends on your situation, how many people you'll be sharing a plan with, and so many other variables. I will say this, though: if you know someone who already has an existing Family Play with AT&T, you may want to see about jumping onboard with them. For roughly $40 a month (granted they're on a "traditional" plan), you can get service with 3GB of data. Of course, you'll have to share minutes, so it's up to you and the plan owner to decide if that's a feasible option.
And then there's T-Mobile, the exclusive launch partner for the Nexus 4... though I'm not sure why anyone would actually pay $200 and sign a two-year contract for the phone when you can get it for $300-$350 directly from the Play Store without a contract. That's probably why you're reading this post, after all.
