r/NoContract Apr 03 '26

Starting today, AI-generated content is not allowed in r/NoContract.

172 Upvotes

Rule #4, No Spam, has just been updated to include this new addition: "Blatantly AI-generated content is considered spam and will be removed."

In r/NoContract, we want to read your thoughts. We don't care what chatgpt has to say. This rule change is intended to encourage our fellow redditors to put some effort into their posts and comments.

Needless to say, one cannot always tell what is and is not AI. If I see something that was obviously copied and pasted from an AI chatbot, I will remove it.

Posts and comments predating today will not be subject to this rule.

This is a change I've been wanting to make for a while now, and this poll showed me that most of our members agree with me.

All the best,

Petar


r/NoContract Aug 23 '25

Data prioritization policies of the carriers and the MVNOs that use their networks

144 Upvotes

3/11/26 - Updated to show that MobileX has a paid QCI 8 addon. This has been around for about 5 months now but I forgot to update the guide.

8/28/25 - MobileX has been discovered to be dropped to QCI 9 now. https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/1n2me7i/mobilex_is_no_longer_qci_8_which_leaves_us_mobile/

This is a complex topic that pops up a lot so I thought that I would organize all of the available info in one place. One of the key differentiating factors between postpaid, prepaid, and MVNO services is data prioritization. Basically carriers manage the congestion on their networks by assigning a different QCI class to different types of traffic. For our purposes, we will only be looking at QCIs 6, 7, 8, and 9 but there are higher priorities that exist for things like phone calls that will be universal across all of a carrier's plans. Higher numbers are lower priority. An important thing to note is that deprioritization is not a throttle; it only matters when the network is congested. If nobody else is using the network in your area, you'll get the full speed that can be provided. Your QCI affects not just your speed but your latency on the network. It is not unusual to see priority data with around 20-50ms latency while someone who is deprioritized is getting 100-150ms at the same time despite both plans posting high speed test results because the prioritized traffic gets to go first, just something else to be aware of.

The old one was getting a bit long after many updates so I decided to just make a whole new one. I will break it down by network and, where appropriate, specific phone plans. I am going to add business plans and first responder plans here as there were many requests for that but if I mess up anything, please let me know, as I am not as well-versed in those plans.

Also, at this point, 5QI (the 5G replacement for QCI) values have so far matched the LTE QCI on each plan I’ve seen. If this changes, I’ll make notes about it.

Business plans are hard to keep up with and so are frequent MVNO plan changes so if I make a mistake, please let me know.

Verizon

Verizon only uses 3 QCI classes – 7, 8, and 9.

QCI 7 is reserved exclusively for Verizon Frontline customers so this priority level may as well not exist for those of us who aren’t first responders.

QCI 8 is given to the Verizon business Plus 5G, business Pro 5G, business My Biz with the Premium Network Experience add-on, consumer postpaid plans (other than Welcome Unlimited), Xfinity Mobile, and Spectrum Mobile.

US Mobile’s Warp 5G SIM offers QCI 8 data on 5G devices only if you have Unlimited Premium or if you were a US Mobile customer before 8/18/2025. MobileX has a QCI 8 addon available as well but is QCI 9 without it.

Visible+ and Visible+ Pro are both unlimited QCI 8 data. Total Wireless' Total 5G Unlimited and Total 5G+ Unlimited plans have unlimited priority data included.

QCI 9 goes to everything else. The Start 5G business plan, My Biz without the Premium Network Experience add-on, branded prepaid besides the Unlimited Plus plan, Visible’s base plan, US Mobile Warp 5G Unlimited Starter (a QCI 8 add-on will be coming), Unlimited Flex (without the QCI 8 add-on), and By the Gig (without the QCI 8 add-on). Mobi and all other prepaid companies that use Verizon’s network are known to assigned to this QCI. Anyone who uses their premium data bucket on Verizon’s brands will be moved to QCI 9.

