by Lynette Alice

Created on: July 15, 2010   Last Updated: February 24, 2011

Figuring out what the best cell phone plans available are can be even more difficult than figuring out what the best cell phone for you as an individual is. While the one time cost of purchasing a cell phone can be decreased through any number of incentives, what is just as important to consider is the long term cost of a plan and how much money running that great new smartphone will cost month to month over the lifetime of a contract. Since there are so many regional carriers with a limited reach, for the purpose of this comparison of cell phone plans there need to be some ground rules.

For starters, the comparison will be limited to the four major carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless. Since the vast majority of all cell phones in the U.S. run through one of these carriers it makes the most sense for sake of brevity. Second, the comparison will be based on packages for smartphones rather than dumbphones which will include data plans and texting. To keep the playing ground level, this will also only look at unlimited talk plans. This comparison is for single lines and does not consider group or family plans. The information to create these ratings was culled from Consumer Reports, TruBill, BillShrink, Wireless Guide, and BBB complaints. Please also keep in mind that in regards to AT&T, the information used by these sources was compiled prior to the release of the iPhone 4.

The basic AT&T plan that meets the above requirements begins at $69.99 per month with the unlimited text bundle costing an additional $20. The lowest end data plan that delivers 200MB per month is $15, although it is worth noting some customers have a better data plan due to being locked into the old plan under a grandfather clause not available to new customers. The estimated monthly total before taxes is $104.99 per month, but with just an upgrade to a better data plan the cost shoots up to around $135 per month.

Sprint has an all inclusive plan in place that meets each outlined requirement that is a flat fee of $99 per month.

T-Mobile has a plan that begins at $59.99 with unlimited text messaging costing an extra $10/month, and a data plan that runs another $30/month. That brings the monthly total to $99.99.

The Verizon plan begins at $89.99 per month with a data plan costing an extra $29.99/month. Unlimited text messaging is included in the plan as well for a total monthly Bill of $119.98.

The price comparison is the easy part, and by the numbers it looks

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