Tello vs. Verizon

Tello offers a huge variety of cheaper, limited- data plans, whereas Verizon focuses on three major unlimited plans that start at $65 a month for one line. Check out the price comparison below.

As you can see, there's a huge difference between Tello and Verizon prices. The smallest gap is between Verizon’s 15GB prepaid plan and Tello’s unlimited plan—but that’s still a $10-per-month difference. No matter your Verizon plan, you’ll end up paying more than you would for any Tello data plan. Full stop.

If price were the only consideration, then Tello has Verizon beat, but it gets a little more complicated when you factor in premium 5G data, excellent coverage, and built-in perks. The only real perk Tello offers is free international calling.

Since Verizon no longer offers built-in perks with its unlimited plans, the only real difference between Verizon unlimited plans is the amount of hotspot data you get.

One of the few perks Tello offers is free international calling to landlines in over 60 countries, including Canada and Mexico. Verizon offers free unlimited texting to over 200 countries worldwide, which certainly doesn’t hurt, but you’ll incur annoying fees for every minute you spend on the phone with loved ones abroad. If you’ve got to call people around the globe, Tello offers a better deal than Verizon.

Verizon used to give out free subscriptions to streaming and music services with unlimited plans, but now you have to pay an extra $10 a month for the perk package you want. Granted, that’s less than paying for each subscription on its own. (For example, the Disney bundle normally costs $18.99 a month.) Here’s the full list of the paid perks that Verizon offers:

• 100GB mobile hotspot
• Smartwatch & Data Safety
• 3 TravelPass Days
• 2TB cloud storage
• Disney Bundle (Disney+, Hulu, & ESPN+)
• Netflix & Max (With Ads)
• Walmart+ membership
• AppleOne
• Apple Music Family
• +play monthly credit

It’s nice that you can add these perks with any Verizon unlimited plan. You used to have to pay for the most expensive plan access to these perks, but now you can opt for the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan and still get the perk deals.

Big carriers have a big advantage over smaller carriers when it comes to family plans. For example, if you can get a family plan with four or more lines bundled together, you can get the Verizon Unlimited Welcome plan down to $30 a month per line. With the family plan discount, you can get a Verizon unlimited plan for even cheaper than a Tello unlimited plan. Here’s what the pricing looks like for every Verizon unlimited plan for family plans with four lines:

If you can get a couple of people to go in with you on a Verizon family plan, you definitely end up getting a better deal than anything Tello can offer.

A prepaid carrier like Tello doesn’t own its own wireless network. Instead, Tello pays T-Mobile to rent network space on their network. Verizon, on the other hand, owns its own network, and that network offers the most overall coverage in the country. (Though Verizon also rents its towers to other prepaid providers, like Spectrum Mobile or Visible).

To put it simply, you’re essentially choosing between Verizon and T-Mobile’s networks. We recommend doing two things: putting your zip code in the coverage map below and asking some neighbors what wireless network they use and how their experience has been.

Based on our research and testing, T-Mobile’s 5G network provides faster speeds (54.1Mbps on average) than Verizon’s 5G network (30.2Mbps on average). Data spends depend on your distance from a 5G tower while using a 5G network, so your experience still depends on your location.

But there’s one major difference between a small carrier like Tello and a major carrier like Verizon, and that is data throttling.

Every budget-friendly prepaid carrier, like Tello, is subject to occasional slowdowns. Whenever the wireless network gets congested, a network will give priority data to its own customers over the folks who used smaller carriers. In this case, Tello customers can have their data speeds slow down randomly, whereas Verizon customers won’t need to worry about it.

Data throttling shouldn’t happen too often for Tello customers, but when it does, it will feel super annoying. The example I always use when explaining data throttling is the Uber-after-a-crowded-concert scenario. If you have tons of people trying to use the Uber app at the same time after leaving a crowded concert, a Tello customer will likely have a harder time getting the app to work than a Verizon customer.

Another perk of going with a major carrier like Verizon over a smaller carrier like Tello is the regular deals you can get on new smartphones. No doubt you’ve seen the Verizon commercials about trading in your phone for a new iPhone 15. As annoying as those commercials can be, the deal is pretty amazing. I just traded in my old, beat-up iPhone 13 and got an iPhone 15 Pro for free.

Tello does sell phones on its website, but it’s mostly older (and sometimes used) devices, and it’s surprisingly expensive. If you’re the type of person who likes to have the latest and greatest devices, Verizon makes a whole lot more sense for you over Tello.

Tello and Verizon offer pretty different experiences for customers. Verizon has Tello beat in just about every category, except for one crucial difference: price. Tello’s plans cost much less than what Verizon offers.

• Data plans: Tello has a wide variety of data plans to choose from, all of which cost much less than anything Verizon offers. Tello’s unlimited plan only costs $25 a month, whereas Verizon’s cheapest unlimited plan costs $65 a month.
• Family plans: Verizon offers awesome family plan discounts, and Tello does not. If you can get at least four people to go in on a Verizon family plan with you, you’ll each get a better deal than Tello’s $25 unlimited plan.
• Coverage: Tello uses T-Mobile’s network, while Verizon owns its own network. The quality of your wireless coverage depends on where you live, but Verizon’s network has better coverage overall.
• Performance: Tello can get faster data on T-Mobile’s 5G network, but will need to watch out for sudden data throttling if the network gets congested with too many users trying to access the internet at the same time.
• New devices: Verizon regularly offers deals on the latest smartphones. Tello doesn’t specialize in selling new devices, it’s really all about porting your old phone over with Tello.

This review focuses on five major categories to compare Verizon with Tello:

• Plans
• Family plan deals
• Coverage
• Performance
• New device support

We used the most up-to-date plan details from both providers, researched coverage maps, factored in customer input, and conducted firsthand testing. We also leveraged our speed test database, which includes results from over 100,000 users, to assess performance from each carrier.