Best Cell Phone Plans in North Bend, WA

Coverage is king, and North Bend, WA is covered well by all

Let's face it: Even at the best price, or with the best features, there's no reason to choose a wireless carrier that doesn't cover your home and place of work in North Bend, WA. Luckily, the city has become a hub of lightning-fast LTE coverage on all major carriers in the past several years. While AT&T and Verizon have long had dense, fast LTE networks in North Bend, WA, carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint traditionally lagged behind in terms of coverage, LTE technology, and overall speed. Not anymore.

Now, all four major carriers have the city and its entire suburban area covered with fast LTE technology. In fact, all four carriers score within just a few points of each other in RootMetrics tests of speed, call quality, text message delivery rates, and breadth of coverage, in North Bend, WA. This means that you now have more options, more features, and more price points available than ever before. There is no need to compromise on any one metric.

Getting started: what different kinds of cell phone plans exist?

While the American wireless industry is changing rapidly and becoming exceedingly competitive, the overall premise of wireless plans remains the same. In North Bend, WA, you'll be able to choose from a family plan, an individual postpaid line, or prepaid plans that present no long-term contract or device financing requirements. Here's the basics on each type of plan available:

Family Plans

Family plans are the most popular type of cell phone plan in the United States. Family plans enable multiple people in a family or small business to share a single account, dividing line and data fees across several different people in order to get a less expensive monthly cost of service for each person on the plan. Most carriers offer deep discounts on the price of a GB of data for multi-line accounts, making it cheaper for everyone. However, multi-line accounts are also hard to move between carriers due to different device payment plans and coverage concerns.

Individual Plans

Individual plans enable a single person to pick the amount of data they need each month for themselves. Though these plans are typically more expensive than family plans, individual plans are simpler to manage and are geared towards people who do not want to share expenses and device upgrades with friends or members of their family.

Prepaid Plans

Prepaid plans have become far more ubiquitous these days. The majority of prepaid plans offer more data at a lower cost than an individual plan at a major carrier, but still offer many of the most popular phones. In addition, prepaid family plans offer more inexpensive costs for multi-line accounts than some traditional family plans at the 'Big 4' carriers. These plans are usually ineligible for device financing, which means you'll likely have to pay full price to buy a new smartphone.

Choosing a Suitable Plan

There are several factors to think about while comparing service providers and specific plans. You need to consider the number of individuals or separate mobile devices in your home. It's also important to look at non-voice communication features, such as data access and texting. Internet downloads are measured in gigabytes. Many cell phone providers no longer apply separate limits to texts or voice minutes, especially if users sign multi-year contracts.

Prepaid plans let users buy specific numbers of minutes. For instance, a person might pay $20 to talk for eight hours. The phone stops working after this time runs out. Inexpensive contracts may limit subscribers to less than 500 texts and/or minutes. An unlimited plan is typically more affordable for anyone who repeatedly communicates on a cellphone throughout the day.

Data bandwidth has become an important consideration for North Bend, WA smartphone users. People use it to browse the mobile Web and use online apps. Cell phone companies usually demand considerable monthly fees for plans with high data caps. Substantial extra charges may apply if a person exceeds the limit. It's wise to choose a service that provides more than enough bandwidth. Few providers allow subscribers to download unlimited amounts of data.

Choosing a plan and features: what to keep in mind

So, you know the type of plan you need and you're impressed with the coverage at all four major carriers. Now what? The last step in choosing the best cell phone plan in North Bend, WA, is to actually find the right mix of price and features. Thanks to relatively uniform coverage across all four major carriers, this process is easier in North Bend, WA than it is in many other parts of the country. Here's what to know, based on popular types of plans:

Unlimited Data: Sprint and T-Mobile offer no-strings-attached unlimited data plans to all, which also include unlimited talking and texting. AT&T offers unlimited data to Internet or DIRECTV subscribers. Verizon doesn't offer unlimited data at all.

Unlimited Talk and Text: All four carriers have shifted to unlimited talk and text across all plans, except for one prepaid plan at T-Mobile.

Sharing Data: If you want to share data between family members, Sprint, Verizon and AT&T are the right fit. T-Mobile's limited data plans give each line its own data allotment.

International Coverage: Heading to overseas? Only T-Mobile offers free 'roam like home' talk, text, and LTE coverage in all of Mexico and Canada. Data at 2G speeds is also free on Sprint and T-Mobile around the world.