Cheapskate Post: What is the cheapest cellphone service?

Over the past two years, I have been fairly focused on reducing unnecessary costs.  The way I look at it, debt minimization or elimination is the key to freedom and the easiest way of achieving that is to not over-pay for products and services.  At the moment, I am paying $25/mo for cellphone service and $8/mo for MiFi service.  I want to use this post to focus on options for cellphone service.

I am going to look exclusively at service for smartphones. I am also limiting the search to services that offer unlimited data.  I am sure you can shave a penny by buying a plan with 500mb per month but I do not see the sense in that.  I also did not bother with any services that required a service contract.  All of these plans ended up offering unlimited voice minutes.

Provider Plan Cost Per Month BBB Rating “Full Speed”
Data Cap
Technology
Republic Wireless WiFi + Cell (3G) Talk, Text, & Data $25 A+ 5 GB CDMA / Sprint / 3G
Republic Wireless WiFi + Cell (4G) Talk, Text, & Data $40 A+ 5 GB CDMA / Sprint / LTE
Straight Talk Unlimited 1 Month $45 A 2.5 GB GSM / AT&T or T-mobile / HSPA or LTE
Aio Aio Smart $55 N/A 2 GB GSM / AT&T / LTE
Aio Aio Pro $70 N/A 7 GB GSM / AT&T / LTE
GoSmart Mobile UNLIMITED TALK, TEXT & WEB $35 B- None GSM / T-mobile / 2G
GoSmart Mobile UNLIMITED TALK, TEXT & HIGH-SPEED WEB $45 B- 5 GB GSM / T-mobile / 3G
Solavei 500MB High Speed Data $39 B- 500 MB GSM / T-mobile / HSPA+
Solavei 2GB High Speed Data $49 B- 2 GB GSM / T-mobile / HSPA+
Simple Mobile UNLIMITED 1GB $40 A 1 GB GSM / AT&T or T-mobile / HSPA+
Simple Mobile UNLIMITED 3GB $50 A 3 GB GSM / AT&T or T-mobile / HSPA+
Virgin Mobile Unlimited Beyond Talk $55 A+ 2.5 GB CDMA / Sprint / LTE or WiMax
Cricket $50 SMART PLAN $50 A+ 2.5 GB CDMA / LTE
Cricket $60 SMART PLAN $60 A+  5 GB CDMA / LTE
Boost Mobile $55 Monthly Unlimited $55 A+ 2.5 GB CDMA / Sprint / LTE or WiMax
Sprint Sprint As You Go Smart Phone $60 N/A None CDMA / LTE or WiMax
T-mobile Unlimited talk, text and web $70 B- None GSM / LTE or HSPA+
Chit Chat Mobile Unlimited Talk/Text/Data (LTE) $54.99 F None CDMA / Sprint / LTE

 

I will probably need to revisit this chart once per year or so.  Are you considering a service that is not listed?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

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