Which cell phone carriers use verizon towers

The best MVNOs that use the Verizon Network have great coverage and a wider variety of plans offered by Verizon. Instead of going through the expense of spending billions building and maintaining a nationwide network, these carriers use Verizon's network to deliver outstanding service and coverage without the carrier's premium pricing. Visible stands out as the best overall choice with unlimited data, 5G access, and one of the lowest prices in the industry.

These are the best prepaid carriers using Verizon's network

Visible

Best Overall

Reasons to buy

+

Unlimited everything for just $40/mo.

Reasons to avoid

-

Limited international calling

Visible is the first and most unique prepaid carrier on this list. Everything with Visible is handled through its mobile app rather than going into a store to get started with your new phone service. This includes creating an account and paying your bill.

There's just one plan to choose from at Visible, and it costs $40 a month. For that price, you get unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE and 5G data with up to 200Mbps. Mobile hotspot is included at 5Mbps, and if you have a supported phone, you can even connect to Verizon's entire 5G network. While our Visible review found network performance to be slower than some other carriers, it still delivered more than enough speed for day-to-day use.

If you sign up for Visible service, be sure to join a party. Visible Party Pay allows customers to join a party to bring their total phone bill down to just $25 per month as long as your party has at least four members. This is easier than ever since Visible now hosts a community feature that makes it a breeze to find a party to join.

One downside to Visible is that it doesn't support as many phones as other carriers due to requiring a compatible VoLTE device. While this includes the biggest names in Android like the Galaxy S and Pixel series, less popular phones may not work. Perhaps the biggest downside to Visible is that it doesn't currently support any international calling, texting, or data use. That's a rough omission if you do a lot of traveling or have family in other countries, but if not, Visible is an easy recommendation.

US Mobile

Best perks

Reasons to buy

+

Custom Plan is great for light users

Reasons to avoid

-

Hotspot isn't free

US Mobile is a Verizon MVNO that has been growing in popularity thanks to a sensible set of plans and great phone compatibility. It uses a combination of T-Mobile and Verizon to power its service, and even supports C-band 5G. It's nice that US Mobile will work with a Verizon phone as well as T-Mobile-compatible unlocked phones.

Service plans with US Mobile are highly customizable. You can pick and choose how much talk, text, and data you need with a Custom Plan, or go with one of two Unlimited Plans and get unlimited talk, text, and data. The Customizable Plan is great for people that don't use their phones too much, but the real magic of US Mobile lies with the unlimited options.

US Mobile has an Unlimited Basic and Unlimited Premium plan. Unlimited Basic starts at $35 per month with a single line, but can do as low as $20 with four lines. This plan comes with unlimited data with 30GB of premium data and C-band 5G. There's no hotspot data, but for use on a phone, it should be a great pick.

Unlimited Premium comes is upgraded all around with 100GB of premium data, access to C-band and mmWave 5G, and 50GB of hotspot data. With 10GB of international data via an eSIM, this is a great plan for a heavy user on the go. IF you're making it your family plan, you get a free subscription service with three lines and another with four. This includes streaming services like Netflix or Spotify Family, as well as gaming services like Playstation Plus or Google Stadia Pro.

Straight Talk

Best international calling

Reasons to buy

+

Unlimited calling to Mexico, China, Canada, and India

Reasons to avoid

-

High prices compared to the competition

Straight Talk has been around for quite a while now and has a solid reputation as a cheap alternative carrier with plenty of data and great coverage. This is helped by the fact that it's part of TracFone, which is owned by Verizon itself. With a wide variety of plans and three strong unlimited options, Straight Talk stands out as a competitive option for heavy users.

The unlimited plans are graded like an Olympic podium with Bronze, Silver, ad Gold. Bronze is fairly basic at $35 per month with 10GB of high-speed data, and calling to Canada and Mexico. Silver adds $10 and upgrades the data to unlimited high-speed, with the same calling to Canada and Mexico. It also comes with 5GB of hotspot data. Gold takes the hotspot up to 15GB and adds 100GB of cloud storage. If you want to call even more countries, there is a Platinum Unlimited plan with 20GB of hotspot data and international calling enabled for $65 per month.

Straight Talk has two main ways to save with a couple of two-line plans as well as some extended plans. There are also some three, six, and 12-month plans that are a bit cheaper as well. If you don't need the bells and whistles of Platinum, there's a cheaper Unlimited Internation plan which is closer to Silver in features but adds international calling to the mix.

Xfinity Mobile

Best for Wi-Fi

Reasons to buy

+

Affordable By the Gig plan

Reasons to avoid

-

Only for Xfinity customers

Xfinity Mobile is a mobile plan designed for those that already use Xfinity for their home internet. Xfinity Mobile comes with unlimited nationwide calling/texting and access to millions of Wi-Fi hotspots. For mobile data, you have a couple of options. First, you can go with Xfinity's By the Gig plan, with data costing $15 per month for 1GB, $30 per month for 3GB, or $60 per month for 10GB. The actual cost is prorated based on your usage.

