4G is cropping up everywhere.  Even NetZero started offering mobile broadband via 4G a couple of weeks ago.  Without going into service quality, how do the different providers fare in terms of bottom line pricing?  Get ready for a bird’s eye view on pricing with the most popular 4G providers.  We’ll be looking at both the cost of equipment (no contract) as well as service.  Read past the jump to find out everything you ever wanted to know about 4G pricing…

Let’s look at no contract equipment prices first.  All equipment must be new and currently sold by the provider.

From here we see the pricing differences between the value providers and the major telecoms.  What about pricing for service?

*NetZero offers a FREE plan.  However it will last only for one year and cannot be renewed.  To make matters more interesting, if you ever upgrade your service, you cannot revert back to the free plan.  Looking over the NetZero agreement, there are some really nasty provisions in its section 2.0 regarding mandatory surveys.  This for me is a deal killer.

I took the liberty to talk with customer service reps for both NetZero and Clear.  What I learned was of prime importance. Clear actually owns its own 4G data network in which it supplies service to both Sprint as well as NetZero.  Looking at the information gathered, why should we even deal with a middle man whether it be Sprint or NetZero as they both offer 4G service through Clear.  According to 9to5Mac Sprint actually owns 54% of clear but it seems that Sprint’s 4G offerings are rather pricey in comparison.

My conclusion after research is that Clear from a pricing standpoint offers the best value.  I haven’t had the opportunity outside of my former employer Micro Center to see service quality (for Clear).  At the Dallas Micro Center location, I did notice a range of speed between 3Mbps – 6Mbps 2 years ago.  With that being said, if you are using a 4G service, where are you using it at?  How’s the service?

”4G” Post Photo Taken from GizmoLord.com

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