Cheapest monthly plan for Android

This is the cheapest monthly plan for Android phone.

The cheapest plan for Android - on 4 major carriers

Please scroll all the way down to see the table.

	verizon	at&t	sprint	t-mobile
Monthly cost	$70	$55	$60	$40
Plan	$40 voice plan + $30 unlimited data plan	$40 voice plan + $15 200mb data plan	EPRP	$30 Even More Plus voice plan + $10 Web2Go unlimited data plan
Plan breakdown
data	unlimited	200mb	unlimited	unlimited
text	0	0	unlimited	0
voice	450mins	450mins	500mins	500mins

Which Android phones are on which carriers

Haven't update the android & carriers table for a while.

There are more than 10 new addition to the table.

Scroll all the way down to see the table.

T-mobiles	Verizon	Sprint	AT&T
HTC G1	Motorola Droid	HTC Hero	Motorola Backflip
HTC MyTouch 3G	HTC Droid Eris	Samsung Moment	HTC Aria
Motorola CLIQ	Motorola Devour	HTC Evo 4g	Samsung Captivate
Samsung Behold 2	HTC Droid Incredible	Samsung Intercept	Dell Streak
Google Nexus One	Motorola Droid X	Motorola i1	Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
HTC MyTouch 3G Slide	Samsung Fascinate	Samsung Epic 4g	Dell Aero
Garminfone	LG Ally	Samsung Galaxy Tab	Motorola Flipout
Samsung Vibrant	Samsung Gem	Samsung Transform	Motorola Bravo
Motorola Charm	Motorola Droid 2	Sanyo Zio	Motorola Flipside
HTC G2	Samsung Galaxy Tab	LG Optimus S	Samsung Galaxy Tab
myTouch	Motorola Droid Pro
Samsung Galaxy Tab
Motorola Defy
LG Optimus T
myTouch HD

The cheapest plan for Android - Virgin Mobile

Virgin Mobile:
- $25
- unlimited data/text
- 300 anytime minutes
- no contract

They just introduced their first Android phone, Samsung Intercept.
Not the most advanced phone, but the monthly plan is awesome! Double awesome! The cheapest I can find right now.


Source: phandroid
http://phandroid.com/2010/10/04/samsung-intercept-on-virgin-mobile-us-now-available/

Who carries what? Verizon to carry LG Ally, Samsung Gem, Droid2

Who carries what?

Verizon to carry LG Ally, Samsung Gem, Motorola Droid2
Droid2 is not yet formally announced. But it appears that it should be announced soon.

Cheapest plan for Android or iPhone on each carrier

See the following chart:

So T-mobile wins with a $40 plan ($30 Even More Plus voice plan + $10 web2go unlimited data plan).

Who carries what? Sprint introduces Samsung Intercept

Who carries what?

Who carries what? - Verizon introduces Samsung Fascinate

Who carries what?

List of android devices on major US carriers.

It seems I have to update the list like twice in a day.

Verizon introduces Samsung Fascinate

source: phandroid
http://phandroid.com/2010/06/27/verizon-wireless-announces-the-samsung-fascinate-another-galaxy-s-smartphone/

Who carries what? - Sprint introduces Samsung Epic 4g Slider

Who carries what?

Are we getting to a point that we have to update the table daily as there seems to be new Android device coming out daily.

Sprint will introduce Samsung Epic 4g as their second 4g phone and their fourth Android phone.

Source: gizmodo
http://gizmodo.com/5574084/sprints-second-4g-phone-is-the-samsung-epic-4g-slider

T-mobile to introduce Motorola Charm

Who carries what. List of Android phones on major US carriers.

Wow! T-mobile is just on-fire. They are going to introduce another Android phone.

source: http://phandroid.com/2010/06/27/motorola-charm-leaked-for-t-mobile-motorola-flipout-could-be-destined-for-att/

T-mobile to introduce Samsung Vibrant

Another day, another android device launched at one of the major US carriers.

This time, T-mobile will launch Samsung Vibrant.

So the updated list of carriers and their Android phones look like:

List List of Android Phones on Top 4 US Carriers - updated

I added CellularSouth into the list. Even though CellularSouth is no where as big as the big 4 carriers, they are planning to carry 3 Android phones, I thought I might include it for completeness sake.



Who carries what?

List of Android Phones on Top 4 US Carriers

Who carries what?

Here is a list of Android phones carried by the Top 4 US carriers.

AT&T to carry Samsung Captivate

Again, even though AT&T's individual plan could be more expensive than T-mobile or Sprint, if you have a family member who must be on AT&T due to iPhone, there is some good news for you to have iPhone Alternative.

