Shopping for a wireless phone plan isn’t that fun these days. Prices are going up, options are limited, and the freebies we once enjoyed as a part of plans are starting to disappear. But let’s say you have a big budget because you need all of the data and travel access and texting to other countries and early upgrades, which wireless plan (and from which carrier) should you throw your money at?
The two newest options that tick all of those boxes are from T-Mobile and Verizon. T-Mobile’s new Go5G Next plan is its most expensive, while Verizon’s new Unlimited Ultimate will happily increase your bill. If choosing between the two, because you have a big boy wallet, there are certainly a bunch of features to consider that may move you one way or the other.
Let’s run a little comparison of these new super expensive plans, shall we?
T-Mobile Go5G Next vs. Verizon Unlimited Ultimate
The first thing we almost always look at for new wireless plans is pricing, and it’s weird for me to say this, but T-Mobile’s new plan is more expensive than Verizon’s. The days of T-Mobile being the semi-budget option appear to be behind us. That said, T-Mobile offers numerous freebies that would end up saving you more money in the long-run, assuming they keep those freebies around.
In the table below, you get a clear picture of which features make T-Mobile Go5G Next a better option than Verizon’s Unlimited Ultimate. However, there are some advantages to Verizon’s plan, namely that price if you aren’t interested in T-Mobile’s freebies and plan to use more than 100GB of data per month.
| T-Mobile Go5G Next | Verizon Unlimited Ultimate | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per single line (with autopay) | $100 | $90 |
| Price with 4 lines (with autopay) | $225 | $220 |
| Premium 5G data | Unlimited Potential throttling at >100GB data | Unlimited |
| Hotspot | 50GB | 60GB |
| Talk & text | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Perks | Free Netflix, Apple TV+ included | Perks available at $10 each |
| International data | 5GB high-speed per month | 10GB high-speed per month |
| International talk/text | Unlimited text (calls $0.25/min) | Unlimited talk/text |
| Canada/Mexico | Unlimited talk, text, and 15GB high-speed data | Unlimited talk, text, and 2GB high-speed data per day |
| Video streaming | Up to 4K | Up to 4K |
| Other discounts | -Free inflight texting/WiFi -Free year AAA membership | -50% off 2 watch, tablet, hotspot plans |
| Upgrade offers | Included | Included |
| Early upgrades | Included - every year | Not included |
Alright, so Verizon is $10/mo cheaper for a single line and $5/mo cheaper for 4 lines. But again, T-Mobile includes Netflix standard ($15.49 value) and Apple TV+ ($6.99 value) for free each month. They also give you a 1-year AAA membership for free, inflight texting/WiFi access, and upgrades to new devices each year.
Verizon, on the other hand, gives you more hotspot data (60GB vs. 50GB), what appears to be truly unlimited premium data, unlimited international calling when abroad, and discounts on additional devices, like smartwatches or tablets or hotspots. They do not offer early upgrades.
Both carriers suggest they give customers on these really expensive plans a special level of discounts, but we’ll have to see exactly what that means in a year or two.
I think in the end, I’d call both plans absurdly expensive. But look, these are marketed at people with high data usage and who travel. If that’s you, consider testing each for free before making the big decision to switch from one to the other.
Who cares about 5G. I turned mine off
Magenta Max, Go5G plus, and Go5G Next all have unlimited with no throttle. If you are gonna post an article then get the facts right. Also probably mention T-Mobile price includes taxes and fees. Verizons price does not. Really Details matter.
Big point left out of discussion here is network quality — and TMo sucks in general compared to VZW, particularly outside of big towns.
AT&T’s Unlimited Premium plan is cheaper than both. It’s surprising that T-Mobile is actually the most expensive. I wouldn’t get T-Mobile even if it was the cheapest. I definitely won’t get T-Mobile when it’s more expensive.
I hate that all of them charge you more if you don’t do auto-pay.
Anybody with less than four lines really should be on an MVNO like US Mobile or Visible. Both of these have $45 options that give you most of the features of $90 plans from Verizon and Tmobile.
Recently switched to Tmo after using Verizon for a decade. Was trying to save money but holy cow the difference in the network is astonishing. Tmo is absolute garbage for me. Having big regrets.
Been the opposite for me. I had been with Verizon for over 2 decades.
Verizon with a lower cost definitely wins, mostly because calls from over 200 countries are FREE. Tmobile charges a quarter a minute for every minute. That is a huge difference in price to the frequent traveler. Add on BS fees are there yeah, but at least they don’t have data breaches carelessly spilling all of your data, call records, social security number, credit card, date of birth, bank account (for those who are brave enough to give them that data). Nice to see Verizon actually trying again. From a moral perspective, don’t forget that Tmobile stated loudly that they would have more jobs “from day one and every day thereafter”. They are now down by 9000 and are getting ready to fire yet another 5000. Tmobile is no longer the great company they once were.
I’m not worrying about the job losses. That’s not factoring into my decision. As much as I’d like to go to VZW, over $200 for 5 lines is not going to happen.
I pay about $120 for 4 lines, and have a family member (5th) on my acct that she pays me her portion. I’ll deal with TMo’s bit, but about the data breaches, Even VZW own reporting shows they’ve had 5,199 breaches in their most recent report.
MArch they had 7M users affected.
In 2016 and 2017 there were also over 7M users info hacked in two instances.
I wish it all would be more secure.
Verizon has Data breaches to, so that statement is wrong right there.
T-Mobile doesn’t throttle the Next plan above 100gb. Magenta and Go5G are prioritized at 100gb but Max, Plus, and Next are truly unlimited.
Also, not mentioning that taxes and fees will be added to the Verizon pricing is disingenuous.
regardless, shit’s expensive whichever way you look at it
As someone that has had Tmo for 17 years, they’ve really been going downhill the last 2.
I agree.
Tmo includes taxes. vzw adds them on. negates that price savings if you don’t add any perks to VZW.