Cell Network Price Comparison 2011

I feel like the service price comparisons between att, sprint and verizon are skewed and inaccurate.  Let’s break this down

But realistically nobody with an iPhone only wants 2gb of data, how about 4gb of data?

What if I want more minutes?

And unlimited minutes?

The only way that any of the figures can be calculated to be lower than sprint is if you get the ATT data plan for 200mb at $15.  Then it comes out $5 cheaper than Sprint.  It really frustrates me when I see Lifehacker and Engadget posting articles with clearly incorrect information.

Now, for my own purposes, let’s take a look at family plans for 4 lines.

Now, let’s look at a plan with more data and more minutes

And just for giggles let’s take a look at their unlimited unlimited plans

Sprint finally fails to be the cheapest.  Oh well.

After all this analysis I will say that if your goal is to get the very cheapest plan, you can’t beat the prices from ATT, since they bill separately for texting, you can just not have a texting plan.  That would look like this

And you can get a lower rate from Verizon if you split out the texting plan.

So if you are content with not doing any texting, there are cheaper options, but I think that’s totally bull shit. 

The most interesting thing about these plans is how in-line they are with each other.  The last time I compared cellular networks was probably 2008 and at that time the plans were all over the place and it made them very difficult to compare to each other, but ATT and Verizon seem to have followed Sprints lead in creating pretty uniformed packages. 

And beyond cost, I think it’s quite apparent that Sprint is the best value, giving you the most bang for your buck. 

What do you think about cellular networks and data plans?