Black Wireless, FreedomPop, Mango Mobile, and Unreal Mobile are all cellular MVNO service providers owned by Red Pocket Mobile.

Red Pocket Mobile is, itself, an MVNO that has been around since 2006.

Until late June of 2019 UNREAL Mobile and FreedomPop were 'sister' companies, but not under Red Pocket's umbrella. While UNREAL and FreedomPop continue to act as their own virtual storefronts, they are now owned by RedPocket.

Mango Mobile and Black Wireless act as 'direct subsidiaries' of RedPocket - and you will note Red Pocket branding on their virtual storefronts.

Red Pocket Mobile
Black Wireless
FreedomPop
Mango Mobile
UNREAL Mobile
Thoughts & Analysis (Member Only Section)

Red Pocket Mobile

Red Pocket Mobile is an MVNO which offers plans on the Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T networks.

They offer plans that can be used on any device that runs on a SIM card. Red Pocket has stated that they will not attempt to block or prohibit the use of any mobile devices.

Red Pocket offers both voice/text/data plans and data only plans.

Red Pocket's plans and plan terms tend to be confusing - but we'll try and explain them here.

Red Pocket's plan labeling correlates with the underlying network being used on the plan:

GSMT = T-Mobile
GSMA = AT&T
CDMA = Verizon
CDMAS = Sprint

They also offer International Data Plans for either $9/ first GB, then $8/GB for 30days or $15/ first GB then $14/GB for 30days - dependent on country of travel.

T-Mobile Merger Notes

Last Update: August 10th, 2020

Sprint is now part of T-Mobile, as per the merger that closed on April 1, 2020.

New Sprint customers are directed to T-Mobile to sign up for their plans, however, some of Sprint's legacy plans are still available in-store or over the phone.

Customers on existing direct Sprint plans will be able to retain those plans for the next three years without price increases or changes to features.

The two networks still operate mostly independently with their own towers and frequency bands. Some Sprint customers can have their Sprint phones coded to make the T-Mobile network the primary network for their phones instead of Sprint. Sprint customers with recent 5G phones such as the Galaxy S10 automatically use T-Mobile as the primary network since the combined company is shutting down Sprint's 5G service.

At present time - aside from Boost being sold to Dish Network - there are no changes to 3rd party, reseller, non-profit or MVNO plans sold on the Sprint network. However, we are continuing to monitor the situation and will update as appropriate.

Plan Information

Currently Available Plans

Smartphone Plans

Unlimited Data (with high speed data caps) - $60/month (Available on Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint)
20GB - $40/month (Available on all 4 carriers)
8GB - $30/month (Available on Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint)
3GB, 1GB, and 500MB plans available as well
Annual plans are available on eBay

Data Only Plans (Available on AT&T only)

20GB - $40/month
5GB - $25/month
Global Data Plans - 1GB - $9/month (50 countries) or 1GB - $15/month (150 countries); additional data can be purchased

Red Pocket Unlimited Plans

Red Pocket began offering 'Unlimited' plans in early January 2020 on all four carriers. As of March 2020, they are no longer offering an unlimited plan on T-Mobile.

While their fine print in terms of high-speed data for Verizon based unlimited plans is pretty obvious (10GB) - their AT&T and Sprint based unlimited plans are 'seemingly' unlimited.

However, it has been impossible for us to get clarifying info on what network management and throttling - practices Red Pocket is deploying on these specific plans.

Troubling wording in their TOS states:

"Users on our Unlimited Plan may notice reduced data speeds when data usage exceeds an average of 1GB of usage per day during the current billing month for an extended period of time."

When we reached out to both Customer Service reps - and later, directly to their media contacts - we got conflicting answers or straight-up non-answers. At one point, we were informed that there is a hard throttle on Red Pocket 'Unlimited' plans on the AT&T or Sprint network at 1GB per day. Another rep informed us that the throttle is at 30GB/month. Another insisted that there wasn't a throttle - but to read the TOS.

We recommend caution if thinking about using Red Pocket as a main source of cellular data as these plans are presumed to really be 30GB/mo plans.

Refer-A-Friend Program

In April 2020, Red Pocket introduced a Refer-A-Friend program. Current subscribers who refer a friend will receive an account credit up to $25 (depending on which plan they are on). The referred friend/new subscriber will receive an account credit as well. The referral program is only available on monthly plans, not on multi-month or annual plans. Current subscribers can find their unique referral code in their online account dashboard.

