Phones

US Cell Limitless All Plan Arms-On and Pooled Plan begins

I have been a T-Mobile customer for about 20 years and thanks to the generous support for military plans, my family has enjoyed the services and coverage at very affordable prices. Last month, I tested two US Mobile SIM cards after the company rolled out its unlimited and family plans. Late last week, US Mobile also announced its new Pooled Plans, which offer businesses and families more affordable options if everything is not unlimited.

US Mobile offers two SIM options to its customers. Super LTE (black SIM card) and GSM LTE (white SIM card). Although it’s not advertised on the US Mobile website, inserting the SIM cards into a phone and viewing the connection settings shows that Super LTE service on the Verizon network and GSM LTE service on the T-Mobile network to be provided. These SIM cards have LTE in their name, but understand that 5G is also supported in the low-band spectrum at no additional cost. This means that US Mobile does not support UltraWideband 5G.

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Plan options and pricing

As a person who commutes two hours a day on a train and writes on mobile technology, unlimited data plans are my default choices. However, there are people on both ends of the spectrum, including those who communicate primarily through conversation and / or text. US Mobile has extremely affordable options for everyone, as detailed in the table below.

Service name Minutes of conversation text Data Hotspot price
Unlimited speaking and text Unlimited Unlimited None None $ 10
1 GB Unlimited Unlimited 1 GB Data limit $ 12
5 GB Unlimited Unlimited 5 GB Data limit $ 15
12 GB Unlimited Unlimited 12 GB Data limit $ 20
18 GB Unlimited Unlimited 18 GB Data limit $ 25
30 GB Unlimited Unlimited 30 GB Data limit $ 30
1 line Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited 20 GB for $ 10 $ 45
2 lines Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited 20 GB for $ 10 $ 30 / line
3+ lines Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited 20 GB for $ 10 $ 25 / line

The unlimited data plans also include up to 10 GB of LTE data outside of the United States in supported countries. If you sign up for three Unlimited All lines you can choose one benefit and with four Unlimited All lines you get two benefits. Benefits include the Apple Music Family, Spotify Family, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Xbox Live Gold, and many more.

While the prices for Super LTE or GSM LTE are the same, there is a slight difference to the unlimited data plans. Unlimited All Super LTE plans are unlimited and not throttled. Unlimited All plans for GSM LTE include 50GB of high-speed data, and a tiny fraction of users with heavier data may experience slower speeds later.

Image: US Mobile

Pooled plans

US Mobile just announced its new Pooled Plans option, which lets you share data across as many devices as you want for a small business, large family, or other group that wants to pool resources.

Customers pay $ 9 per month per line and then $ 2 per GB of shared data. There are no preselected amounts of data, so the pooled plans can be completely adjusted by the customer. All lines include unlimited speaking and text for the $ 9 monthly fee.

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US Mobile has created updated dashboards and provides real-time usage analytics so you can manage all the details of your Pooled Plans account. You can even sleep in, resume, and remove rows in bulk.

Pooled Plans is now available for the Super LTE network (Verizon). If you are already a US Mobile customer with a GSM LTE SIM card, you can contact US Mobile to upgrade to a Super LTE Pooled plan if you want this new functionality.

Experience with Super LTE and GSM LTE cards

Both test SIM cards arrived as activated cards ready for testing. For new customers, there’s a $ 3.99 SIM card starter kit that you can order upon arrival in just three days. The kit includes both the Super LTE and GSM LTE cards so you can activate the card that best suits the unlocked phone you have and the coverage you want.

I tested both SIM cards with an iPhone 12 Pro Max, OnePlus 9 Pro, OnePlus 9 and TCL 20 Pro 5G. In my experience, the GSM LTE (T-Mobile) card has allowed me to get the fastest download and upload speeds with these phones, which was between 10 and 85 Mbps across the various locations in the South Puget Sound region.

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Calls sounded great on either side of the conversation, text messages went just fine, and data coverage was just as reliable as other networks I’ve tested in the past. The overall experience with US Mobile was the same as I had on the three major networks in the US.

My excellent T-Mobile military plan is only $ 20 / month per line for six lines, so I have no plans to switch from that airline right now. However, US Mobile is a great option for just $ 25 / month per line for more than three lines. When you consider that I would also qualify for two US Mobile perks, the cost at US Mobile might actually be the same or better, so I’ll take a closer look at the total package I’m paying for at T-Mobile.

With millions still working from home, you may also be wondering about WiFi calling support. This functionality is available with the GSM LTE (T-Mobile) SIM card for Android smartphones. US Mobile continues to work on iPhone support and support for Super LTE SIM cards.

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