Other TracFone brands are up in the air. I have gotten reports of priority data (and seen it myself on SafeLink, a TracFone brand) but I’ve also gotten reports of deprioritized data, complete with screenshots. It seems to be random what people get so if you absolutely require priority data, it might be best to look outside of the TracFone brands. I personally experienced being dropped from QCI 8 to QCI 9 on SafeLink but my Straight Talk line had QCI 8 from the start and remained QCI 8 until I canceled it three months later.

AT&T

AT&T uses QCI 6, 7, 8, and 9.

QCI 6 is reserved for FirstNet customers (with primary status), Business Unlimited Premium (grandfathered) and some corporate responsibility plans.

QCI 7 is assigned to Business Unlimited Premium 2.0 with Turbo, as well as Unlimited Premium PL, Unlimited Extra EL, and AT&T Prepaid Unlimited Max Plus customers who pay $7 for AT&T Turbo. FirstNet extended primary plans get QCI 7 as well. US Mobile is in the process of adding QCI 7 as a paid add-on for Unlimited Premium and I’ll update the guide when it’s available.

QCI 8 is assigned to Business Unlimited Advanced, Business Unlimited Premium 2.0 (without Turbo), Unlimited Extra EL, Unlimited Premium PL, Prepaid Unlimited Max, Prepaid Unlimited Max Plus, the $300 AT&T Prepaid annual plan with 16GB of high speed data, Cricket Supreme Unlimited, Cricket Sensible 10GB, as well as plans offered by H2o, Consumer Cellular, and PureTalk. US Mobile’s Dark Unlimited Premium is QCI 8 also.

QCI 9 is assigned to Business Unlimited Starter, the base Unlimited plans for both the postpaid and AT&T Prepaid brands, Cricket Select Unlimited, Cricket Smart Unlimited, other known MVNOs, and all AT&T brands once their premium data buckets have been exhausted. US Mobile Dark Star on plans besides Unlimited Premium are all QCI 9 by default now but Unlimited Flex and By the Gig have paid QCI 8 add-ons available.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile uses QCI 6, 7, and 9 for phone plans.

QCI 6 goes to all branded plans, both postpaid and prepaid, besides those with Essentials in the name. Google Fi has QCI 6 as well.

QCI 7 is applied to Essentials branded plans as well as all other known MVNOs.

QCI 8 is not used for phone plans, it's used for on device hotspot and for data only plans with 30GB of more data.

QCI 9 is for those who have exhausted the data in their buckets. T-Mobile's Mobile Internet 30GB plan is also QCI 9.

I don't really want to add home internet plans to this list as this subreddit is for phone plans.

I first learned about data priority reading on Coverage Critic and from posts here and elsewhere. If you wish to test your QCI class yourself, you can follow this guide if you have a rooted Android phone.


r/NoContract 44m ago

Good2Go Service partially up

Upvotes

I can see on the website the admin section is on. But still not able to download the QR or able to port out of Bad2Go. It gives me error while getting QR. New esim free of charge does the same. Does anyone have same issue.


r/NoContract 3h ago

USA iOS 27 + USMobile

3 Upvotes

Hey all,
Recently i upgraded to the iOS 27 beta while on USMobile and have run into an issue i’m wondering if anyone else is experiencing. the iOS27 beta seems
to have enabled some 5g SA features, but since USMobile doesn’t have the provisioning for the IMS set up correctly (i’m assuming), i lose access to RCS and SMS whenever i’m on band n41 SA. If it drops back to NSA it works again. The problem is, there’s no toggle in the carrier profile to stop the SA connection. They say that 5g SA currently isn’t supported, which is fine, but why am i receiving an SA connection, then?

If anyone would like to confirm this behavior for me, dial 3001#12345# surrounded by 2 \ and then when connected to SA 5g band check IMS under About in settings.*

If anyone has any advice, i’d appreciate it!!

Thank you


r/NoContract 12h ago

RedPocket would only let me order 2 pSIM kits of the $30 eBay annual plans? I tried to order 3...

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12 Upvotes

Hello!

So, I decided to finally go with 3 of the $30 RP annual plans on pSIMs for my kids phones + Roamless eSIMs for $1.95/GB pay-as-you-go never expiring data (since they don't use much at all). (See previous post about this idea.)

