I’m not aware that any Verizon supported iPhone features do not work on my US Mobile iPhone. Visual Voicemail for example has always worked on US Mobile right out of the box regardless of choice of carrier (T-Mobile, Verizon).
It can be true. One MVNO I used, Ting, didn’t support visual voicemail on iPhones until just a few months before I had switched to them, and it never supported eSIMs until after I left. My current provider, Tello, which uses T-Mobile’s towers, didn’t initially support 5G connectivity, even though T-Mobile did.
I find that MVNOs generally do support the features I want.
Thanks everyone. I’ve narrowed it down to either Consumer Cellular’s 50+ plan for $35/mo or US Mobile’s Unlimited Premium for $33/mo. I’ll have to confirm that Visual Voicemail is included with both using the AT&T network. I also have to see if there will be any problems moving my number over (it’s been in the family since 1959: landline until Nov 2015 then my cell since).
This thread made me have a quick look at the funding and ownership histories of CC and USM. Both are privately owned but in different forms. CC is majority owned by a private equity firm. USM appears to have been backed mostly by a single venture capital fund.
For subscribers, then, I’d say CC and USM are probably more or less equal from a company stability standpoint. Neither company seems to have raised funds recently so both are likely to be generating enough revenue to not require infusions of capital (or they could be borrowing but it’s hard to find debt information for private companies). One difference that could come into play is that private equity often focuses on tearing things down to increase profits while venture capital usually looks to build businesses up quickly without worrying too much about profitability.
I have been using Consumer Cellular for 10 years. Everything works as expected, including hot spots and Visual Voicemail. The only Big 3 feature I don’t have is carrier robocall blocking.
There are no junk fees. One reason I left AT&T was they started charging a fee for having cell towers.
In fact, my rate has never changed in 10 years, except that CC has automatically increased what’s in the plan.
I actually think that CC is doing a disservice by targeting their marketing so much to seniors. It gives the impression that this is a dumbed down service like Jitterbug phones. It isn’t; the only requirement for using CC is the desire to get the same Big 3 service for a lot less money.
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Just want to add CC’s corporate strategy might be to limit itself to a type of customer it knows very well so that it can focus all its efforts to providing that segment with exactly what it wants without the distractions—and expense—of trying to be many things to many people. For example, streaming media add-ons and annual subsidies for new phones probably can be deemphasized or not offered at all in favor of US-based, live agent-only call centers. Or the ability to tailor webpage content and customer service scripts to AARP members, not Gen Z influencers.
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Re. the practical impact of CC’s corporate strategy to focus on people over 50, that is becoming more appealing to me now that I am in my late 50s. I still need to keep many things on the cutting edge for professional reasons, but I find a simpler approach to my personal tech feels better.
I seriously can imagine a day in retirement when I will be satisfied running a long-term-support (LTS) version of Linux on my laptop, no Microsoft Office, and a Jitterbug flip phone. There was a time when anything other than the Apple ecosystem would have been an unthinkable final destination, but Apple’s pursuit of fashion over function (as someone else described it in this forum) is no longer worth the trouble to me.
The issue of ownership by private equity versus venture capital could be important, but I don’t think it’s a deal breaker either way. If long-term contracts are not involved, and it remains easy to move an existing phone number from one carrier to another, the risk of choosing either Consumer Cellular or US Mobile seems pretty small to me.
FWIW, Consumer Cellular has been under the same ownership since 2020, without many customer-facing changes. However, there has been some behind-the-scenes financial engineering underway to provide greater returns to the investors, and there are rumors that the private equity firm is considering a sale. On the other hand, US Mobile’s venture capital ownership suggests a greater focus on short-term growth (change?) and liquidity.
In line with my comment about risk, if I were choosing between the two, I’d focus on where I could get the best plan for my anticipated use, and let the chips fall where they may. Of course, others may disagree and eventually be proven correct.
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Jitterbug is NOT “dumbed down”, rather it is a simple phone for those that don’t need all the extraneous apps and so-called “features” that aren’t absolutely necessary. My late wife (who had a masters degree in education) did not need or want a cell phone but I insisted she have one in her car. Originally we both had the simplest analog phone available but even those had a lot of unneeded complexity. When the Jitterbug phone came out, I got one for her and programmed the very basic phone numbers (home, my cell number, etc) she needed. It stayed in the glove box of her car except when being recharged or if she traveled some place without me, it was in her purse.
I have had an iPhone since Day One (29 Jun 07), but I still don’t need a vast majority of its features and only regularly use a small portion of the 150+ apps I’ve installed in the last 19 years. Unfortunately, Apple keeps trying to make their iPhone even MORE complex every year which is why I have an iPhone 12 (if the battery hadn’t swollen, I’d still be using my iPhone 10).
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They also don’t know about the competition. 
