Any Recommendations For An Unlimited Data Cell Phone Plan?

Also, I have an unlimited plan for my wife and myself. I have Trucker Path running all day and watch plenty of YouTube, Netflix and other stuff.

My wife and I have been with Sprint since they bought out Cellular one years ago. Sprint did have its issues but since the merge with TMobile, I’ve seen improvements. The quality of phones has helped out quite a bit also.

I’m surprised US Cellular isn’t getting any traction in this thread. I had Verizon, but had trouble with it at my south central Wisconsin location. Advised by my neighbor that US Cellular worked better so I switched and have not had any problems with reception anywhere

The cell phone is so important to a driver and the company. Why don’t carriers provide their drivers with a phone? Or at least pay for the monthly charges? How would a driver function without a phone? Messaging on the ELD is no substitute.

I’m surprised US Cellular isn’t getting any traction

Don't be - there's good reasons for that:

1. US Cellular isn't a national carrier. In most of the country (32 states) you can't even sign up for their service.

2. Their coverage is sparse outside of the states where they sell service. If I head east from Washington (I-90) or Oregon (I-84/I-80) I won't see another US Cellular tower until I get to central Nebraska (I-80) or Wisconsin (I-90)! That's days of driving at the mercy of whatever roaming agreements they've cut with with other carriers along the way. Usually that means 2G or 3G data prioritized behind the hosting tower's own customers IF you can get service at all.

3. Their data plans are stingy, probably because they use the older CDMA protocols. CDMA can transmit less data with a given quantity of spectrum than GSM or LTE. Their largest data block you can buy is 15 GB after that your choices are all, "unlimited" and de-prioritized after using as little as 25 GB.

After the input from Pacific Pearl, is there any “best choice” to have nation wide service with?

I'm in the process of dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's to start training with Veriha. (I applied through Trucking Truth, and your CLP prep got me past that hurdle. So thanks to everyone for that.) I'm expecting to start the 29th.

At the moment I've got a pretty bare-bones cell phone plan and mostly do my internet through DSL at home. Obviously, when I start trucking that won't work as well. I watch a fair amount of Netflix and Amazon Prime, so I'd like something that will stand up to that level of use. I'm willing to spend some money on this as long as I get good value for it.

Any suggestions?

If you still have a cable subscription at your home I would go with that provider. For example, my cable provider is XFinity (Comcast). They advertise an unlimited plan for around $40. They use Verizon towers. I have no idea how well it works cross-country as I'm local.

After the input from Pacific Pearl, is there any “best choice” to have nation wide service with?

Verizon probably has the best service nationwide. It has the most consistent service without any significant drop-offs in various locations. That could potentially change once T-Mobile and Sprint networks are fully integrated.

I'm in the process of dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's to start training with Veriha. (I applied through Trucking Truth, and your CLP prep got me past that hurdle. So thanks to everyone for that.) I'm expecting to start the 29th.

At the moment I've got a pretty bare-bones cell phone plan and mostly do my internet through DSL at home. Obviously, when I start trucking that won't work as well. I watch a fair amount of Netflix and Amazon Prime, so I'd like something that will stand up to that level of use. I'm willing to spend some money on this as long as I get good value for it.

Any suggestions?

If you still have a cable subscription at your home I would go with that provider. For example, my cable provider is XFinity (Comcast). They advertise an unlimited plan for around $40. They use Verizon towers. I have no idea how well it works cross-country as I'm local.

If they use Verizon towers, that's currently the best coast-to-coast network. The only drawback on using a MVNO (carrier that purchases network access from a company that owns the infrastructure) is that sometimes the agreement the MVNO requires slower data speeds due to available bandwidth and other factors. Such options are certainly the most cost effective, but the cost savings requires sacrificing something. Straight Talk customers can attest to recent changes in the quality of service.

Kerry you’re absolutely right. I used Straight Talk (with Verizon towers) years ago and then switched to Verizon and there was no comparison. For the past year I’ve been using Xfinity Mobile because they use Verizon towers and I just switched back to Verizon again and seriously, there is a huge difference. I’d say my actual cell coverage isn’t much different, probably about the same or at least pretty close but my data is worlds better with Verizon. I can watch Netflix almost anywhere, even with one bar. I was really limited on good data coverage when I was with Xfinity Mobile.