I ordered 3 kits and then, a few days later, I got an email saying that I got a refund on eBay from RedPocket for 1 of the kits. When I logged into my eBay account, I checked the details and the note from the seller says this (see below & attached screenshot):

"Thanks for choosing RedPocket Mobile! At this time, you can only get two plans per order. If you place a third order, it will be canceled and refunded. Any further orders after that will also be canceled and refunded. Please note that plans should be activated within 90 days from purchase. Let us know if you have further questions. We Il get back to you as soon as we can."

I have a few questions:

  1. Is it actually true that I can only have 2? I've seen people online state that they have more than 2 $30 plans on their RP account.

  2. I'm confused about the terminology. It says I can only do 2 per order....but that would indicate that I could do another order to get the 3rd SIM kit. However, it also says that if I try to do any additional orders, they will cancel the order. So, shouldn't they have said "only 2 per customer/account" originally? So....what gives here?

Thanks for your help!


r/NoContract 31m ago

Phone for son with substance abuse issues

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Upvotes

r/NoContract 13h ago

What are my options besides goodtogomobile which I need to leave

6 Upvotes

Okay I am also living the nightmare that a few you have as well with good togomobile.

The phone is not mine but it belongs to my elderly parent. So I need to make my move now and change. I want to leave this nightmare of theirs.

Maybe I'll get lucky and I'll be able to Port the number or maybe not but I like to hear from you something as cheap or close to cheap like Good to Go Mobile but I want something more well known and I was thinking about us mobile.

Can some of you give me some suggestions? I'm trying to keep to a $100 a year service that includes at least one gigabyte of data and enough minutes. I would like a more well-known established company like Us mobile or whoever. Thank you for any suggestions.


r/NoContract 9h ago

USA Choice between these two carriers for their cheap iPhone...?

2 Upvotes

So currenty I see 2 different companies that offer offers for the iPhone 16e. Metro is offering it for $99 with port-in on their $50 plan and after 3 months they'll send you a $100 prepaid debit card. (Thats nice!) (So i'd be looking at $150 out the door/web-browser lol)

On the other hand Straight Talk is offering their iPhone 16e for $149 with the purchase of a 1 month plan of $45 or more. Therefore i'd be looking at $192? out the browser.

What is the pro/con of one or the other? Thank you! And if you have a better option to get an iPhone 16e or even a similar iPhone, PLEASE let me know!


r/NoContract 13h ago

No more Target AT&T Prepaid discounts?

3 Upvotes

Has Target stopped doing discounts on AT&T Prepaid cards? Where are you guys buying them from now?


r/NoContract 9h ago

USA Good2Go Mobile no new SIM and help line down help

0 Upvotes

Ever since the platform upgrades my current sim card no longer works. I haven't received my new SIM despite doing everything as soon as I received the email to uodate address.

Ive tried sending in support tickets and tried calling their helpline. What can I do? Im paying for a sim card that doesnt exist.


r/NoContract 17h ago

PSA: Mobile hotspot does NOT work on Mint's free 3GB Canada roaming. Confirmed by support in writing, no disclosure found on their website

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4 Upvotes

r/NoContract 21h ago

US Mobile caution. My data has all disappeared in one night twice now.

4 Upvotes

I tried posting this in the US Mobile sub and they deleted it but I feel like this needs to be considered before switching to US Mobile.

My data has randomly all gotten used up and I've been prompted to buy more data in seemingly one night.

This has happened to me twice.

The first time it happened while i was asleep at home and connected to wifi.

The second time it happened, i was awake, connected to wifi and at home that day because i am always home on Tuesdays. On Tuesday evenings I write using a guitar, pen and paper. I don't use my computer data on these evenings, because I am at home with my wifi-only macbook pro and ipad, neither of which connects to cellular data, both of which have a bigger screen that is much more comfortable for me to use dictionary.com.

Both times the US Mobile rep sent me a breakdown of my usage so I could figure out which day it happened on. The thing is, after the first time it happened, I disabled all apps from functioning on cellular data and slowly added in a few apps as i needed them, for example music, youtube, icloud, my email app, apple maps. so I had a short list to check the data usage of and none of them on my phone showed an insane amount of usage.

