In this fast-paced world, cellphones have become less of a convenience and more of a necessity, especially in the military community.
With deployments, training exercises and relocations, it is imperative to have the ability to stay connected with spouses, family and friends. It’s imperative and it’s expensive! Cellphone service can cost more than a car payment.
Several cellphone providers have announced discount programs for the military to help elevate the high cost of cellphone service. Check out the discounts the top carriers are offering.
Sprint Unlimited Military Plan
Sprint offers a 50% discount on the basic unlimited plan to military and veterans. The discount applies to additional family lines associated with the primary line. The first line is $60 a month (no discount applied), each additional line receives a 50% discount.
Four lines will cost $100 a month and include unlimited data, talk and text nationwide, Hulu, 500 MB mobile hotspot, DVD-quality streaming, global roaming in more than 185 worldwide locations, unlimited talk and text in Mexico and Canada, and 5GB of 4G LTE data.
One of the biggest concerns with switching service is the coverage. So how does Sprint’s coverage compare? According to an article published in “WhistleOut,” Sprint has the “fourth-best” coverage in the United States. The good news is in the regions Sprint is available the reliability of the service is pretty good.
If you are stationed anywhere from the East Coast to mid-Texas or the West Coast, Sprint offers reliable coverage at a great rate. If you live in the mid or south-west region of the United States, you may want to opt for a different cellphone provider.
Verizon Military Discount Program
Verizon is the Cadillac of cellphone providers when it comes to coverage areas, however, they do not offer quite as deep discounts for military members.
Verizon recently announced a military discount program. With this deal, you could save up to $40 on four lines under any of Verizon’s three “unlimited” plans. The basic unlimited plan or “go Unlimited” starts at $40 a month per line and requires at least four lines be opened to receive this price. The basic plan would cost a family of four $120 a month.
Related: 4 Ways to Save on Your Cell Phone Bill
This plan includes unlimited talk, text and 4G LTE data, DVD quality streaming (480p), unlimited mobile hotspot (600 kbps), Verizon Up Rewards and text and data in Mexico and Canada.
To receive the monthly savings, customers must enroll in Verizon’s AutoPay program and use paperless billing.
T-Mobile One Military
T-Mobile has recently rebranded and is the cellphone provider to watch, in my opinion. They are third in line for coverage which includes most of the United States, except for parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Wyoming and a very small area in southwest Texas near the Mexican border. I have driven through this area several times and there is pretty much no service available with any carrier.
With T-Mobile’s military discount, a family of four would pay $100 a month. These plans include most of the same services as the other carriers with a couple of notable additions. Netflix, texting and data abroad including 210 countries, in-flight texting and one hour of data on flights in the United States and what I think is the best part, all taxes and fees are included in the price, so your $100 cell phone bill is $100.
Another plus, T-Mobile has committed to hiring 10,000 veterans and military spouses and offers career training.
They don’t just have sales jobs. They offer a variety of positions from HR to IT.
AT&T
I intentionally left AT&T for last, because their military discount plan really isn’t worth much of a mention in addition to all the problems AT&T users have recently had (did you experience the major outages in 2017?).
They have a wide coverage area in the United States, coming in at a close second to Verizon. The military discount offered by AT&T is 15% off monthly service charges on qualifying plans. Their unlimited plans start at $70 a month for one line. In my opinion, 15% doesn’t come close to the amazing discounts the other carriers are offering.
These military discounts can really help military families lower their cellphone bills while still staying connected to the ones they love!
My Carrier is not up there. Straight talk.
Too bad I don’t see Tracfone on that list..
I have Consumer Cellular which is very good if you want to save some money. I have been with them for about 8 years and have had no problems.
Does the cell phone discounts apply to Veterans?
Sprint will also let me switch from ATT to them for a year free or upgrade our iPhone 7 to the new XS