I see ads all the time for shit like consumer Cellular, mint mobile, stuff that rents time on Verizon towers and sells you a plan for like half the price.
I'm trying real hard to de-Xfinity myself but the cellular plan is the cheapest of all the major companies. Yes, I know they also piggyback off the Verizon network, but at least they have 24/7 support
I'm super happy with jmp.chat
I was hesitant to try it, but once I ported my number over, it's the best service I've ever used.
It's $5/month, and your phone calls and texts are forwarded to an XMPP account. Voice mails are transcibed and sent as a text, with the included audiofile. It works over the internet, so you can have multiple phones with the number, and you can use your computer for the service as well.
For data, I use jmp.chats data only esim. It's $7/year + $5/gig but the data never expires.
I'm assuming it only works over the internet, right? they're not a cell carrier
I use us mobile with two phones and like 30gb each and it’s about $50 total. I’ve had no problems with them and I’ve driven cross country. They are an mvno that runs off Verizon. I def recommend them.
Edit: I still recommend using a provider for home internet. Just cancel everything else besides internet (no home phone or cable tv) and try to find the best deals. I know that’s not easy for a lot of areas though.
I'm currently using Mint Mobile for internet on my laptop, No issues related to the carrier. Their customer site doesn't seem to like Firefox much though.
One heads up for anyone looking to use a Mint Mobile sim in their laptop, you will need a modem and software that can send/receive sms. Mint really likes using sms for verification.
As a primary internet source I could not recommend Visible. The de-prioritization was very noticeable and the coverage wasn’t great. (Even Verizon is piggybacking on some carriers in some areas - and in those areas Visible isn’t supported.)
I kept it around for a while for large file downloads - it was slow but I didn’t have to worry about data caps. Eventually I dropped it when I got a Starlink.
I've had Mint Mobile for 3 years. Have had no issues, same for wife and roommate. Thought a friend that live 30 min away can't get it to work for them. Even though T-Mobile (the network Mint uses) works fine for them.
