Spectrum Mobile: What Are the Pros and Cons?
- Mix and match plans
- Shareable data for up to 10 lines
- Price lock guarantees
- Typically offers free lines for a year to new customers
- Only available in areas served by Spectrum TV/Cable
- Must also subscribe to Spectrum Internet or plans cost $10/month higher
- Base plan is more expensive compared to other providers on the market
Phone Plans
How Spectrum Mobile Plans Work
Spectrum Mobile launched in 2018 as a hybrid MVNO provider that uses WiFi and Verizon’s Wireless network to provide service to its subscribers. When a subscriber is near a Spectrum Wireless Hotspot, their Spectrum Mobile phone will automatically connect to the hotspot for data usage. This helps subscribers to save their allotted monthly high-speed data and reduces the amount of money Spectrum Mobile has to pay to Verizon to access Verizon’s network.
The service is only available to those who are also Spectrum Internet customers. Those who are Spectrum Internet customers who cancel their internet will have to pay an additional $10/month for their Spectrum Mobile unlimited wireless plan.
Spectrum Mobile will only initially allow new Spectrum Internet customers to signup a maximum of two lines under an account. After a waiting period of 30 days, additional lines may be added. A maximum of 10 lines is allowed per account.
Data Speeds
In early March of 2020, Spectrum Mobile launched 5G wireless access. All Spectrum Mobile subscribers with a compatible phone and living in an area with 5G coverage get 5G network access at no extra charge. Spectrum’s broadband disclosure states that its subscribers can expect 5G dowload data speeds to be in the range of 5 to 450Mbps with a latency of 30ms to 100ms. Upload speeds are said to be in a range of 2Mbp-50Mbps. 4G LTE data speeds can be expected to reach 5-12Mbps download and 2-5Mbps upload with a latency of under 100ms.
Spectrum Mobile Phone Plan Details And Fine Print
Those wishing to subscribe to Spectrum Mobile have two different types of plan options. There’s a “By-the-Gig” option where customers pay for data by the GB, and there are two unlimited data plans. Autopay billing is required for service on any plan. Subscribers can set up autopay with their credit or debit card. Subscribers are also charged $20 when they activate a line.
All Spectrum Mobile plans include mobile hotspot usage, WiFi calling and texting, unlimited international texting to over 200 countries, access to Spectrum WiFi hotspots, and 2,000 minutes a month of calling to Mexico and Canada. Taxes and fees are included in the price of every plan. Customers can also use their phones while traveling internationally but it does cost extra. Rates starting as low as $0.01 per megabyte in over 150 countries. International roaming rates can be found here.
“By the Gig” Plan Details
Spectrum’s By the Gig plans are considered shared billing data plans. Each line is billed at a rate of $19.99 and comes with 1GB of high-speed data before customers get billed for additional data. The additional data is shared between lines and priced at a rate of $5 per GB. All the data used collectively across each line is rounded up to the nearest GB and the primary account holder then gets billed for it. So if line 1 uses 1.3GB and line 2 uses 2.1GB that’s a total of 3.4GB used across all lines.
Spectrum automatically charges By the Gig subscribers $5 per GB of data consumed after the first 1GB per line is used. So in a scenario similar to the one just described, a customer whose single line account uses 3.4GB of data across all lines in a month will be billed for 4GB of data for a total of $34.99. But a customer with two lines in that scenario would pay $49.98. Two line customers start off by paying $39.98 to have each line with 1GB of data for a total of 2GB of data in the account. Adding 2GB more data to the account brings the cost to $49.98.
“By the Gig” Plan Limitations
A Spectrum customer can have up to 10 lines in their account. Each By the Gig line gets unlimited talk & text but a maximum of 5GB of data is available per line at high-speeds before throttling to 256kbps.
Video streaming is limited to DVD quality or a resolution of 480p.
Unlimited Data Plan Options
Spectrum Mobile offers 2 unlimited data plans. There is a Standard Unlimited Data plan that costs $29.99/line and an Unlimited Plus data plan billed at a rate of $39.99/line. The cheaper plan has been available priced at $15/line for 12 months for new customers whereas the more premium plan is $25/line for 12 months for new subscribers. The Unlimited Plus plan was launched in August of 2020. Both the standard and Unlimited Plus plans were improved in September 2023.
There are a few significant differences between the Standard Unlimited Data and Unlimited Plus data plans. They are highlighted in this comparison chart.
Standard Unlimited Data Plan
- 30GB premium data
- DVD (480p) quality video streaming
- Up to 5GB full speed mobile hotspot usage, then unlimited at 600Kbps
Unlimited Plus Data Plan
- 50GB premium data
- HD (1080p) quality video streaming
- Up to 10GB full speed mobile hotspot usage, then unlimited at 600Kbps
- 5GB of monthly full speed data roaming in Mexico and Canada, then unlimited at 256Kbps
Unlimited Data Plan Limitations
Both plans include priority data. Priority data is data that doesn’t slow down relative to other customers on the network when the network is congested. However, customers who hit their plan’s premium data threshold will have their data de-prioritized and speeds will also be reduced to 1Mbps download and 512Kbps upload.
Spectrum One
In October of 2022, Charter Communications launched Spectrum One. Spectrum One bundles Spectrum’s 300Mbps home internet service with Spectrum Mobile’s $29.99 base unlimited plan for a total bundle price of $49.99/month for 12 months.
Family Plans: Mix And Match “By The Gig” And Unlimited Data Plans
Spectrum Mobile subscribers can mix and match plans on their account. As an example, a customer with 5 lines could have 3 of them on a By the Gig plan, one on the Standard Unlimited Data plan, and the other on the Unlimited Plus plan. There are no additional discounts available for this type of setup. So in this example, the primary account holder would have to pay a minimum of $129.95/month for their plan with pricing broken down as follows:
- 3 lines of By the Gig * $19.99/line minimum charge = $59.97
- 1 line of Standard Unlimited charged $29.99
- 1 line of Unlimited Plus charged $39.99
Phone Unlock Policy
Spectrum Mobile will unlock your phone as long as it has been paid off in full and you have used it with their service for a minimum of 60 days. The account the phone is attached to must also be in good standing and active at the time of the unlock request.
Spectrum Mobile
This wireless plan's guide is part of BestMVNO's comprehensive coverage of Spectrum Mobile. See BestMVNO's coverage of the latest Spectrum Mobile news or visit the links below to sign up for service, or configure your APN settings.