Best cell phone plan as internet

I also second Visible - was a long time Verizon customer and was always worried about degradation in service if I were to switch, but got way too fed up with the price hikes. Took the plunge and will never look back.

Was an easy transition with existing phones too - only took a few minutes per phone using their eSIM option.

0 regrets, and lots of savings :)

Another vote for US Mobile here. I've trusted it enough to go in for an annual plan last spring AND an annual second network, as I live and spend most of my time in the remove Mountain West, all for $400-something a year. It's insane.

AND, I'm spending my third-straight "second summer" in New Zealand. The two previous times, I purchased rather reasonable Spark network plans here, but US Mobile has really stepped up its international game. I get 20 GB and something like 250 minutes of calls and 250 texts in NZ per month... for ZERO extra dollars. I decided to test the waters using only US Mobile in NZ, knowing I could buy a Spark plan at any time if it didn't work out. No need to. Two months in and I'm loving it. And, for a 1-week to St Kitts last autumn, it was a no brainer to just use the US Mobile international planning. At this point, the only scenario I know I'll pay for a separate international plan is getting an unlimited Holafly plan in China so I can tether my laptop for work, as traditional VPNs that worked in the past were garbage the last time I was there.

If they are happy with the Verizon coverage you could look at the pre pay with Verizon instead of post pay. For my family with data used it was cheaper after one year and significantly cheaper going forward but that's because of the loyalty discount they give you.

Think for unlimited I'm like 36 a month including tax and fees

I'm also a recent convert to Visible and I've been quite happy with their service for the past couple months. Even their cheapest plan includes tethering, which was a lifesaver when our home internet was out for about a week earlier this year. I used nearly 15 GB (mostly tethering) during that month and it still only cost $19.

This all being said, I think it's going to be highly dependent on the reception and towers in your area. The good news about all the MVNOs, though, is that it's relatively easy to switch, since you're paying month-to-month and you'll need to own your own device. So if you try Visible and find out the reception isn't good enough in your area, you can try Mint next month. You could even run two eSIMs on the same phone for a month and switch back and forth to see which one seems to provide better service.

US mobile has been great for me

Most of the basic tier unlimited plans on Visible and US Mobile only give a certain amount of hotspot data and cap the speed to 3g or 4g, but all of them have a higher tier of unlimited that gives faster hotspot speeds and no throttling.

If it's going to be your only source, I'd go with one of the higher tier plans.

Also highly recommend US Mobile. I believe you can get hotspots through them. They've thrown around offering Internet, but it hasn't happened yet. I've used my phone as a hotspot while in the go and it's worked well. Depending on how much data you will want to use though, you may need to get a higher tier plan for more hotspot data.

Thanks everyone for the support to the second tier carriers. But does anyone use their phones as their only internet? WiFi is almost never an option so I'm trying to verify the second tier internet is solid and unlimited is not throttled.

Also came here to say US Mobile at about $22/mo for unlimited talk/text/web. Like @MJHebeler, I've had a great experience with them over several years now. I'm on their Verizon (Warp) offering, and it's been rock solid with reception nearly everywhere. I used to be on Visible until Visible was bought by Verizon and then their network traffic was deprioritized I also tried out Mint, but found it to be worse in coverage and internet speeds.

I second visible. Been with them for a year for me and kid and been great at $20/month

We switched from ATT prepaid to USMobile - they offer Verizon(Warp) ATT(Darkstar) and TMobile(Light Speed) and you can switch between them if needed. One of our lines is unlimited at $17.50 a month another we used the black friday sale to get a year of service for $179. We have 4 lines on 2 different carriers Verizon and ATT and have been very pleased. Customer service via online chat has been better than I expected.

You asked about speed- for ATT, I can share that the speed/coverage is at or better than the corp line that I have direct through ATT. Both of our college kiddos use their phones as their primary data outside of having wifi in their dorms with no issues.

Next year we'll probably consider if some of us should switch to by the gig to save even more $. (Everyone picked unlimited to start to see what our baseline data usage is) Glad to answer any questions and if you do consider signing up you get $25 off for using a referral - here's mine -

www.usmobile.com

I've been on the Visible $25/mo plan for years and love it! It's owned by Verizon and you get the same network, unlimited call/text/data and tethering.

Friend Code Discount - Visible

As in the above link, my referral code is BvhL8 which gets each of us $20 off one month of service.

Also check out the subreddit r/visible for potential promo codes and other news. Over the holidays the base plan could be had for as low as $19/mo and there really are no extra fees or taxes above the advertised price.