ผู้ให้บริการโทรศัพท์ที่ดีที่สุดของปี 2021

Metro By T-Mobile — formerly MetroPCS — remains one of the best phone carriers if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on your cell phone service. That said, Metro is facing stepped-up competition from big-name rivals and obscure discount carriers alike. Parent company T-Mobile stole some of Metro’s thunder by offering a super-cheap $15/month cell phone plan, while Verizon has doubled the amount of data it packs into its prepaid packages.

Still, there’s plenty to like about Metro, which benefits from using T-Mobile’s cellular network for its coverage. Even though Metro traffic can slow down when T-Mobile’s towers get congested, in our testing, that’s been a rare occurrence. More importantly, Metro customers with 5G-capable phones can enjoy T-Mobile’s 5G coverage, which now stretches coast to coast.

Verizon may offer more data to prepaid customers, but Metro’s $40-a-month plan still includes a generous helping of 10GB of data, with streaming music from more than 40 services not counting against your cap. Metro’s unlimited plans — $50 for the entry level plan and $60 for a plan that includes an Amazon Prime membership and more hotspot data — are pretty attractive, too. Metro customers also benefit from the Scam Shield service T-Mobile launched to reduce the amount of robocalls you’re subject to.

Metro has a good selection of phones, with around a third of the handsets on sale costing less than $200. You can find additional savings if you port over a phone number when signing up for service with Metro.

No longer restricted to just Google’s own phones, the Google Fi wireless service now supports just about any kind of handset (including iPhones). But it’s really the best option if you have a Google Pixel device or a fully compatible third-party phone like the latest Samsung Galaxy flagships, the Moto G Power or Moto G Stylus. Those phones seamlessly switch between the carriers that provide Google Fi’s coverage — Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular — so you’ll always have the best connection available. You give that up if you bring your own device to Google Fi. When Google releases the Pixel 5a and Pixel 6 later this year, this will be a phone carrier worth considering.

Google Fi’s pricing is pretty compelling if you don’t use a lot of data. Google charges you $20 for unlimited talk and text and then just $10 for each gigabyte of data you use. But that’s adjusted to the precise amount of data you consume — if you use 2.5GB, say, you’ll pay $25 instead of Google rounding up to $30. You can opt for unlimited data if you prefer, but at $70 a month, Google’s pricing matches what T-Mobile charges for the best unlimited data plan. There’s a $60 unlimited data option at Google Fi, but it drops the ability to use your data overseas, a feature that makes Google Fi so appealing.

That feature lets you use your data and text when you’re abroad in 200-plus countries. Data is also available at decent speeds overseas. It’s available in Google Fi’s $70 unlimited plan as well as its by-the-gig pricing, but not in the new $60 option.

Consumer Cellular is a good option for your cell phone service if you don’t need a lot of data each month or you don’t need unlimited talk minutes. (Or both!) The carrier has small data tiers available at reasonable prices, and you can switch around your data allotment on a monthly basis if you anticipate needing more data.

You can also save money on your bill by restricting your talk time to 250 minutes each month. That lowers the cost of the 3GB plan by $5 to $25 per month.

Because Consumer Cellular offers a 5% discount on monthly rates to AARP members, it’s become a hit with seniors. The carrier uses both AT&T and T-Mobile for its coverage, so it’s likely you’ll get good network performance no matter where you are. (And if you buy an iPhone 12 or Galaxy Note 20 model through the carrier, you can enjoy 5G coverage.) Consumer Cellular does take some criticism for customer service, but it’s generally regarded as any easy service for managing your plan and keeping your cell phone costs low.

Boost Mobile is beginning to emerge from uncertain times. Previously owned and operated by Sprint, the discount carrier is now the property of Dish in a $1.4 billion purchase spurred by last year’s Sprint-T-Mobile merger. Boost is keeping its name and operate using T-Mobile’s network for the next seven years, as Dish looks to build out its own network.

Boost continues to offer the same plans as before, with your best option being one of the company’s two unlimited plans. The $50 plan features 12GB of hotspot data and a six-month subscription to Tidal’s streaming music service. For $60 a month, you get HD video streaming and 30GB of hotspot data. Both unlimited data plans slow your speeds after you use 35GB of data in a month.

