Thinking out loud here:

When my VZW lock-in ends, I'll need three active lines: my phone, my wife's phone, and a tablet. (My wife figures she wants a tablet for really using when she's out and about, and doesn't expect to use the phone as much.)

My employer has a 15% discount negotiated with T-Mobile and AT&T, 20% at Verizon, for its employees. This may or may not apply to the prepaid plans.

T-Mobile's recent family plan has three tiers for each device: 500MB, 2.5GB, and "unlimited". Let's say we want two devices on 2.5GB (my phone, her tablet) and one at 500MB (her phone). Total price: $110/month ($93.50 after discount). In T-Mobile's new world pricing, they don't subsidize the phone any more. Instead, you can spread the cost over a two year period. I'd buy the phones on the side, unlocked, making it easier to move around. The rules on tethering are complicated, and it's unclear if they enforce them on the server side. If you bring your own gear, you can apparently tether at will.

Factoid: when I'm traveling on business and staying in a hotel that charges for WiFi, I just tether to my phone and go on with life. I've found that my regular usage in this mode is roughly 2GB/week. This suggests that I don't need any more than the 2.5GB plan since I'm rarely on the road for more than a week a month, and I'm otherwise surrounded by good WiFi (home, office, etc.).

T-Mobile prepaid offers a bunch of tweaks to this. The tablet could run on a $25/mo "mobile Internet" plan with 1.5GB/mo, but the proper answer seems to be the exciting $30/mo plan that gives you 5GB. Three of those would cost $90/mo, and might not be eligible for my discount. Furthermore, I'd have the whole conditional call forwarding issue. Given the close price difference to the post-paid plan, that seems like the winner.

AT&T is complicated. On the prepaid side, they offer a 3GB data plan for $30/mo, suitable for the tablet. and a $60/mo. smartphone plan with 2GB of data. Grand total: $150/mo. for 7GB of total data use ($127.50 after discount, if I can even get it). On a 4GB shared data plan (post-paid), the grand total comes out to $160/mo ($136/mo after discount).

Verizon is where I am now, and I'm one of the few, the proud, the grandfathered unlimited 4G, but I've only got it on my phone. To add my wife's phone, I'd have to get a new family plan, and then I lose my awesome plan. Furthermore, the whole CDMA lock-in thing is kinda annoying versus the freedom of the GSM universe. A new shared plan with 4GB of data, two phones, and one tablet? The very same $160/mo as AT&T ($128/mo after a better discount). Verizon's prepaid plans: $60/mo for 2GB on a smartphone. $30/mo for 2GB on a tablet. Again, exactly the same at AT&T. Yee haw.

AIO Wireless, which uses AT&T, charges $55/mo. for 2GB of data on a smartphone. So it's $5/mo cheaper than AT&T. The tablet price is $15/mo for nearly no data and another $10/mo for 1GB more. Rough bottom line: $135/mo, and no discount. Not interesting.

Straight Talk Wireless, the Walmart plan, is $45/mo for "unlimited" everything (save a few bucks if you prepay for the whole year). Multiply by 3 and we're talking $135/mo. No discount. Also, they don't seem to do very well on the conditional call forwarding issue, either.

Net10 Wireless wants $125/mo for three devices, "unlimited" everything. No discount.


I didn't expect I'd reach the conclusion that I want to get a T-Mobile "post-paid" traditional contract, but that looks like the best way to go, given how I expect we'll use our devices.