Overview
Total Wireless is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO that operates on the Verizon network. MVNO's are typically small companies that don't have their own wireless network, but rather buy minutes, texts and data at wholesale prices from major networks that they then turn and resell to you the consumer.
(Disclosure: I was not paid or asked to do this review, however, when applicable, affiliate links are used within the post).
Total Wireless has been in service for nearly 2 years and it is actually a TracFone owned brand.
Plans
Single Line And Family Plans
All plans include unlimited talk and text. Mobile hotspot is not allowed.
Limited time offer, new customers get 1.5 times more data than what's shown below!
Total Wireless Base 5G Unlimited
Plan Features- 4G LTE and 5G Nationwide network connectivity, no 5G Ultra-Wideband network connectivity
- Unlimited talk and text to Canada and Mexico
- Free talk, text, and data roaming in Canada and Mexico. High-speed data roaming limited to 10GB per billing cycle
- Video streaming limited to a resolution of 480p
- Can only allow one device to connect to your phone’s hotspot at a time
- Get $200 off your next 5G phone after 12 monthly payments when you sign up for Total Rewards. Get $100 off after 6 months
Total Wireless’s terms and conditions now contain the following provision about their unlimited plans:
“If the amount of a single mobile line’s total monthly data use in a Plan cycle exceeds the average amount of data consumed by the top 0.5% of users on the network during the preceding six-month period, we may reduce data speeds to your device to 1.5Mbps for the remainder of the cycle.”
Total Wireless 5G Unlimited
Plan Features- Includes 4G LTE, 5G Nationwide, and 5G Ultra-Wideband network connectivity
- Video streaming tested by me capped at roughly 9Mbps when connected to 5G Ultra Wideband, more than enough for 1080p streams, and roughly 4.5Mbps on LTE, more than enough for 720p streaming and in some cases good enough for 1080p. You may be able to get these speed caps removed by calling customer support
- Includes Disney+ free for 6 months
- Includes priority data, during times of network congestion, your data speeds won’t slow down compared to other customers on the network
- Includes 15GB of mobile hotspot, hotspot limited to 5Mbps, only one device can connect to your phone’s hotspot at a time
- Get $200 off your next phone purchase after 12 monthly plan payments when you are signed up for Total Rewards. Get $100 off after 6 months
- International calling to over 85 destinations, texting to over 200
- Includes roaming in Mexico and Canada. 10GB of data can be used per billing cycle while roaming
- Roaming in 15+ countries
Total Wireless’s terms and conditions now contain the following provision about their unlimited plans:
“If the amount of a single mobile line’s total monthly data use in a Plan cycle exceeds the average amount of data consumed by the top 0.5% of users on the network during the preceding six-month period, we may reduce data speeds to your device to 1.5Mbps for the remainder of the cycle.”
Total Wireless 5G+ Unlimited
Plan Features- Includes 4G LTE, 5G Nationwide, and 5G Ultra-Wideband network connectivity
- Video streaming tested by me capped at roughly 9Mbps when connected to 5G Ultra Wideband, more than enough for 1080p streams, and roughly 4.5Mbps on LTE, more than enough for 720p streaming and in some cases good enough for 1080p. You may be able to get these speed caps removed by calling customer support
- Includes Disney+ subscription for free
- Includes priority data, during times of network congestion, your data speeds won’t slow down compared to other customers on the network
- Includes unlimited mobile hotspot, hotspot data speeds limited to 5Mbps, only one device can connect to your phone’s hotspot at a time
- Get $200 off your next phone purchase after 12 monthly plan payments when you are signed up for Total Rewards. Get $100 off after 6 months
- International calling to over 85 destinations, texting to over 200 and a $10 long distance credit to 120+ destinations
- Includes roaming in Mexico and Canada. 10GB of data can be used per billing cycle while roaming
- Roaming in 15+ countries
Total Wireless’s terms and conditions now contain the following provision about their unlimited plans:
“If the amount of a single mobile line’s total monthly data use in a Plan cycle exceeds the average amount of data consumed by the top 0.5% of users on the network during the preceding six-month period, we may reduce data speeds to your device to 1.5Mbps for the remainder of the cycle.”
Add On Features
A data add on card is available to add to any plan at any time priced at just $10 for 5 GB of data. The nice thing about the data add on card is that any unused data leftover on the card will carryover month to month for as long as you keep your service active.
International calling is only available via the purchase of a $10 add on card. Total Wireless charges different rates depending on where you call. Rates start at 2.5¢ per minute for calls to Mexico. International texting is not supported at this time.
