About MoneySavingPro — founded to expose what the Big Three don't advertise

The Problem We're Solving

The average American pays $70–$100 per month for a single phone line. The same coverage — same towers, same signal, same network — is available from low-cost carriers for $20–$35 a month.

That's not a secret. It's not a loophole. It's just how the market works: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon sell access to their networks at retail prices, and dozens of independent carriers — called MVNOs — buy wholesale access to those same networks and pass the savings to consumers. Same towers. Different bill.

The Big Three know this exists. They don't advertise it. That's where we come in.

The Rest of the World Already Figured This Out

Rob Webber, MoneySavingPro's founder, spent 15 years in the UK running price comparison sites before moving to the US in 2011. In the UK, buying your SIM card separately from your handset — and choosing an independent carrier on the same network — has been mainstream for well over a decade. MVNO market share in the UK now exceeds 50%. The same transition happened across most of Europe, Australia, and much of Asia.

The US is not behind because the option doesn't exist. There are more than 50 low-cost carriers operating on T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T's networks right now. The US is behind because nobody has been telling consumers the option is there.

That's the information gap MSP was built to close.

When Rob moved to the US and found the same carriers, the same towers, and a market where the average consumer had never heard of the alternative — he built the tool he wished had existed when he arrived. A transparent, independent comparison engine that doesn't rank plans by commission size, doesn't take money from carriers to improve their ratings, and doesn't exist to sell you the most expensive option on the list.

What the Data Shows

The customer satisfaction gap between the Big Three and low-cost carriers isn't a matter of opinion.

Trustpilot consumer ratings (thousands of verified reviews):

• T-Mobile: 1.4 out of 5 — 86% of reviewers gave one star
• AT&T: 1.x out of 5 — "most reviewers let down overall"
• Verizon Wireless: 1.2 out of 5 — billing failures and customer service most cited

Independent low-cost carriers on the same networks:

• Twigby (Verizon/T-Mobile network): 4.9 out of 5
• Tello (T-Mobile network): 4.5 out of 5
• PureTalk (AT&T network): 4.3 out of 5

J.D. Power 2026 US Wireless Carrier Satisfaction Study — 59,097 customers surveyed:

• Consumer Cellular (MVNO): 721/1,000 — ranked #1 overall
• Mint Mobile (MVNO, prepaid): 715/1,000 — ranked #1 prepaid
• T-Mobile (Big Three, best in class): 631/1,000 — 90 points lower than the top MVNO

You can pay more for a worse experience. Or you can cut your bill by up to $600 a year and get better customer service. Most people have simply never been shown the comparison side by side.

Why We Built the Tools We Built

The carriers built their entire business model around the information gap. Confusing plan structures. Hidden fees. Bills designed to obscure what you're actually paying. T-Mobile settled a $90 million FTC complaint in 2014 for adding unauthorized charges to customer bills. AT&T paid $60 million to settle FTC allegations that it throttled "unlimited" plans without disclosure.

These aren't anomalies. They're the playbook.

Every tool MSP has built is a direct response to a specific tactic:

• Phone Plans Comparison — because comparing plans across 50+ carriers on the carrier's own website is impossible by design
• ZIP Code Coverage Checker — because MVNOs are contractually prevented from telling you which network they run on, so consumers couldn't verify coverage before switching
• Phone Bill Savings Calculator — because the savings are real but nobody shows you the math
• AI Phone Bill Analyzer (launching soon) — because bills are engineered to be unreadable

We didn't build these tools to be useful. We built them because the alternative — trusting carrier marketing materials — leaves consumers $600 a year worse off.

How We Make Our Recommendations

MSP earns affiliate commission when readers switch to carriers through our links. We disclose this on every page. What we don't do is let commission rates influence rankings.

Our carrier recommendations are based on:

• Price relative to comparable Big Three plans
• Network quality data from Ookla Speedtest H1 2026 and RootMetrics 1H 2026
• Customer satisfaction scores from Trustpilot and J.D. Power
• Contract terms: no hidden fees, no price-lock deceptions, no ETFs
• Our own team's research and testing

The carrier that pays the highest commission doesn't appear at the top of our lists. The carrier that offers the best value does. If that model worked for every comparison site, you wouldn't need MSP.

The Team

• Rob Webber — Founder & Editor. 15+ years in phone plan comparison across the UK and US. Forbes Finance Council member.

Meet Rob Webber →

See how we rate carriers →