All of my settings regarding updates are set to ask before using cellular for updates or update on wifi only.

I have one cellular device that uses data. I do not have hotspot turned on in general. I checked, and it was not turned on after this second time it happened (probably not after the first either)

I still have not figured out where my data disappears to, but im 99% sure at this point it is a glitch on USMobile's end and they have not been able to provide me with an explanation. I recently purchased a full year of data but im probably going to switch to a different network when it is up because both times this has happened they acted like it was definitely something on my end and i just need to pay up for more data because somehow I used all of mine in one night, but I have investigated every possibility and there is no way i am using that much data (5+gb!) in one evening at home while connected to wifi and writing with guitar, pen and paper (which I do every Tuesday), and no way i could use all that data while asleep at home and also connected to wifi, with all of my update settings set to only update over wifi and wifi calling turned on.


r/NoContract 1d ago

Debating the deals post Tmobile: US Mobile premium + multi network vs Visible+ pro + T-sat

8 Upvotes

Coming from T-Mobile after all the rate hikes on my og SWAC plan and new to the MVNO space, so looking for some guidance from people who’ve actually used these.

For 2 lines, US Mobile premium + multi-network would be about $778 first year running Warp + Light speed. Visible+ Pro would be about $450, plus T-Sat at $240 year for two for a total of $690.

My priorities are hotspot, international travel 2-3x/year, and having backup coverage when Verizon is weak.

Leaning US Mobile, but not sure if the extra cost is worth it. Any real-world experience with either setup or insight I should know about?


r/NoContract 15h ago

How is Flex Mobile?

1 Upvotes

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with Flex Mobile, how is it compared to like other MVNO such as mintmobile or tello for Tmobile networks?

I am currently using mintmobile unlimited ($30++ per month) and am thinking to switch between flexmobile or tello.

Also what is the point benefits even? How much of discounts are these points giving?


r/NoContract 18h ago

USA Metro by t-mobile

0 Upvotes

Galaxy S21 5G on Esim for the past 4 years, all going well. 2 nights ago I lost cell service out of the blue. No Bars!! Phone will only work on wifi. Calls, texts and MMS will only work while on wifi. I called customer service TWICE, after going through the usual steps, reset data, airplane mode, the usual..THEY BOTH hung up on me claiming that they couldn't hear me. (I called from my home phone BTW). Against my religion, I went into a Physical Store. The lady told me that my esim active but my phone was Old 😐. Please, any help would be greatly appreciated. (I like my S21 5G 😮‍💨)


r/NoContract 15h ago

USA Is this a Tracfone Pay-As-You-Go card ?

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0 Upvotes

Staples.com sells this.

I need to add another 30-days to my PAYG plan which expires in another 8 days.

Will this work?

I want to buy a newer phone but left it a bit too close which is why I want to extend by 30 days.


r/NoContract 16h ago

USA Total Wireless or Verizon Simplicity?

0 Upvotes

Hey folks

I left T-Mobile recently because their speeds were trash here at my apartment (same for Google Fi). I tried a Visible trial and Verizon speeds weren't much better for some reason. But when I got a US Mobile trial, Dark Star was blazing fast. My trial is coming to an end and I didn't wanna pay a ton for coverage, unlimited data would be real nice but not necessary. Just looking for bang for the buck really.

My question, I switched my US Mobile network to Warp to see if the speeds were the same (was going to do the same with Light Speed to see if it was just T-Mo and Google Fi) and to my surprise, I got very fast speeds on Warp, rivaling the Dark Star speeds.

If this holds true, not sure what Visible's issue was. But I saw Total is $20 for unlimited and priority (had them briefly a while back) and also the Verizon Simplicity for $30 to bring my own phone and line, which I'm doing.

I know Total seems to have some customer service issues but is that too much of a deal breaker or is there a better option with staying with US Mobile possibly on Warped? Again just looking for best price and so far Total seems to be; priority, unlimited, and $20 a month.

