Verizon has completely overhauled its prepaid plans, making them more competitive with other budget carriers. The cheapest option is now $35 per month, and includes 15 GB of high-speed data and hotspot access — the available hotspot data comes from the same 15 GB pool as the phone. There’s also a $50/mo “Unlimited” plan with 5 GB of dedicated hotspot data. Finally, the $60/mo “Unlimited Plus” option has unlimited phone data, 25 GB of hotspot data, “Global Choice” (which usually costs $10 on its own and has some international access), and support for Verizon’s faster “ultra-wideband” 5G network (which includes C-Band).
A common problem with prepaid plans is that they are often de-prioritized at the network level over premium post-paid plans. For example, if you’re in a crowded sports stadium with thousands of phones in a small area, Verizon’s cell towers are going to prioritize connections from postpaid customers over pre-paid subscribers. That’s not an issue in all areas, but the most expensive Unlimited Plus works around that — the first 50 GB is “premium network access” with no de-prioritization or artificial throttling.
The new plans are overall a better deal than Verizon’s old prepaid offerings, which only provided 5 GB of data for $35/mo, and Unlimited Plus was a whopping $70. However, finding the best pre-paid plan deal might also mean cross-shopping with the plans available from Total by Verizon (previously Total Wireless), which also use Verizon’s network. For example, the base unlimited plan from Total is $10 cheaper than Verizon Prepaid with twice the amount of hotspot data. There’s also Visible, another Verizon subsidiary that offers unlimited plans for as low as $30 per month, and many other prepaid carriers that use T-Mobile or AT&T’s nationwide network.
Source: Verizon