Plan Specifications:

Carrier Networks Used: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint
Carrier Relationship: MVNO
Plan Types Available: Phone, Data Only
Device Types Permitted: Any
Unlimited: Technically - yes, but with high-speed data caps.
High Speed Mobile Hotspot Use:
- CDMA (Verizon) SIM Cards: Available on iOS Devices only.
- GSMT (T-Mobile) SIM Cards, GSMA (AT&T) SIM Cards and CDMAS (Sprint) SIM Cards: Available on both Android and iOS Devices.
Throttling: Data is throttled to 2G speeds after plan's data bucket is used.
Network Management: yes - Red Pocket reserves the right to manage use at any time.
Video Streaming Resolution: Not specified
5G Access: No
Device Purchase Required: No. Red Pocket sells several models of iPhone, or you can bring your own device.
Plan Period: Monthly, annual
International Roaming: None - 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands only. They do offer separate plans with separate pricing for International travelers.
Domestic Roaming: No
Data Roll Over: No
Overage Charges: None
Lines permitted per account: 5
Extras: None

Black Wireless

Currently, Black Wireless does not offer any plans that we consider of interest to those seeking mobile internet options. They currently offer multi-month plans with up to 5GB of data on the AT&T network.

History

In early February of 2020, it was noted that Black Wireless was offering a multi-month plan on the T-Mobile network.

These plans offered 50GB of on-device high speed data, and an additional 20GB of mobile hotspot data on top of that.

However, the plan was only available for a few weeks. As of 2/26/2020, Black Wireless' Multi-Month plan was no longer available on their site.

Mango Mobile

Mango Mobile currently offers plans with very small high-speed data buckets on the

History

In early February of 2020, it was noted that Mango Mobile was offering a multi-month plan on the T-Mobile network.

This plan offered 50GB of on-device high speed data, and an additional 20GB of mobile hotspot data on top of that.

However, the plan was only available for a few weeks. As of 2/26/2020, Mango Mobile's multi-month plan was no longer available on their site - he multi-month plan had disappeared from their site completely, leaving the the largest data bucket available on any plan at only 2GB.

Multi-Month Plan Details

This plan is no longer available.

While available, this multi-month plan was could be purchased in increments of 3-months, 6-months, 9-months, or 12-months and was offered with a promotional price of $25/month (normally $40/month). An additional discount on their 6-month plan, brought the monthly cost to only $16.67/month ($100 total). Data on this plan was partitioned - 50GB was available for on-device data, and 20B was available at hotspot data.The multi-month plan also came with unlimited talk/text, and international calling to 50 countries.

FreedomPop

We have been tracking FreedomPop and its various plan iterations, since at least 2014.

As such, we have a Gear Center Guide dedicated to FreedomPop and their plans.

FreedomPop was purchased by RedPocket in 2019, along with their sister company, UNREAL Mobile.

More info on FreedomPop:

FreedomPop Gear Center Guide

UNREAL Mobile

UNREAL Mobile is an AT&T based MVNO which first began service in June 2018. They were purchased by RedPocket in 2019.

Plan Information

UNREAL offers smartphone-based plans with hotspot data, and permits use of their SIMs in hotspot devices also.

UNREAL tends to advertise 'unlimited data', but that advertisement really means unlimited 2G speed data. You still need to select a capped amount of LTE speed data and add that cost to the base $10 'unlimited 2G data' price.

Currently Available Plans

Currently, UNREAL does not offer month-to-month plans. All plans are 3, 6, or 12 month commitments.

3-Month Plans
- 12GB - $45/month
- 8GB - $35/month
6-Month Plans
- 12GB - $35/month
- 8GB - $25/month
12-Month Plans
- 12GB - $25/month
- 8GB - $20/month

Be careful when selecting a plan - there is often a 'promo' pricing period, after which costs go up to 'regular' pricing.

History

Prior to acquisition by RedPocket, UNREAL offered a choice of refurbished Sprint based hotspots for use with plans offered on the Sprint network. When UNREAL was acquired by RedPocket, Sprint customers were migrated to Ting - and offered a promo pricing scheme on Ting.

Plan Specifications:

Carrier Networks Used: AT&T
Carrier Relationship: MVNO
Plan Types Available: Phone
Device Types Permitted: Can use SIM in any device
Unlimited: No
High Speed Mobile Hotspot Use: Yes - for iOS devices only
Throttling: Data is throttled to 2G (~80kbps) speeds after plan's data bucket is used.
Network Management: None
Video Streaming Resolution: No streaming services are provided.
5G Access: No
Device Purchase Required: No, but can purchase a device
Plan Period: 3, 6 or 12 month plans available
International Roaming: None - 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands only
Domestic Roaming: None
Data Roll Over: Roll-over of 500mb is included in plans over 5GB. Roll-over data feature for 1GB roll-over can be added for $$.
Overage Charges: There are no overage charges for these plans. Once you use your data speeds are slowed to 2G until the next billing period.
Lines permitted per account: 1
Extras:
- Ad blocking on Android phones
- Free VPN service (PC, MAC, and Android only)
- A companion app that allows VOIP voice calls on other devices (like tablets)

Potential Alternatives to Consider:

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