Boost’s unlimited prices compare favorably to what you get from Metro by T-Mobile, though T-Mobile’s prepaid service doesn’t put caps on music and game streaming like Boost does.

Boost had offered a Shrink-It plan that reduced your bill the longer you stuck with the carrier, but that seems to have been dropped from the tiered plan offerings. Instead, the best tiered plan at Boost gives you 5GB of data for $25 a month, but that offer is only available to new customers. Otherwise, you’ve got a 10GB plan that costs $35 a month.

Boost’s service should perform fairly well on T-Mobile’s network, though like any prepaid carrier, speeds could suffer if the network gets congested. We expect Boost will continue to offer a mix of iPhones and Android devices with an emphasis on lower-cost handsets.

If you already get your internet service from Comcast — and since it’s the nation’s biggest internet service provider, you probably do — Xfinity Mobile offers you the opportunity to save money on your monthly phone bill. The Comcast-backed phone carrier uses a combination of Verizon’s cellular towers and Xfinity hotspots to offer nationwide phone coverage.

Xfinity’s best plan for individuals is its $45 unlimited plan. Not only is that cheaper than what you’ll pay for unlimited coverage at the major phone carriers, it also includes access to Verizon’s 5G network if you have a 5G-capable phone. That means you can get 5G for nearly half the cost of what you’d pay for a Verizon unlimited data plan.

Xfinity Mobile has added discounts on additional lines, eliminating one of the big cons against this best phone carrier option. While a single line of unlimited services costs $45 a month, a second line of data brings the per line cost down to $40. A family of four pays $120 each month, or $30 per line.

You’ll find a good selection of phones at Xfinity, including the latest iPhone and Android flagships, such as the iPhone 12 and Galaxy Note 20. Xfinity has started to broaden support for bringing your own device beyond just the iPhone; recent Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices are supported, too, if you already own those phones.

What to look for when choosing a phone carrier

The first thing to consider when determining the best phone carrier for your needs is to figure out who has the best coverage in your area. Concentrate on the places where you spend a lot of time and need cell phone service, such as your home, office and frequent hangouts. Our network performance testing looks at download speeds in select cities, and third-party testing can give you an idea of how networks perform on average. But to truly get a picture of local network coverage, you’ll need to ask friends and family about their experience.

If you’re comfortable looking beyond one of the major cell phone providers, you can always try a discount carrier. These MVNOs turn to the larger networks to provide cellular service, so be sure to find out which network a discount carrier uses to make sure it’s one that provides good service to where you live and work.

Once you’ve figured out which phone carriers offer the best coverage in your areas, look at plans and pricing. You’ll need to figure out how much data you need — whether an unlimited plan is required or if you can opt for a cheaper plan with tiered data. We’ve analyzed the best cell phone plans overall to help you find one that fits your needs.

One other thing to consider when picking carriers is perks that come included with a monthly subscription. You’ll find more of these with larger carriers, while discount carriers and prepaid cellular service tends to skimp on the extras. Popular perks include streaming service subscriptions, high-speed hotspot data and the ability to use your plan while traveling overseas. (Speaking of overseas travel, we’ve also got a look at the best international phone plans from the major carriers.)

How we test phone carriers

We evaluate network performance by heading out to eight US cities and running Ookla’s Speedtest app to measure download speeds. For real-world testing, we download a sizable app off of Google Play and time how fast it takes to get the app on a smartphone. We augment our own testing by looking at network performance reports from third-party firms including RootMetrics, OpenSignal and Ookla. All that data helps us evaluate a carrier’s network performance.

We continuously review cell phone plans to compare how much data each carrier offers and how unlimited plans vary at each provider. We also look at the best prepaid phone plans, including extras you have to give up for the lower price to evaluate whether those are good deals or not.

We’ve done customer support testing in the past where we contact carriers incognito to ask them questions both about their service as well as phones they offer. We conduct this undercover testing both over the phone and through social media support accounts on Twitter and Facebook.