I used Verizon Wireless contract plan + phone for about 10 years. I started realizing that I didn't use as much service as I paid, because my primary usage was on data with very little talk and text. Also most of the data were through wifi at home and workplace. ~50$/month/line was not worth the money. I decided to go with prepaid plan. As I can buy a used unlocked cell phone if and when I need to upgrade. I wanted freedom.
So I switched first to Tracfone. Tracfone seemed to be one of the best MVNO (mobile virtual network operator; mobile service provider via borrowing physical network of major carriers) in terms of coverage, popularity, price, and customer service rating. The cheapest plan costs 20$ per three months for 180 minutes of call + 180 text + 180MB of data that rolls over to the next renewed period. Call + text allowances were more than what I needed. Data were not. I occasionally topped off with 1GB/10$ add-on package. Back then BYOP (bring your own phone) feature was a big reason to choose Tracfone as I could keep using my iPhone with the same number. (In 2015 most prepaid plans were available with highly limited range of phone models MVNOs offer. BYOP is almost an industry standard now.)
I was very happy with Tracfone for a few years except for a glitch covered in the previous post. The only major issue I had was the absence of tethering option. Which converts your phone into a mobile hotspot, so that any wifi-enabled device such as laptop can access the internet through the mobile data allowance of the cell phone. Tracfone does not allow tethering by policy. Probably because their parent network provider Verizon prohibits by contract, so that the privilege service is available only through Verizon? Most of the time I was okay since I didn't travel a lot. But there were definitely cases you really need and want it. So over the last years I kept searching for new prepaid plan with tethering embedded at an affordable rate. A few such plans as T-mobile prepaid were out there, but at a quite high monthly payment for me to seriously consider.
At last I found one recently - USmobile. They had all features I wanted. Choice of CDMA or GSM network, low price, BYOP, and tethering. I was highly excited so ordered a SIM card activation kit immediately and tested with a new number for a month by plugging in two SIM cards back and forth depending on usage (unfortunately iPhone does not support dual SIM). And the result was, YES, YES, tethering works. Not only that. From my limited test the coverage seemed to be wider than that of Tracfone. I used to receive cell phone signal in the area where I definitely didn't with Tracfone. Their pricing system is also more favorable at least two-fold. First, the customer has wider variety of choice of call / text / data selection with lower minimum. Second, USmobile offers bulk discount. For example 1GB of data for 10$, but 3GB for $20. Which Tracfone doesn't have. Why not switch. I would strongly recommend you to do the same as me. One minor downside is that USmobile doesn't have a dedicated mobile app unlike Tracfone. But I'd rather not care.
Once you order SIM card kit on USmobile webpage, it will be shipped out of Beaverton, OR. You might need to wait for a few days to receive it depending on where you are. The kit has both CDMA-compatible and GSM-compatible SIM cards. Their website seems to say that you need to use SuperLTE and purchase $10/month unlimited call / text + $15/5GB data plan to have tethering option enabled. But that is completely misleading. An official USmobile blog post published two years ago, saying that all Super LTE plans come with tethering included, is still valid. Overall, I paid ~4$ for SIM card + shipping, and pay <10$ for minimum of 40min call + 40 text + 40MB data per month. In addition, I would vote for USmobile on online chat service over Tracfone. I had to open a number of chat sessions with both carriers for the last couple of days to clear the USmobile SIM card (discarding the new number I used for the test) and port in the original number from Tracfone. USmobile agents were always quicker to respond and were more patient.
Why don't you give it a try like I did.
* Disclaimer - I do NOT receive any compensation from USmobile. I do NOT have any direct / indirect connection with them whatsoever at all either.
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