I obviously realize this is beside the point you are making (and it’s a point well taken), but considering recent discussions right here, I just wanted to point out that you can get US Mobile’s 70-GB 5G plan with unlimited minutes/texts for $25/month (that’s not introductory, that’s the real monthly pay-as-you go price) and that includes all taxes and fees and you can set it up to use the same Verizon 5G network you’re using right now (in fact, that’s how I have mine set up).
$70 or even $51 per month for 5 GB is IMHO outrageous — as I see it, that means you’re paying for other people’s perks.
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Here’s a link for that plan: Simplicity Plan: Unlimited data plan for one price per line | Verizon. It does say (in somewhat small print) that the $30 a month amount is with AutoPay, $15 a month Switch Discount, and “Plus Taxes and Fees”. So that is a pristine example of what I am talking about. Instead of relying on AI, find out the information the “old fashioned” way. I am definitely not a robot!
I read through that plan for more info. I already do Autopay and paperless discount. I wanted a clear explanation and a customer service name/date before I committed.
Good. I suspect you did not rely on AI for that information. Well done!
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My wife and I are on a “family plan”, sponsored through our nephew, with AT&T. We pay between $70 and $80 a month for the 2 lines. Not too bad, and so far, AT&T’s network is reliable. A couple we know has Consumer Cellular, and they like it. However, Consumer Cellular “piggy backs” on AT&T and T-Mobile networks. For us, T-Mobile’s network is terrible where we live, so Consumer Cellular would be out for us.
As @jk2gs mentioned earlier in this thread, Consumer Cellular is phasing out its use of T-Mobile networks. All new customers are placed on AT&T network.
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If you’re 50 or over and an AARP member, you can get the 2 lines for $55.00 plan which has “unlimited” data which in reality is 50GB high speed data and/or hotspot data which is speed reduced after you go over that limit. With taxes and fees, this comes out to around $68-69.00 a month. I had ATT for years and there was no difference after switching to Consumer Cellular a few years ago except a large savings. I only switched one line recently to Mint to get the home internet discount through them since I went with their Minternet plan which is a home internet wireless plan.
I do find that in my location, ATT and T-Mobile are about the same as to signal quality but in some stores and other places, I find I get a much better signal with T-Mobile so it all depends on location.
EDIT: I should add that Mint is owned by T-Mobile but is much cheaper.
I think this is a good moment to point out that US Mobile actually offers service on all three US networks: Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T (they refer to these as Warp, Light Speed, and Dark Star, respectively).
But not only do you get to choose which network you would like to use with your US Mobile plan, you can also change at any time should you want to try out something else or actually permanently switch. They refer to this as “Network Transfer”. Depending on plan, such a switch is either for entirely free or you get 2 switches for free after which it’s $2 per switch. In my experience (involving eSIM), such network switches are quick and work very well. No unpleasant surprises.
In fact, US Mobile also offers what they call “Multi-Network add-on” where you add a 2nd network to the line you already have (for an extra $7.50 or $10 per month depending on plan). This then exploits dual eSIM capability of your iPhone such that you use your 2nd network for data when your primary does not show good data throughput. It’s meant for people who spend time in locations where the network of their primary plan does not offer good data while one of the other two networks is strong in that location. From an end user POV, this is very similar to what people experience when they sign up for a data eSIM abroad. Your iPhone displays a 2nd line below your primary and this line is exploited automatically whenever data throughput through the 1st is either poor or goes away entirely.
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Thanks to this thread and a “4th of July” promotional offer, I went ahead and switched my phone from Verizon to US Mobile.
It was a painless process, and I was surprised at how quickly it went. When I’ve ported numbers in the past, it typically required a couple of days for everything to get sorted, but once I remembered to remove my Verizon porting lock (an extra security step beyond the normal PIN requirement), it took perhaps five minutes for the port to complete. From the time I set up an account to the time the line was ported to US Mobile couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes.
All things being equal, I would have chosen Consumer Cellular out of prior satisfaction, but I spend a fair amount of time in an area where Verizon coverage is better than AT&T coverage, so I went with US Mobile’s Verizon network.
For the line I moved, I went from around $100/month to $25/month (tax and fees included) for the first year with the promotional rate, renewing next July at $32.50/month. The plan was broadly comparable to my Verizon plan, which I had for thirty years.
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Re: porting lock
Does US Mobile have a way to provide porting lock or some other method to lock the account?. We have that feature on AT&T and I think it is a valuable security feature.
To answer my own question, I searched Google for US Mobile security and found this page which satisfies my requirements:
https://www.usmobile.com/blog/making-the-most-secure-cell-phone-carrier-even-more-secure/
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I’ll just add that these days in addition to 2FA, you can also opt to use Passkeys to protect your account and lines on US Mobile. I use their passkey implementation myself (used to rely on 2FA) and it’s as smooth as you’d expect. Good stuff. 
