Benefits Over Other Carriers
There are many value wireless providers one can choose from when they're looking to spend a low dollar for the same great benefits that more expensive carriers offer. However, some may struggle to find the one that's right for them. The idea behind a "value provider" consists of the following:
- Lower-than-average prices on both phones and plans
- Service that's comparable to more expensive providers
- No contracts
Consumer Cellular customers pay an average of $25 a month for their talk, text, and data plans, which is lower than most carriers of the "value" caliber. This company is also rated number one by J.D. Power for its excellent customer service; beating all other non-contract wireless carriers three times consecutively now. In addition, they offer benefits for AARP members and cellular coverage to 99 percent of the United States.
Drawbacks
Consumer Cellular is an excellent provider, but no value carrier can offer such low prices and no-contract plans without a few caveats to look out for. For customers who are unaware of what to expect, here are a few things to keep in mind.
- Data Speeds Generally speaking, value wireless providers don't provide the crazy-fast speeds that big-name carriers do. The good news is, this isn't important to most users — a solid five megabits is plenty of bandwidth for everything but intense HD streaming.
- Throttling Value carriers typically throttle their data quicker and harder than big-name service providers. There are some exceptions to this rule, but in general, customers get enough "high-speed" data in a month to satisfy relatively tame requirements, such as messaging and moderate amounts of low-quality YouTube video streaming.
- Phone Availability Although Consumer Cellular lets customers bring their own phones over from another carrier, those who are looking to start over with a new phone will find a fairly limited selection to choose from. Not all of the highest-end devices will be available, and of those that are, full price will be paid on them without a contract to subsidize them on.
Wireless Plans This company offers a basic variety of talk, text and data plans for their customers. These are the figures to expect when signing up with their service.
Talk Plans
- Bill-per-use for $10 per month
- 250 minutes for $15 per month
- 1,500 minutes for $20 per month
- Unlimited minutes for $30 per month
Data and Text Plans
- 300 texts and 30MB data for $2.50 per month
- 2,000 texts and 200MB data for $5 per month
- Unlimited texts and 500MB data for $10 per month
- Unlimited texts and 1.5GB data for $20 per month
- Unlimited texts and 3GB data for $30 per month
- Unlimited texts and 5GB data for $40 per month
Phone Selection
The phone selection isn't as remarkable as big-name carriers, but there are devices available for a wide variety of needs. Here are a few of the main devices to look out for.
- Samsung Galaxy S8 (64GB) for $550 down or $50 on EasyPay
- Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus (64GB) for $650 down or $50 on EasyPay
- Samsung Galaxy S7 (32GB) for $500 down or $50 on EasyPay
- Apple iPhone 7 (32-256GB) for $650 down or $50 on EasyPay
- Apple iPhone 7 Plus (32-256GB) for $770 down or $170 on EasyPay
- Huawei Vision 3 (8GB) for $25
- Motorola Moto G5 Plus (32GB) for $200 down or $50 on EasyPay
- Motorola Moto G (8GB) for $125
- Samsung Galaxy J3 (16GB) for $80
- Samsung Galaxy J7 (16GB) for $130
- Doro PhoneEasy 626 for $50 (feature phone)
- Consumer Cell 101 for $30 (feature phone)
- ZTE mobile hotspot for $80
Top 5 Routes for "Consumer Cellular"
- Consumercellular.com This is the home website of the service provider.
- Nerdwallet.com This is a review page from a reputable wireless carrier analysis website.
- Clark.com For those who are looking to see what other carriers offer, this is a good article to check out.
- Anandtech.com This is an excellent and widely renown news and tips website relating to smartphone technology.
- Phonearena.com PhoneArena is one of the best sites for looking up a phone's specifications and comparing it with others.
Similar Routes
What is a Route?
A route is a gateway to learning. Routes.com's mission is to go beyond search results by curating summaries and top "routes" for today's most popular subjects. Learn More
Suggest a Route
Are we missing a subject you think should be given a route? Suggest a new route. Learn More
Contribute
Become a routes.com contributor. Submit your route today! Learn More