AT&T will carry Samsung Captivate (Samsung Galaxy S equivalent)

Source: mobilebeat.com
http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/06/17/att-shows-its-not-afraid-of-powerful-android-phones-with-the-samsung-captivate/

AT&T to carry HTC Aria

For people who had to stay on AT&T (probably due to having a family member who insist on using iPhone), there is some good news that AT&T will now carry one more Android phone, HTC Aria.

Source: androidguys.com
http://www.androidguys.com/2010/06/14/att-announces-12999-htc-aria-june-20/

Although AT&T is usually more expensive than T-mobile and Sprint, sometimes using a family plan of two is cheaper than two individual plan in two different carriers.

However, AT&T tends to choose less powerful Android devices so that it does not compete with iPhone. AT&T used to carry Motorola Backflip, which is an low-end device. HTC Aria that they will carry is also just a mid-range device.

CellularSouth to carry HTC Desire

CellularSouth has a $50/mo plan for Android phones.
It currently carries HTC Hero (CDMA version).
It has announced that it will carry Motorola Milestone (Droid in another name).
To top all that, it has announced that it will carry HTC Desire (similar in spec to Nexus One).

source: androidguys
http://www.androidguys.com/2010/06/16/htc-desire-arrives-stateside-select-regional-operators-august/
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100616006595&newsLang=en

Second cheapest plan: CellularSouth $50 unlimited web/text 500mins voice

CellularSouth has a SmarthPhone plan for $50 that has:
- unlimited web
- unlimited text
- 500 mins voice

See more detail here:
https://www.cellularsouth.com/cscommerce/products/plans/product_plan_details.jsp?navAction=push&navCount=0&id=prod22450057

Phones:
CellularSouth currently carries HTC Hero (CDMA version). And has announced that they will introduce Motorola Milestone (international version of Motorola Droid) soon.

http://www.cellularsouth.com/DiscoverCenter/phones-apps/android/coming-soon.jsp


Included Features:

* Unlimited Web and Email
(unlimited access to the Web and your email anywhere in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands)
* Mobile-To-Mobile Calls
(unlimited calls between Cellular South customers)
* Long Distance
(call from your Regional/Primary Area to anywhere in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands)
* Text
(send and receive unlimited text messages nationwide)
* Call Waiting
(take that second call if you want)
* Call Forwarding
(forward your calls to another number)
* Conference Calling
(add a third party to a two-way call)
* Caller ID
(see who's calling before you answer)

Optional Features:

* Voice Mail (free upon request)
(free upon request - add it to your cart before checking out)
* Phone Insurance
(provided by eSecuritel - protect your phone from the unexpected)
* Nights & Weekends
(unlimited calling from 7:00 p.m. until 6:59 a.m. Monday through Friday and from 7:00 p.m. Friday through 6:59 a.m. Monday)
* Pics
(send and receive unlimited picture messages)
* Ringback Tones
(customize what callers hear until you answer the phone)
* Group Voice Messaging
(send messages to multiple Cellular South voice mail subscribers)

All around cheapest plan - MetroPcs - $40 unlimited web/text/voice

Right now, the cheapest plan seems to be the $40/mo plan from MetroPcs. It has unlimited web/text/voice. This is like $30-40 cheaper than AT&T.

Pretty cool, isn't it?

http://www.metropcs.com/plans/default.aspx

According to metropcs.com, one can bring a HTC Hero (CDMA version) phone and flash the phone to MetroPcs.

For a list of phones that can be flashed to MetroPcs, go to http://www.metropcs.com/metroflash/ and click on the brand of the phone to see the list.

Also, MetroPcs has announced that they will introduce a motorola android phone to their network.
http://www.androidguys.com/2010/06/05/exclusive-metro-pcss-motorola-phone/

Sprint situation

Currently, Sprint does not allow Android phones to be activated on their older plan like SERO ($30/mo - 500mins/unlimited data/unlimited text).

The cheapest plan that they allow to be activated is:
- ESRP ($60/mo - unlimited data/unlimited text) - but cannot apply corporate discount to it.
- Everything ($69.99/mo - unlimited data/unlimited text) - can apply additional corporate discount.

This is true for all Android phones on Sprint so far. Which includes:
- Sprint HTC Hero
- Samsung Moment
- HTC Evo 4G

For Evo 4G, an additional $10/mo charge have to be added to the plan for 4G data (not optional)

By the cheapest plan, we mean cheapest plan with data plan

A smart phone is not much fun without data plan. So we want to include data plan in the price comparison here.

Definition of smart phone here: iPhone & Android

To define the scope, I want to limit the smart phones to iPhone and Android for now.

What is the cheapest monthly plan for smart phones in US

Recently, I did a lot of research trying to find the cheapest monthly plan for a smart phone.

I'll write out some of my finding and thoughts.

Please give us your comments and thoughts.