Spectrum Mobile quietly updated its phone plan lineup today with a new offering. There's a new "unlimited" plan now available called "Unlimited Plus" and it's billed at a rate of $55/line. The plan includes unlimited talk, text, and data with the first 30GB of data each month available at up to 5G data speeds before any sort of data throttling kicks in.
Spectrum Mobile's New $55 "Unlimited Plus" Plan Explained And Compared
With the plan update, Spectrum Mobile now offers two "unlimited" plans. Let's first examine their original $45 unlimited plan so we can better understand how the new plan stacks up and what the $10/month upgrade cost gets subscribers over the original plan.
Spectrum Mobile's $45 Base Unlimited Plan
Spectrum Mobile's base unlimited plan costs $45/line. Subscribers on the plan get unlimited talk, text, and data with the first 20GB of data each month available at up to 5G data speeds. After the 20GB high-speed data limit is reached, data traffic may be prioritized below that of other customers on the network during times of network congestion. Data speeds will also be reduced for the remainder of the billing cycle to a maximum of 1Mbps download and 512Kbps upload. The plan also comes with unlimited mobile hotspot, however, only the first 5GB of hotspot data each month is available at high-speeds. After the threshold is reached, hotspot data speeds get reduced to a maximum of 600Kbps for the remainder of the billing cycle. Video streaming on the plan is limited to DVD-Quality or a maximum resolution of about 480p.
Spectrum Mobile's $55 Unlimited Plus Plan
The $55 Unlimited Plus plan has everything available in the $45 base plan with the following features upgraded.
- 30GB of prioritized high-speed data instead of 20GB
- HD-Quality video streaming at a resolution of up to 1080p instead of 480p
Both unlimited plans also include WiFi calling, 2,000 minutes of free calling to Mexico and Canada, and free international texting from the USA. Taxes and fees are included in the prices shown. A one-time activation fee of $10 per line is applied.
In order to signup for a Spectrum Mobile phone plan, customers must also be subscribed to a residential or business Spectrum internet plan. Customers that signup for Spectrum Mobile and later discontinue their internet plan will be charged an additional $20/month for their phone plan and they will not be allowed to add additional lines.
Spectrum Mobile primarily operates by using Verizon's towers, and so a Verizon compatible phone is required for service. Customers can bring their own compatible phone to the network or they can buy one from Spectrum.
Editor's Take
Spectrum Mobile does offer customers pretty good value with their "unlimited plans." However, some customers may find better value elsewhere. US Mobile which also uses Verizon's network offers an unlimited plan with 50GB of high-speed data for $40 month, although data speeds are limited to 5Mbps. Customers can upgrade to unthrottled data speeds for an additional $10/month. Taxes and fees cost extra. Verizon's own prepaid brands Visible and Yahoo! Mobile both offer unlimited high-speed data plans with mobile hotspot for $40/month with taxes and fees included in the price.