Which is best for you?

Verizon is without doubt one of the hottest carriers in America with a robust community and pretty complete protection in almost each nook of the nation. It’s additionally not precisely low cost. Searching for a solution to get Verizon’s service for much less? There are fairly a couple of Verizon-based pay as you go carriers on the market, however at the moment we’re going to concentrate on one of many very latest, Mediacom Cellular.

Mediacom Cellular formally launched in mid-July, providing Mediacom subscribers a solution to low cost cellphone service straight from the telecom supplier. Let’s bounce in and take a better have a look at Mediacom Cellular vs Verizon.

If low cost pricing is what you’re after, Mediacom Cellular seems just like the cheaper deal on paper with a beginning worth of simply $40 a month versus $65 a line for one line on Verizon’s least expensive plan.

After all, there’s extra to it than that. For starters, you have to have a Mediacom Xtream dwelling web plan, dwelling cellphone plan, or cable service so as to enroll in the corporate’s cellular providing. Your precise pricing will range from area to area, although many areas supply a fundamental plan beginning at $19.99 a month for the primary 12 months. It’s additionally value mentioning that including a number of traces brings pricing down significantly for Verizon with charges dropping to only $30 a month per line for 4 traces.

That’s really cheaper on paper than Mediacom Cellular’s limitless plan till you keep in mind Verizon doesn’t embrace taxes and charges, whereas the previous does. Nevertheless, when you think about charges, the worth for households continues to be prone to be related or a couple of bucks cheaper.

In distinction, the brand new Mediacom Cellular service doesn’t supply household plan reductions. If you happen to’re an enormous household you’re really higher off going with Verizon. You could be questioning about Verizon’s pay as you go choices and the way they examine by way of worth, however actually, usually, you’ll discover Mediacom cheaper for particular person traces and Verizon’s postpaid choices are cheaper for households.

After all, there’s extra to a superb worth than simply the precise price ticket. Verizon’s postpaid choices supply a couple of extras you received’t discover with the Mediacom Cellular plans. First, you’ll get really limitless information on most of Verizon’s plans (Welcome technically can sluggish you down often, however we’ll get into {that a} bit later on this put up). Second, you’ve got the choice of including perks to Verizon’s plans for $10 every, which embrace extras like a Disney Plus bundle, Apple Music Household, Netflix plus Max Bundle, and a lot extra.

Verizon additionally gives limitless speak and textual content in Mexico and Canada, with its mid-range and top-tier plan supplying you with 30-60GB of LTE/5G whereas visiting these two international locations as effectively. You may even textual content inside the US to over 200 international locations totally free with each Verizon postpaid plan.

On the finish of the day, we’d say these two plans are fairly tied in worth. Positive, when you solely want a line or two and already subscribe to Mediacom providers — the brand new cellular plans are value it. For everybody else, Verizon merely gives higher perks and might even match the identical degree of worth in case you have a large enough household or group of pals to separate the invoice with.

As beforehand talked about, Mediacom Cellular makes use of Verizon’s community, so you’ll be able to anticipate pretty related protection. That stated, it received’t be equivalent. Verizon has a reasonably dependable community nevertheless it’s not infallible, and there are positively lifeless zones. Postpaid Verizon customers get pleasure from roaming preparations to fill any gaps in protection, whereas Mediacom Cellular received’t have this identical profit.

That is the place the 2 carriers begin to diverge extra considerably. First, Verizon’s postpaid plans get the very best degree of precedence throughout occasions of congestion. Mediacom Cellular clearly doesn’t, and so throughout cellular visitors peaks you’ll possible see degraded service. Whether or not it is going to be dangerous sufficient to note will possible depend upon the town or area you’re in and the way overpacked your native cells actually are.

That’s not the one drawback to Mediacom’s choices. Mediacom Cellular’s By the Gig plan would nearly sound like a dearer model of Google Fi’s Flex plan, however the catch is you’ll be able to solely purchase 4GB of additional information, on prime of the 1GB included. After that you’ll have speeds throttled down so low that checking e mail is about the one factor it’ll nonetheless have the ability to do. Even Mediacom’s supposedly limitless plan has fairly clear limits, because it states you’ll see speeds diminished to 1Mbps down and 512Kpbs down after utilizing 20GB of information.

Backside-line, when you use a variety of information and wish the very best speeds, you’re going to be higher served with Verizon.

Verizon gives just about each main cellphone supplied within the US with a big number of units from Apple, Samsung, Google, and Motorola. This contains each flagships just like the Galaxy S24, Pixel 9, and iPhone 15 in addition to extra modest units just like the Galaxy A53, iPhone SE, and Pixel 8a. There are additionally sometimes a number of free cellphone promotions. For instance, proper now you may get the Pixel 9 totally free from Verizon, however that’s simply one in every of many related gives.

Mediacom Cellular doesn’t even compete right here in the intervening time. For one, it doesn’t have a cellphone retailer simply but. Its web site signifies that is coming quickly, however for now, the one solution to get entry is by bringing your present gadget over to the community.

It’s additionally much less possible that it’ll supply free cellphone promotions or different particular perks when it does lastly launch its retailer. As for what telephones they’ll finally carry? Mediacom doesn’t get into particulars however mentions it can have the most recent Samsung and Google units. Hopefully, this implies flagships too, and never simply price range units.

If you’re comfy bringing your personal gadget, or ready for the shop to go reside, Mediacom Cellular isn’t a nasty selection however you’ll positively get higher cellphone promotions via Verizon straight.

If you’re okay with going with a postpaid plan, Verizon is definitely the higher deal for individuals who desire to purchase telephones via their provider. That is very true for households, as Verizon really turns into equally priced when you add a number of traces.

After all, when you’re a person person or only a small household with youthful youngsters, Mediacom Cellular will certainly prevent cash. Simply keep in mind you want to have no less than one different service from Mediacom to qualify. If you happen to’re the sort that flip-flops between ISPs to reap the benefits of particular sign-up pricing, you may not need to tie your cellular line to Mediacom’s web, dwelling cellphone, or cable service.

Who am I, and why do you have to belief me?

My identify is Andrew Grush and I’m a decade-plus veteran of Android Authority. My expertise within the cellular business even dates again a couple of years sooner than that. In that point I’ve examined out a ton of various carriers together with all the large three (and defunct ones like Dash), in addition to a mess of pay as you go suppliers. Because of this, I’ve a reasonably agency grasp of what to anticipate from each postpaid and pay as you go suppliers within the US market.

Whereas I’ve a variety of areas of experience, I satisfaction myself on being the sort of man who by no means settles and is at all times making an attempt new issues. That applies to carriers as effectively. I’ve used T-Cellular, Verizon, AT&T, Seen, Google Fi, Cricket, US Cellular, Mint Cellular, and a number of other different carriers for prolonged intervals on and off all through the years.

Once I write about pay as you go and postpaid providers, you’ll be able to make certain that I’ll have precise real-time expertise and insights. Within the case I don’t personally have Mediacom Cellular however I’m a Verizon subscriber and am very aware of its MVNO practices and insurance policies.