There's also the much more appealing unlimited plan, which is $45 a month for unlimited data. It's worth noting that whether you pay by the gig or go unlimited, you may see reduced speeds after you hit 20GB during the month. Hotspot access is included for free, but it's limited to just 600Kbps. Xfinity also offers international calling with per-country rates and a $10 per month optional add-on for unlimited calls to Mexico and Canada.

Speaking of add-ons, Xfinity offers something called an "HD Pass." If you subscribe to the $45 a month unlimited plan, this increases your video streaming resolution from 480p SD to 720p HD and gives you "higher quality cellular service" — aka preference over other customers when the network is especially congested. Unfortunately, HD Pass costs an extra $20 per month which is a bit pricey.

Still, there are some family savings on unlimited with $40 per line for two lines, $33.33 for three, and $30 for four lines. Impressively, these savings continue up to 10 lines. Paying $240 per month for ten lines with unlimited data is a good deal no matter what carrier you compare it to.

Ting Mobile

Best budget plan

Reasons to buy

+

Cheap basic plan

Reasons to avoid

-

Expensive unlimited plans

Ting Mobile uses both Verizon and T-Mobile for coverage, depending on what works best in your area. Ting started using the Sprint network before shifting to its current coverage partners, offering significantly improved coverage in the process. What's more, 5G is even included for free, so you can be ready for the next generation of wireless if you have the right phone and solid coverage.

Ting's plans are reasonably straightforward, starting with the Flex plan with unlimited talk and text plan starting at just $10 per month. You can add data at $5 per gig which remains a solid value if you use less than 3GB in a month. Ting does have plans for more modern devices, starting with Set 5 and Set 12, which come with 5GB and 12GB of data respectively that can all be used in a hotspot. The following two plans are unlimited, with 22GB of high-speed data for $45 per month and 35GB of high-speed for $55 per month. These plans come with 12GB and 38GB of hotspot data, respectively.

Ting will work with just about any phone thanks to using both networks, so if you want to keep using your phone, you more than likely can as long as it's unlocked. If you're looking to buy, Ting has a decent range of Android devices and iPhones available on its site, which can be financed with Affirm. Ting stands out for its basic plan and is one of the cheapest ways to get unlimited talk and text.

Total Wireless

Best for families

Reasons to buy

+

Family plan savings

Reasons to avoid

-

International calling is pricey

Another great option to consider when looking for Verizon MVNOs is Total Wireless. Plans start as cheap as $23.70 a month for unlimited talking and texting with 1GB of LTE data (after that, it's downgraded to 2G speeds). Stepping up to the $33.20 per month plan upgrades you to 10GB of high-speed data, with the highest-end $47.50 per month plan offering totally unlimited data and 10GB of hotspot data.

Total Wireless is also a solid choice for families, thanks to its selection of various family plans. They work out as follows:

• 2 lines: Unlimited talk/text and 30GB of shared 4G LTE data (then 2G) for $57/mo.
• 3 lines: Unlimited talk/text and 60GB of shared 4G LTE data (then 2G) for $80.70/mo.
• 4 lines: Unlimited talk/text and 100GB of shared 4G LTE data (then 2G) for $95/mo.

Total Wireless lets you add 5GB of extra LTE data for $10 no matter which plan you choose, and any that's unused carries over to the next month without any hassle.

International calling isn't natively included with Total Wireless plans, but you can add it for an extra $10 per month. With this, customers can make $10 worth of international calls based on varying international rates, though many destinations are only a couple cents per minute. It's also worth noting that the totally unlimited plan comes with unlimited calling to Mexico and Canada.

• Back to the top ^

Don't pay for features you'll never use

Verizon's network is an excellent pick for a prepaid carrier, thanks to its great coverage area and growing 5G network. Coverage deficiencies are often more pronounced on prepaid carriers because they don't have access to roaming agreements so it's a good idea to make sure you're on the strongest possible network for your area. With these carriers, you can even use most of the best Android phones.

Overall, we have to give our top recommendation to Visible. Visible goes out of its way to make things as simple as possible. Taxes and fees are included with Visible, meaning you won't find any surprise charges on your monthly bill. There's also no keeping track of how many minutes or data you've used, like everything with Visible, is unlimited.

Visible's simple plan with unlimited data makes it an easy choice and helps it to be one of the best cell phone plans you can get. Visible's $40 a month plan is solid on its own, but things get really exciting when you factor in Party Pay. With Party Pay, your bill is just $25 per month, and with Visible's community feature, joining a party takes just a couple of minutes. So if you're looking for unlimited data, Visible is the best value on the Verizon network.

When Samuel is not writing about networking or 5G at Android Central, he spends most of his time researching computer components and obsessing over what CPU goes into the ultimate Windows 98 computer. It's the Pentium 3.