iPhone 4S Voice and Data Plans: AT&T vs. Sprint vs. Verizon

If you’re looking for the cheapest possible monthly deal, Sprint wins, with a total monthly cost of $99.99 for 900 minutes, unlimited texting, and unlimited data.

Excellent roundup of plan prices from PC Magazine. Contrary to the above, what I’ve found is that you can get the cheapest plan on AT&T, but you’re only going to get 450 minutes and 200 MB of data without a text messaging plan to pull it off. No frills here, but you’d only have to pay $55 a month. If you’re on WiFi a majority of the time, your friends have iPhones (for iMessage), and have good AT&T coverage, this is your budget plan.

The best overall plan would go to Sprint. The nights and weekends given are good, 450 minutes, and unlimited data and text messaging will net you a solid plan for $80 a month. Pricey, but cheaper than AT&T and Verizon for similar upgrades. Keep in mind the “unlimited data” is around 5 GB, though this was true for Verizon as well when they carried unlimited plans.

If you want the best coverage, Verizon is likely going to be your choice. I have never had a signal problem with Verizon no matter where I ended up in my travels, although call quality is lacking in my opinion. Verizon is a good choice if you want better text message flexibility (250 messages for example) where AT&T gives you none, although you don’t have the same choices with data use.

[via OS X Daily]