My Experience With And Review Of Total Wireless
I purchased an unlocked Motorola G 4 Plus that I activated on Total Wireless for a period of 30 days. I purchased a SIM card kit from Walmart (also available from Amazon and Total Wireless), and bought the $35 plan that includes 5 GB of data with unlimited talk and text directly from the Total Wireless website.
Total Wireless gives an autopay discount of $2.80, and I enabled it at signup and to my surprise I was able to purchase the first month of service with the discount. Unfortunately, taxes and fees were not included with the price. In my area taxes and fees amounted to $3.48 making the actual price I paid for service $36.68. At the time of this review, this Total Wireless plan was the cheapest Verizon MVNO to offer unlimited talk and text with at least 5 GB of data.
Data Speeds And Consumption
Verizon MVNO's are known to have their speeds limited to roughly 5 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload. This is essentially what I experienced while testing Total Wireless. (Updated 8/28/17 TracFone owned Verizon MVNO's no longer have LTE speed restrictions. With Total Wireless, in many areas you may now get download and upload speeds that are 10x higher than what was initially tested in this review.)
During my testing period, I ran 20 different internet speed tests at different times of the day and different days of the week. Speeds were pretty consistent regardless of the time of day or day of the week that they were run. I averaged download speeds of 5.17 Mbps, 2.03 Mbps upload and a ping time of 92.9 ms.
With real world use, I did not perceive any difference in website page load times compared to my main wireless plan on the T-Mobile network, where I use a LeEco Le Pro 3 as my main device. I found that I was able to stream YouTube videos at 1080p without any stuttering or issues. Using Netflix I also experienced no issues with the Netflix app set to stream on high, which the app says consumes about 1 GB of data per hour.
I watched about 20-30 minutes of streaming video on each platform with no issues or complaints.
I also listened to several hours of streaming audio via Amazon Prime Music, as well as Tune In radio. I was able to stream audio with no issue using either app and was perfectly satisfied with the service.
Data consumption during the review was 3 GB.
Voice Calls and Text Messaging
Admittedly, I am not big on speaking on the phone so my talk time was rather limited. I logged about 60 minutes of phone calls spread out over a combination of 10 incoming and outgoing calls. I had 0 dropped calls and had a signal everywhere I went, which was a nice change compared to my T-Mobile daily driver where for about 40 minutes a day I'm in a building with no signal. My location still does not have T-Mobile band 12 support, but I digress.
Phone calls were clear but I did hear a small amount of background static. The small amount of static was confirmed to be caused by the phone itself, because I heard the same sound while placing a call over Wi-Fi using Google Hangouts.
During the test period I sent and received roughly 800 text messages and dozens of MMS picture messages. All text messages were sent and received successfully, however, a few MMS picture messages sent to a Cricket Wireless number got lost in space and never delivered. I believe this issue to be due to how Cricket/AT&T and Verizon handle MMS messages but not the fault of Total Wireless. I believe this because the same issue occurred on occasion when MMS picture messages were sent to the Cricket number from a phone on a Verizon post paid plan. The culprit here is likely due to the picture messages being sent are slightly larger in size than what AT&T/Cricket can accept.
Tethering
I was able to successfully tether my phone to my PC and watch YouTube and Netflix as well as browse the internet. The test I conducted lasted about 20 minutes. I did not have any issues or notice things loading slower compared to my main cable network which gets download speeds of roughly 20 Mbps.
Tethering is not officially supported by Total Wireless, so if you are going to try it yourself, you are using at your own risk. Total Wireless may choose to send you a warning not to Tether or to disable your account if they find your are abusing their network.
Customer Support
Some say customer support is the bane of any TracFone owned brands existence. A search on the internet and you'll likely find quite a few loud voices complaining about customer support issues.
During my time with the provider I did not have any need to contact customer support for any issues. I did however contact them several times both through their online chat service and over the phone to test wait times one may have if they do in fact need to contact customer support.
Chat Wait Times
I initiated a chat with Total Wireless on 6 different days using different time points. The average time it took to get my chat answered was just 2 minutes, and this includes initiating a chat just 2 days after the Christmas holiday when one may expect customer support to be more heavily taxed during the holiday season with people activating their brand new devices. On one of the post Christmas chats, the chat service told me that they were "experiencing a high volume of chat at this time and to please try again later." I elected to wait, and reached a customer support representative just 6 minutes later.
