Which cell phone carrier is best for you, Tello or AT&T? You’ll have to make that decision, but we can help you figure it out. Read on for all the details about AT&T vs. Tello’s plans, pricing, coverage, and more. While Tello’s low-priced unlimited plan is a great deal, it is not really unlimited. In fact, it only gives you 25 GB of high-speed data. Meanwhile, AT&T’s unlimited data plans offer a lot more, but come with a steeper price tag. Let’s dive into the details, beginning with Tello. It’s also worth noting that this plan doesn’t come with any special perks, like free subscriptions or extra mobile hotspot data. So, for those who want super-fast data speeds and higher-performance overall, AT&T is probably the way to go.
Value Plus: This affordable plan has a few clear drawbacks. For one, your data can be slowed down (or deprioritized) at any time by AT&T. So expect slower data speeds when the network is busy. You’ll get no mobile hotspot data. Also, you cannot add additional lines to this plan to get a family plan discount. Unlimited Starter: With this plan your data speeds can also be deprioritized at any time, but you do get mobile hotspot data (at 3G speeds) and you can add additional lines. Unlimited Extra: The Unlimited Extra plan gives you a full 50 GB of 4G or 5G data before you’ll see any slowdowns. You can use up to 50 GB of mobile hotspot data and you’ll get 6 Months of Stadia Pro Pass for free. Unlimited Premium: This plan comes with truly unlimited high-speed data. That means no throttling, slowdowns, or data caps. Plus you’ll get 50 GB of hotspot data and 6 Months of Stadia Pro Pass for free.
That was a lot to go over. The TL;DR version is this: AT&T’s plans cost more than Tello’s, but they offer way more high speed and data and extra perks. In short, AT&T’s plan structure just makes less sense for those who don’t want unlimited data. Sadly, Tello doesn’t really do family plans. Sure, you can add extra lines to your account, but you won’t see any extra perks or cost savings. Meanwhile, AT&T customers will see awesome rewards to going with a multi-line plan. For example, AT&T’s Unlimited Extra plan costs $75 a month for a single line, which is getting up there in terms of price. But, if you get four lines of Unlimited Extra, it’s just $160 a month, or $40 per line. That’s a whopping $35 that you save every month, per line! Tello is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means that it actually doesn’t operate its own mobile network. Instead, it leases bandwidth from T-Mobile. While T-Mobile doesn’t have the best 4G coverage in the country, it does have more 5G infrastructure than any other network. You can see how strong T-Mobile’s coverage is in your area using this interactive map. Of the major three carriers, AT&T actually has the highest ranking in the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s most recent Wireless Phone Service and Cell Phone Study1. In our own experience with AT&T, we’ve had a relatively easy time reaching a real, living human being on the phone who helped us solve our problem. Tello is a much smaller company than AT&T, which means it has fewer resources to devote to customer service. That said, Tello gets a 4.5/5-star rating from Trust Pilot2 and most customers online have small complaints about billing or outages that are relatively easy to solve.
Unlimited plans: AT&T wins. AT&T’s plans cost a lot more than Tello’s, but they offer way more high-speed, unthrottled data. So if you game, scroll, Zoom, browse, post, or stream on your phone a lot, AT&T is probably better for you. Limited data plans: Tello wins. Tello has a bunch of cheap and simple limited data plans to fit anyone’s budget and use-needs. Meanwhile, AT&T’s limited-data plans are few and a little overpriced. Family plans: AT&T wins. You can get a steep discount on your AT&T unlimited plan when you bundle up with other members of your family. Sadly, Tello doesn’t offer any family plan discounts at all. Coverage: Tie. Tello’s T-Mobile-run network has great 5G infrastructure for super fast data speeds, but AT&T’s network has better nationwide coverage in many more rural areas. Customer service: AT&T wins. AT&T’s customer service is surprisingly good. Tello doesn’t have any major problems with customer service, but it’s a smaller company with fewer resources to devote to picking up the phone and solving issues.
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