Best Cell Phone Carriers in Dulles, VA

What Carrier Has The Best Cell Coverage in Dulles, VA?

The quality of the coverage in Dulles, VA is one of the most important factors when deciding on a new cell phone plan. You obviously want to go with the carrier that offers the best coverage, so you'll need to do a bit of research to find the strongest provider. It does no good to have a cheap plan if the coverage makes it seem as if you have no plan at all. Fortunately, most major cities are covered well by all the prominent carriers, and even a vast amount of the nation's rural areas are covered extensively. Check the coverage maps provided by each carrier to see where your area falls within their network. It might not be a bad idea to search for first-person accounts of coverage quality and other reviews for each provider.

Types of Cell Plans in Dulles, VA

The citizens of Dulles, VA, and everywhere else, look for similar things in a cell phone provider. You will want the maximum amount of minutes, adequate amount of text messages, and a data plan designed for your information gathering needs. Our services display this information for you all at once, letting you compare the rates of different providers, giving you everything you need to custom tailor a plan that will save you the most money. When choosing a plan, you need to consider data limits, available minutes, and the text message rates or quotas.

Most people depend heavily in Dulles, VA on their cell phone throughout the day, so it's important to get the right coverage plan. If you frequently text, are constantly on the phone, or like to look up information without a wireless connection, you should take these factors into account when choosing a provider.

You should also look into the kind of plan you want. The basic types of plans are individual plans, family plans, and non-contract plans. An individual plan is ideal for people who are just looking to pay for their own phone bill. These commit a single individual to an individually-tailored plan that includes specific rates for talk, text, and data. If you are unmarried or not a parent, this plan is probably the best bet for you.

On the other hand, if you have a family in Dulles, VA, you can often save money by grouping your costs together into a single package. While the monthly payments are often higher, the shared costs leads to reduced payments. This lets you have a cell phone plan that fits each member of your family. Such plans are usually the best deal if you are looking to pay for two or more people's phone bills. This lets you share minutes, texts, and data usage, and should be planned in order to fit everyone in the family's needs. If you have kids, you should take into account that they are more likely to text and use data on their phones, meaning that if you don't set the data and text limits high enough, they could quickly run up your bill before you realize it. For this reason, it's a good idea to have a large blanket of coverage, preventing you or your family from accidentally going over, as these data charges are typically far from cheap. Make sure that you anticipate your possible usage, or you could be committed to a non-optimal data plan for the foreseeable future.

Prepaid plans, by contrast, let you pay on either a month-to-month basis or to put a certain amount of minutes on your phone to use until you refill them. Such plans are similar to the previous prepaid phone cards, but have drastically improved since the early 2000's. Sometimes, these can include additional fees. Also, with a prepaid plan, you might need to pay for the price of the phone, which can be an expensive option without the cell phone company subsidizing your purchase with a contract.

Contract plans typically make you commit to two years, although some only run for a single year. Payments are usually made on a monthly basis, and you will not be able to break you contracted without an expensive fine, usually in proportion to the remaining time left on the contract. Breaking a cell phone contract can often be expensive, which is why you should always try to make sure that you get the best plan available in Dulles, VA.

Best Wireless Plans in Dulles, VA

How do you know what plan will work best for you in Dulles, VA? First of all, ask yourself how many people will need to be on your plan. Is it just you, or are you looking to get a family plan? Next, you should calculate exactly what kinds of services you will need. The three basic things to consider when forging your plan are your minutes, your text messages, and your data usage.

Cheaper plans let you limit your minutes and text messages. Usually, you will have about 400 minutes to talk and 400 text messages to send every month. However, if you're always on the phone or constantly texting your friends, it's often best to get an unlimited plan, that way you will never run over your talk, text, or data limits. Data plans in Dulles, VA usually are sold per gigabyte, and you should be aware that in many cases, if you go over your data limit, you will be hit by significant overcharges. Make sure that you choose a data plan that will sufficiently cover your communication needs, otherwise you might run into this problem.

Compare the Best Cell Carriers in Dulles, VA

The major carriers that have coverage in Dulles, VA are AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Spring. There are also smaller carriers, which are called MVNOs, which operate on at least one of the major carriers’ networks.

AT&T has a variety of different wireless plan options. Through AT&T, consumers can get individual plans, family plans, contract plans and prepaid plans. One of AT&T’s plans is unlimited.

Verizon Wireless has prepaid, individual and family plans. The consumer first chooses a shared data plan, a prepaid plan or an unlimited plan. With a shared data plan, either a single individual or an entire family can use the plan, which will include a preset amount of data with unlimited minutes and text messages.

Spring has a couple different plan options available to people in Dulles, VA, including an unlimited plan that is an excellent bargain. One way that Sprint stands out is that their plans are very affordable.

T-Mobile also stands out, although it does so by only offering no-contract plans. The consumer gets unlimited minutes and texts with any T-Mobile plan, and then chooses a data cap. After reaching the data cap, he’ll have throttled data for the rest of the billing period. Consumers can get individual and family plans with T-Mobile.

MVNOs offer competitive plans in Dulles, VA in their own right, and consumers can compare those plans with the plans available through major carriers using the PhoneDog cell phone plan comparison tool, which is available above.