Phone Call Wait Times
I placed 5 different calls to customer support and the longest wait time that I experienced was 6 minutes and 45 seconds. Two of my other calls were answered by a customer support representative instantly, while another call took 2 minutes. When my calls weren't being answered instantly I was given the option to either wait or have Total Wireless call me back within 3-5 minutes. Since I did not have any issues to discuss with customer support, I disconnected the call once answered. To my surprise, I found that when I hung up the phone, a real person from customer service called me back instantly and left me a voicemail notifying me that my call was disconnected and that I could call back to discuss my issues. The fact that I got called back right away after a disconnection is appreciated and likely will be appreciated by anyone who has ever had a phone call dropped during a support issue only to find that they have to call support back and start all over as if the call never happened in the first place.
Porting In/Out
Porting in was not tested as this was a new line of service with a new number.
Porting out required me to call Total Wireless to ask them to release my number. The call to the company was answered instantly by a real person, however, since it was a port out, I was transferred to another department which took 30 minutes to be answered at 8 PM in the evening on a week night. I had to call Total Wireless to ask them to release my number because I gave the wrong account number to my new provider.
If you end up needing to port out from Total Wireless or are porting out from any other carrier, I suggest you initiate your port out several days before your plan expires to avoid losing your number. Porting out to another carrier from Total Wireless requires you to give that carrier your phones IMEI number, which is what is used as your Total Wireless account number. Your account pin number for porting out by default is 0000 unless you set it to something different.
Ratings
(Updated 8/29/17 - the rating was updated to reflect the changes in download and upload speeds provided by the network)
Good bang for your buck
Good network coverage
Recommendation
My experience with Total Wireless was a good one, and based on that I would have no problem recommending the service or using the service for myself, although since I use a lot of data, the T-Mobile plan is still a better choice for me.
A majority of those who do choose to signup for service with Total Wireless should find the network and service suitable for their needs, unless of course they are one of the unlucky ones who have a need to contact customer support with a serious issue.
See also: | Total Wireless news and deals, New subscribers get 1.5 times more data!
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My husband had Total Wireless first. Then I got it. They refused to combine the 2 lines into one account for the discount because they claim it was for the reason we had new accounts. So for almost a year the auto pay worked fine. Then our phones stopped being topped up. Went into the accounts and the auto pay was shut off. When I called them they told me the bank had rejected the payment. NO!!!! There was no record of it at my bank that they even tried. I called them out on the lie. They made it sound like we had no money in the bank!!!! This has happened 4 months in a row. I continuously check to see if the auto pay is still on. It seems to shut off the day the payment is due. Every time they tell us the payment was rejected. Every time we tell them the auto pay was shut off. They just don’t seem to get it!!!! We WILL be dumping them ASAP I won’t be treated that way!!!!
I couldn’t get past activation. I paid for a group plan and 3 SIM cards. The cards arrived, and I couldn’t activate without a PIN. I couldn’t get a PIN without an account. I couldn’t log into an account without an activated phone. Live Chat? Useless. First person couldn’t help, so they gave me to technical help. They told me I didn’t have a plan. But I have an email with the order number, and my credit card was already charged for the plan. When I told them I was frustrated and thinking of sticking with my current carrier, they just said “Okay”. And that was that.
Did you try activating through the Total Wireless app instead? Did you try using 0000 as the pin? That seems to be the default pin.
In the Memphis TN area. Data service is really slow to non existent, and consistently that way. If data is important and you live in this area, you may want to try another carrier. As for customer service, I do not have trouble reaching them, but getting the issue resolved is a pain. The first tech is going to take you through a preset plan of action which involves resetting network settings, power down the phone for 1 minute, and reboot. So you need to call CS from an alternative phone. When that fails they “escalate” the problem and finally they will tell you that the engineering department will work on it and give it 72 hours. In one case (I have to call them constantly about data not working. I mean we are talking 0.1 Mbps speed tests.) they actually contacted Verizon and after 15-20 minutes had me reboot the phone again. Within a day or 2 I am right back to zero on data. Talk and text are fine. But if you need data as they say in the northeast “forget about it”. I am told that really none of the mvno’s that use verizon ever get LTE speeds. But hey, I can live with 3G. So far with my LG G7 phone, no data at all. Cannot even use the map app.
Beware! If you buy a phone from them, this “no-contract” service turns out to have a contract! I paid $170 for a smart phone from their website and after 7 months use I tried to unlock my phone to use it in a different service. Turns out their fine print locks you into their service for a year if you want to take your phone with you. THIS IS NOT “NO-CONTRACT!” FASLSE ADVERTISING! I do not recommend this company.
Total Wireless = Total frustration. Prepare yourself for letdowns and an extremely frustrating experience if you attempt to contact customer service (customer disservice!!)