Following Cricket, U.S. Cellular's prepaid plans offer more data for the same prices

By Williams Pelegrin Published January 31, 2017

Smartphone-Future-0001 how to reduce your data usage — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Regional carrier U.S. Cellular might not be as well known as AT&T or Verizon, but its position as the fifth-largest U.S. carrier did not happen overnight. In order to keep pace with its competitors, however, the regional carrier has announced improvements for its prepaid plans.

Thanks to the improvements, Simple Connect Prepaid’s $45 monthly option now includes 3GB of 4G LTE data, up from 2GB. The $60 monthly option also received an increase to 6GB from 5GB previously. U.S. Cellular even added a third $75 monthly plan that includes 12GB of high-speed data.

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The regional carrier also upgraded its Ready Connect Prepaid plans, which are only available through retailers like Walmart and Dollar General. For a limited time, the $45, $55, and $75 plans include 4GB, 8GB, and 12GB of high-speed data, respectively. If you want to save some cash with Ready Connect Prepaid, you can enroll for auto-pay and knock $5 off the $45 and $55 monthly plans, or $10 off the $75 plan.

Finally, all prepaid plans that start at $35 a month now include unlimited talk and text. Keep in mind that speeds are knocked down to 2G once your high-speed bucket for any given billing period dries up.

U.S. Cellular’s improved prepaid plans are now available.

“February and March are popular months for prepaid wireless purchases, so our updated plans provide an even better experience to our current customers as well as any consumers looking for a better prepaid deal,” said U.S. Cellular’s vice president of brand management, Grant Leech, in the announcement.

U.S. Cellular’s announcement comes after Cricket Wireless, AT&T’s prepaid subsidiary, announced prepaid plan upgrades of its own. Cricket’s prepaid plans might be more preferred, since Cricket is more widely available, in contrast to U.S. Cellular’s regional restrictions. However, Cricket’s 4G LTE data is capped at 8Mbps, possibly in an effort to nudge customers toward AT&T.

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Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

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