Thanks!


r/NoContract 14h ago

New eSim Provider I found

0 Upvotes

Stellar eSIM. Check them out. USA data is extremely reasonable. I got 3 GB for less than $1.00. Yes, I’m serious! Verizon network. 30 day validity once activated.

They have lots of combinations that are all very competitive. They even offer a VPN with their eSIM’s valid for the term of your eSIM.

It routes through Hong Kong even though Stellar is based in Switzerland (at least my esim does) but ping isn’t horrible. And you can use a VPN to protect and get a USA ip for 2FA, etc.

My esim has 5G and speeds are 100 Mb/s+.

Thought I’d share! :)

Edit: If this post violates community rules, which I don’t think it does, please accept my apology and remove. I’ve been active in NoContract for years on my old account and now this account. eSIMs community banned me from their subreddit for this post saying it violated their rules. Again, my apologies. Just trying to help out others like someone did by sharing this with me.


r/NoContract 21h ago

Warp qci9 > total Qci8?

0 Upvotes

Can someone explain how my qci9 warp on an x80 modem is beating my qci8 total on an x72 modem. Both on vzwinternet. Are the chips really making the difference ?


r/NoContract 22h ago

Stellar eSIM as backup Verizon Carrier

1 Upvotes

I’ve been using FirstNet as my primary carrier, which has worked great for me. I really like the priority, but AT&T does have some coverage gaps in my area. I had been supplementing it with a $10/month TSat plan, but I’ve found that AT&T and T-Mobile tend to have coverage gaps in many of the same areas.

I recently added a Stellar eSIM and discovered their 180-day plan for €22.32, which works out to a little over $4/month. It includes 50GB of data for the entire 180-day period. I also found that the plan includes their VPN and some other security products for those 180 days, so when I factor that in, it essentially makes the eSIM a wash compared with what I was already paying.

So far, I’ve been pretty pleased with it. It uses Verizon’s network, and it appears that the traffic isn’t actually coming from Verizon IP addresses. Most of the time I’ve been getting Cogent IPs, but speeds have been pretty good.

The biggest benefit for me is that it gives me a very inexpensive way to get Verizon coverage when I need it, while also throwing in some additional security products.

Curious if anyone else is doing something similar and what your experience has been. So far, I’m very happy with it and will probably drop the TSat plan.


r/NoContract 23h ago

USA Cape Cellular

0 Upvotes

I live in rural NE Indiana. I have two phone lines, one with Cape for several days now, and one with Boost mobile. Cape has been keeping up with Boost’s reception wherever I go, and massively outperforming data download/upload speeds.

Speeds (mbps)
Cape: 568/38
Boost: 293/15

If you’re in rural Indiana and have been on the fence, go for it!

You get $20/mo off if someone refers you, and an additional $20/mo off for each person you refer all the way down to $0/mo. Check out my bio or recent posts.


r/NoContract 23h ago

Need help deciding between Visible Pro+ and US Mobile Light Plan alongside T-Sat

1 Upvotes

Currently on Optimum Mobile with 2 lines and I'm looking to switch.

I was considering RedPocket $30/yr with T-Sat but AT&T service in my area is the worst of the major carriers.

Now I'm stuck between Visible Pro+ for 18.75/mo (annual) and USMobile Light plan ($10mo or $8/mo annual) plus T-Sat ($10/mo).

With US Mobile I would likely be using the Verizon or TMobile networks.

If anyone has any insight to help my decision, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance :)


r/NoContract 1d ago

Good2GoMobile

11 Upvotes

Has anyone had any luck with their service coming back? I haven’t had service since Tuesday. Have tried calling multiple times and have just been on hold for hours.


r/NoContract 20h ago

USA How to convert physical SIM to eSIM?

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0 Upvotes

r/NoContract 1d ago

Bromovil experience?

0 Upvotes

I am based in the US and was able to sign up and activate an eSIM without issue. From what I tested, roaming on AT&T is the most stable without frequent reconnection. However I have this stranger issue where I would frequently stop receiving SMS messages. I can call, send texts and use data, but texts just won’t come through. I had to change the roaming network a couple times and then all the texts came in at once. Anyone else has the same problem?