Do Mobile Carriers Actually Offer Totally Unlimited Data Plans?

1. De-Prioritization & Network Management
2. Carrier Restrictions on Unlimited Plans
3. Summary

Cell phone carriers have adapted to the world of 'unlimited plans' and away from the old days of limited buckets of data. This has been a big win for consumers in that there are no longer any surprise overage fees at the end of the month. 

Yet, with so many unlimited plans on the market, are any of the plans totally unlimited? 

To qualify as truly unlimited plan, a cell phone plan needs to meet all three criteria.

1. Allow the subscriber to get the maximum possible speed at all times - equal to everyone else on the network. No restrictions on the pipe of data. 
2. Allow the subscriber to use their phone and unlimited plan in a way that they want, including an unlimited mobile hotspot if the subscriber is travelling and wants to use their phone plan for mobile hotspot internet access on their laptop. 
3. Allow the user to get the best video streaming experience on their device at all times, rather than a restricted experience. 

Even though every carrier offers unlimited plans, there is no carrier which lets you get an absolutely unlimited plan which meets all three criteria. 

Each carrier uses a concept called 'network management' to vary the experience that customers enjoy based on a range of criteria, with price being the most important of these criteria.

Each of the three major carriers offers unlimited plans differ in price by around $20/mo from the entry level plan to the premium plan -- these plans differ by the amount of 'network management' they have built in. 

De-Prioritization & Network Management

Networks are designed function smoothly based on their every day demands. However, if every single subscriber tried to access the mobile network at once (like if there was a emergency), the demand would over-whelm the network. You may have experience similar at a concert or sports event. Therefore, network management lets the carrier decide who gets through, and who has to wait.

This is simply about giving some users priority over others. 

An example of this can be demonstrated by a data tiering practice that was adopted by Sprint around ten years ago.

Sprint offered multiple cell phone plans, ranked here according to their monthly cost, from most expensive to cheapest. 

• Sprint Business plans
• Sprint Consumer plans (post-paid contract of 24 months)
• Sprint pre-paid plans (no-contract)
• Boost Mobile pre-paid plans (no contract)
• Virgin Mobile pre-paid plans (no contract)

The prices at the time ranged from $90/mo on the business plan, to $25/mo on the pre-paid plans. 

If all of these users went to a football game at a stadium and all tried to use the network at the same time and it became congested, Sprint's logic was that it should prioritize access based on who was paying the most. Simple. 

Fast forward to today, and network management is now about making sure that the customers who use a lot of data don't dominate the networks at the expense of people who have not had their fair share yet.

Network management used to live behind the scenes of the carrier's plans. Now it is front and center. Network management IS the defining feature between each unlimited plan. 

Carrier Restrictions on Unlimited Plans

At the time of writing the carrier restrictions on unlimited plans were as follows (carriers change their plans and prices regularly and the information in this table may be change). 

What to Know

Two subscribers with the same carrier might have totally difference experiences when standing next to each other based on the 'unlimited plan' that they are on with the carrier. Others might not even notice. Here's the key points with the unlimited plans:

  Unlimited Plans have no overage charges - they do not have overage charges

 Limited premium data - each carrier limits the amount of 'priority data' the user gets

 Mobile hotspot speed - each carrier limits the amount of mobile hotspot access available at full speed. A totally unlimited hotspot could replace a home internet connection. 

All three major carriers do offer a totally unlimited plan for use on the device on their top tier  (most expensive) plans.

No carriers offer a totally unlimited mobile hotspot. It is when users try to use their unlimited plan with a hotspot that restrictions will kick in. Carriers do this to prevent users from using their phone as a modem in their house to provide unlimited WiFi to TVs and other data heavy applications.

For genuine mobile hotspot usage, like Zoom calls on the road, the restrictions can be a real problem. A one hour video Zoom call can use up to 1GB of data. 

T-Mobile

T-Mobile's unlimited plans follow the standard construct for the tiering of unlimited plans by limiting the amount of 'premium' or priority data. None of the T-Mobile cell phone plans offer unlimited mobile hotspot usage at the maximum 'premium' speed. 

Verizon

Verizon's unlimited plans follow the standard construct for the tiering of unlimited plans by limiting the amount of 'premium' or priority data. None of the Verizon cell phone plans offer unlimited mobile hotspot usage at the maximum 'premium' speed. 

AT&T

AT&T's unlimited plans follow the standard construct for the tiering of unlimited plans by limiting the amount of 'premium' or priority data. None of the AT&T cell phone plans offer unlimited mobile hotspot usage at the maximum 'premium' speed. 

Summary

At the time of writing, all three major carriers provided plans which met two of the three criteria for a totally unlimited cell phone plan, with all of them failing to offer an unlimited mobile hot spot.

It is clear that network management is important to carriers and that they want consumers to understand this also, hence the use of network management terms like 'priority data' and 'premium data' to differentiate the plans based on price. Although the mobile hotspot access gets better as you move up in price on each unlimited plan, this feature is always capped in some way and never becomes totally unlimited at full speed on any carrier.