Shop for a New WIRELESS PLAN and Save Big

Competition is fierce, and carriers are dangling free phones and streaming subscriptions.

- RIVAN STINSON

We’ve witnessed a lot of changes in the past couple of years, but you may have overlooked the upheaval in the wireless industry. Sprint customers finally became T-Mobile customers in 2020, thanks to the companies' completed merger (although some Sprint customer plans are still in transition). The deal reduced the number of major wireless carriers from the big four—AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon—to the big three. But the big four weren’t the only ones making waves.

Cox Communications, a cable provider, appealed an October 2021 court decision that stopped a wireless network deal with Verizon. Cox was hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow cable providers Comcast and Charter Communications, which have entered the mobile fray as Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile, respectively, with network deals with Verizon. Add in the smaller carriers, including Ting, Mint Mobile, Google Fi and others, and the competition for your dollars is intense.

Shopping for a new plan comes down to the data and phone needs of you and your family. A family of four can save close to $930 a year, on average, by switching wireless carriers, says Toni Toikka, president of Alekstra, a New York City-based research firm that analyzes the wireless service industry. Plus, carriers may allow you to stack promotions because phone deals and plan deals are separate.