How wireless service resellers stack up
Q. I'm tempted to switch to an "MVNO" wireless service like StraightTalk. I'd be on the network I use today but at half the cost, they say. Should I go for it?
A. "Mobile virtual network operators" that resell service from the major carriers can offer both substantial savings and features unavailable from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless.
They can also top nationwide carriers in consumer surveys: PCMag.com readers voted Consumer Cellular, Republic Wireless and Straight Talk higher than those four, while Consumer Reports subscribers ranked Consumer Cellular, Credo Mobile, TracFone, Straight Talk and Net10 above that quartet.
But for an MVNO to undercut the carrier whose bandwidth it is reselling, something's got to give: phone selection, a data quota, tethering (where you share the phone's bandwidth with a computer via Wi-Fi) or international roaming. Consider the tradeoffs with these six services:
Consumer Cellular: This AT&T reseller offers terrific rates for voice-only service. But its smartphone options — for example, $20 for 500 voice minutes plus $30 for unlimited texting and 2 gigabytes of data — don't provide the same magnitude of savings. Consumer also offers no international roaming and bans tethering.
Its selection of smartphones stops at the iPhone 5s, 5c and 4S, the Moto G and a few obscure, older Android phones. You can bring a compatible unlocked phone, but then you would have either paid a higher, unsubsidized price for it or you'd be looking at a two-year-old model, since AT&T will only unlock phones that are out of contract.
Credo Mobile: This Sprint MVNO earned civil-liberties fans for challenging a "National Security Letter" demand from the FBI for subscriber information — and then winning its case. It also provides a great selection of iOS and Android smartphones. But at $39.99 for 700 minutes with unlimited texting and unlimited data as add-ons ($4.99 and $29.99), you don't save much money. Tethering costs extra and international use comes at a steep roaming rate.
Republic Wireless: Republic keeps its rates low — $25 a month for unlimited calling and texting and 5 GB of 3G data, or $40 to add 4G speed — by routing calls and texts over Wi-Fi instead of Sprint's network when possible. But you can only choose from two Android phones that have been tweaked for its system, the Moto X and Moto G. Tethering is verboten and there's no international roaming.
Straight Talk, TracFone, and Net10: These offerings from Mexico City-based América Móvil combine capacity from all four nationwide carriers. Of this trio, Net10 provides the best choice of smartphones you've heard of (the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5c and 5s as well as the Samsung Galaxy S 4), while Straight Talk offers iPhones and not much else. Both let you bring your own device, with the same limits as Consumer Cellular. TracFone has no "BYOD" option or a smartphone selection worth talking about.
Straight Talk's deal looks the most appealing, at $45 for unlimited talk and text plus 2.5 GB of mobile broadband — $5 less than Net10's cost for the same bundle. TracFone's plans favor voice-only use: You pay for text and picture messages out of your prepaid airtime (a text message sent or received counts as .3 minutes in this strange math, a multimedia message .5 minutes), which may not leave many minutes for phone calls, and $50 for 2 GB of data is a horrible rate.
None of these three allows tethering or international roaming. And the TracFone and Net10 sites obscure how low-end plans advertised as including Web browsing subtract each minute of that use from your talk time.
But while an average smartphone user may not save that much money with prepaid, these services do represent a particularly creative corner of the industry. If only residential broadband providers were as willing as wireless carriers to wholesale their capacity to outside firms with novel ideas of their own.
TIP: DON'T PAY EXTRA FOR INTERNATIONAL ADD-ONS
Many wireless carriers, including most of those listed above, tout discounted international-calling plans. But you're going to have an exceedingly hard time beating the 1 to 2 cents a minute you'd pay to place your overseas calls via the Internet through Google Voice or Microsoft's Skype. (They're not the only Internet-calling games around, but the odds are higher that you have an account on at least one of them.)
Which one to use? Remember that Skype rates are often cheaper but don't factor in a "connection fee" of about 5 or 9 cents, so Google will be cheaper on shorter calls. Or you could not sweat the difference and instead use whichever app looks and works better on your phone.
Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob atrob@robpegoraro.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro.