Boost Mobile: What Are the Pros and Cons?
- Offers free phones
- Wide variety of devices sold
- Wide variety of ways to get customer support
- Phone plans for wide variety of budgets
- Prepaid and postpaid options available
- Works on three networks
- No truly unlimited data plans
- Boost's native 5G network isn't available nationwide
Prepaid Phone Plans – No Credit Check
Postpaid Phone Plans
Data Only Plans
Boost Mobile Deals
Get 30GB of high-speed data for just $15/month for your first three months!
How Boost Mobile Plans Work
A Brief History Of Boost Mobile
In 2002 Boost Mobile officially launched in the USA in a partnership with Nextel Communications. The company offered walkie talkie 2 way radio like functionality with its push to talk service over Nextel’s iDEN network. Subscribers paid a dollar a day for the service to get unlimited talk and text.
In 2006 Sprint purchased Nextel Communications and hence the Boost Mobile brand. Almost immediately the company began offering service on Sprint’s CDMA network in select markets, while still maintaining its push to talk service in many markets. It wasn’t until 2013 that Sprint and Boost Mobile fully retired Boost’s iDEN network in favor of Sprint’s CDMA network.
On July 1, 2020, Boost Mobile was officially purchased by DISH from T-Mobile. DISH also signed an MVNO agreement to use T-Mobile’s network to provide its subscribers with coverage.
In July 2021, DISH announced that it signed an agreement with AT&T to allow AT&T to provide wireless service to its MVNO partners including Boost Mobile.
On November 18th, 2021, Boost Mobile formally announced its first wireless plans to take advantage of the AT&T network. The new were named Carrier Crusher plans.
In March 2023, BestMVNO reported that DISH began to send out Rainbow SIMs to some of its Boost Mobile dealers. Rainbow SIMs allow customers to activate service using Boost’s native network, the Boost 5G network. They also allow roaming service on AT&T and T-Mobile. Since then Boost Mobile has been focusing on adding more customers onto its own native network, as well as AT&T’s network in preference over T-Mobile.
Boost Mobile is estimated to have 6.9m subscribers as of 08/03/23. DISH, now Echostar, no longer gives subscriber counts for its wireless brands, so this number had to be extrapolated from an earnings transcript provided by Tucows and remarks from their management. Tucows provides Echostar and Boost Mobile with a platform to use to onboard wireless customers.
On July 17, 2024, Boost Mobile rebranded. A new logo was released which is shown at the top of this webpage, plans were updated, and Boost Infinite, a postpaid offering, was merged into the Boost Mobile brand. As a result of the brand merger, Boost Mobile is capable of offering both prepaid and postpaid services. According to information shared by a dealer with BestMVNO, customers who finance handsets or pay for certain add-ons in stores may be migrated to from prepaid to Boost Mobile postpaid.
Boost Mobile Phone Plans Fine Print
As a result of the rebrand, Boost Mobile offers 4 wireless plans online. All plans offered are “unlimited” and guaranteed high-speed data allotments vary from 30GB to 50GB depending on the plan you are subscribed to. Customers activated on and using Boost’s native 5G network will have unlimited high-speed data. Customers using or activated on AT&T, or T-Mobile’s network will be subjected to the high-speed data limits just described. After those limits are surpassed during a monthly billing cycle data speeds are reduced to 512Kbps until the next billing cycle starts. Plan pricing ranges from $25/month to $65/month.
Some plans include taxes and fees, some do not. Boost Mobile’s “Infinite Access” plans include either a free iPhone or a free Samsung Galaxy every year with savings of up to $830 on the cost of a phone. The Infinite Access plans are considered postpaid plans and require a soft credit check. A summary of all plans can be found below.
| Unlimited | Unlimited+ | Unlimited Premium | Infinite Access (Postpaid) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single Line Price | $25 (with autopay) | $50 (with autopay) | $60 (with autopay) | $65 |
| Taxes & Fees Included | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| High-Speed Data* | 30GB | 40GB | 50GB | 30GB |
| Hotspot | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Talk & Text to International Numbers | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Canada & Mexico Roaming | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
*High-speed data allotment only applies to usage on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks. If you go over the limit on either network your data speeds will be reduced to 512Kbps until your next billing cycle starts. Some dealers and Boost Mobile subscribers have reported to BestMVNO that high-speed data usage while connected to the native Boost 5G network is unlimited.
Available Plan Add-Ons
Boost Mobile offers several plan add-ons. If your plan is missing a feature you’d like or you need more high-speed data you can choose from the following options.
- Hotpost – add hotspot to your plan for an additional $10/month
- High-speed data – $10/month for 10GB
- Premium Visual Voicemail – $3/month – transcribe voicemails to email, text, or your visual voicemail inbox. Flag messages as high or low importance. Compose notes and attach them to messages. Create and organize folders to store your messages
- Global Talk and Text – $10/month – place calls and texts to international numbers
- North America Connect – $10/month – roam in Canada and Mexico. Includes 5GB of roaming data
- Global Roaming – talk, text, and data usage while traveling internationally. $20/month.
- Boost Protect – $8/month – phone insurance. Covers you in the event of theft or damage.
- Boost Family Guard – $10/month – parental control app. Allows parents to track their child’s location, establish safety zones and regulate screen time
- Boost Secure Connect – $4/month – VPN usage
- Unlimited Gamez – $5/month – cloud gaming platform with hundreds of ad-free games available
- Juega YA! – $5/month – cloud-based Spanish game service
- Mini-Me Videos – $5/month – Ad-free videos and shows for kids
- Mini-Me Games – $5/month – Ad-free educational games for kids
How To Port Out Of Boost Mobile
Porting out requires you to contact Boost Mobile in order to obtain your account number. A PIN number is also needed to port out. Your PIN number is the same that you use to login to your online account with.
Phone Unlock Policy
Boost Mobile will unlock your device provided that you have used it for 12 months on their network. For full details about Boost Mobile's device unlocking policy please review this post.
Boost Mobile News
By Joe Paonessa • 04/23/25
Boost Mobile has expanded its offerings to become a more full featured wireless provide...
By Joe Paonessa • 03/14/25
Boost Mobile is in the midst of shaking up its national retail offerings according to t...
By Joe Paonessa • 03/13/25
Boost Mobile has refreshed its online unlimited plan promo for the final stretch of the...
Does Google put its apps on Boost phones?
Location now dead zone, Something happened in south jersey area and all cell services are at low connection. But to make it worse is the strongest network doesn’t have service enabled. This was brought to light when 911 calls didn’t work here. 08069 area The boost mobile store knows about the issue but said it wasn’t there issue.
At the time I truly thought I had found the golden eggs leading to the goose. I was a fairly content Visible subscriber. That was till the billing came back past due on the plan that I wasn’t subscribed and due for the current month. This snafu was causing a suspension that I just couldn’t get anyone to agree was invalid and preventing me from paying the bill either way.
So after a couple of days of emailing and waiting for verification notices I needed to have a working line again. I truly felt that the banner that recommended Boost Infinite was a godsend. The procedure was definitely the easiest part to do. My phone would support eSIM configurations and I was able to get all pertinent information from the current carrier. Within minutes I was up and running with a viable connection to the world.
Due to a lack of connectivity in my part of Central Harlem I relied upon my phones hotspot capabilities to connect my computer and varied smart home devices. Imagine my surprise when none of my devices were getting data via the network. I looked over the plan details again and felt certain that it was stated to be include in my “Early Access Activation”. So sought out the live chat. Well sadly the company had recently announced a data breach and were operating behind a universal message of “Can’t you see that we’ve been violated. Please give us some time to recover and recoup. Someone will be with you…..
I am just not impressed. If this is the capacity of the network beaming 5G, buyer beware: you will get what you pay for! I’m aware of the benefit of signal test to test the up and download speed of my connected networks. And at 5g four bars in the city or the burbs my test results came back once again, goose eggs. 0.00 data up or down. On the AT&T network.
It’s been bothersome and I’m still trying to go back to Visible. I was definitely hasty for this move.
Also it’s rather random that Boost Mobile locations have no way to view the Infinite accounts. Boost One requires additional subscription options.
So the signal seems true. It’s just hollow. Like a rotten egg.
have had these guys for 3 months now and I will be switching off. Just a whole host of problems with Boost, where you really want to set it and forget it when it comes to your cheap and reliable MVNO.
Their app is terrible – they moved from a normal app to 1 that incentivizes you to play games, watch ads, etc to earn 1c at a time to defray your service. Except they forgot to focus on the Acct Mgmt portions of the app: I have NEVER been able to view my Data usage (I only get 5GB of hi speed every month).
Calls to CS don’t help, you reach a poor quality line, in the Philippines, with someone who has an awful mastery of the english language often. I have called multiple times and my issue hadn’t been resolved.
Network: choice between Tmobile and ATT. OK I live in New York City and I only get 5G about 50% of the time. In addition, coverage can honestly be really spotty, and its embarassing when you have to go outside a building to get service, in NYC! When your partner with ATT legacy gets full service. This leads me to believe that Boost uses Tmobile overwhelmingly, when they can.
Lastly, they don’t support texts and calls to Canada.
If I bought a boost mobike branded phone which runs on the att network will the sim work in a locked att phone? I’ll eventually end up trying and report back but just curious if anyone has actually tried it already. thanks…
Boost Mobile has been great for me as a carrier, I am getting use to having a data cap after 35GB of data but, the network signal has increased dramatically since Boost uses AT&T Towers.
I do recommend them as a carrier if you don’t use a lot of data, hopefully they will offer truly unlimited data in the future.
Shame to see Boost Mobile dropping its rewards program although the major changes in it that happened in February made it a lot less rewarding. Maybe they will team up with CellNUVO or another company to offer a decent rewards program replacement.
Boost Mobile is not an MVNO and, contrary to popular belief, never has been. Boost Mobile is owned, operated and maintained by Sprint, which makes Boost Mobile a subsidiary of Sprint. MVNO companies do not own the infrastructure (towers, switches, etc) of the wireless network but instead purchase voice and data services from primary networks at a fraction of the cost paid by subscribers. The MVNO then brands and markets their company by selling these services to their own subscribers. Boost Mobile, as a subsidiary, does not operate this way since they are owned and operated by the parent network.