All of the COVID-19 Data Upgrades That Cell Phone Carriers Are Offering

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing so many people to work from home, many frail Internet connections are struggling under the load.

Too many people have home broadband that can run slow or drop out. Or their home Wi-Fi networks now groan under the strain of constant daytime use and added interference from everybody else’s wireless signals. And some people—17 percent of US adults, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey—have been getting online with only smartphones instead of wired broadband but now need to do tasks online that require a desktop or laptop.

Your best bet to bridge the gap might be to take advantage of your cell phone’s ability to act as a wireless Internet connection for other devices—also known as a mobile hotspot or tethering. By dramatically increasing the (typically limited) mobile-hotspot quotas on their plans, cell phone services are making it easier for you to tether your laptop, desktop, or tablet to your phone’s bandwidth without quickly exhausting your plan’s hotspot allocation.

Below, we list the added hotspot allocations from major carriers, their prepaid brands, and some third-party resellers.

AT&T

The extra-data boosts at AT&T vary widely. For customers with an unlimited-data plan that already includes a data allocation for mobile-hotspot use, AT&T is automatically providing an extra 15 GB of data for that mode. But AT&T’s cheapest unlimited plans exclude hotspot use (you can think of them as “unlimited but only on your phone”) and offer nothing additional for now. Subscribers on AT&T’s limited-data Mobile Share Plus plans also don’t get any more data.

AT&T Prepaid customers, however, have an extra 10 GB of data for two months, ending May 26. The company’s Cricket Wireless prepaid brand is also handing out an extra 10 GB a month to customers for the next two billing cycles—and it’s enabling mobile-hotspot use on the low-end plans that previously excluded mobile-hotspot support.

Sprint/T-Mobile

Most customers of this newly merged pair of services get at least an extra 20 GB for mobile-hotspot use—but not for the same period of time.

Starting March 18, subscribers of the former Sprint received 20 GB a month for 60 days, and by the end of the following week, the carrier had extended that offer to smartphone users who didn’t have mobile hotspot included on their plans. This offer is currently set to expire on May 18.

At T-Mobile, subscribers received 10 GB a month for the 60 days starting March 20 if they were already on plans with hotspot included. The same provisions apply to customers of the Metro by T-Mobile prepaid brand, although they have to request it in the Metro app or through the customer-service site. But at Boost Mobile, the old Sprint’s primary prepaid brand, the offer of 20 GB of mobile hotspot data ended April 30.

Verizon Wireless

At Verizon, the only number you need to know is 15: The nation’s second-largest carrier is adding an extra 15 GB a month of LTE data, good for mobile-hotspot use, to its postpaid and prepaid plans through May 31. That offer applies even if you’re on one of the carrier’s no-hotspot-included Start and Go Unlimited plans; it also covers the 5 GB single-line plan that’s a Wirecutter pick as the best option for most people. (Full disclosure: I’ve written for Yahoo Finance, one of Verizon’s media properties.)

Consumer Cellular

This reseller of the AT&T and T-Mobile networks is adding extra data only for people on its high-end 25 GB plan: They now get an extra 35 GB of data a month, with no expiration date announced. That’s good for mobile-hotspot use, but you still have to contact customer service to get that feature enabled on your account.

Google Fi

Google’s wireless service, which aggregates coverage from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and the regional carrier U.S. Cellular, is lifting its cap for full-speed data—the level above which you would have to pay $10/GB to retain LTE speeds—from 15 to 30 GB on its Flexible plan and from 22 to 30 GB on its Unlimited plan. Customers who paid those surcharges after April 1 should be refunded for them.

Mint Mobile

This T-Mobile reseller is offering unlimited data with minimal effort necessary. Customers who had signed up by April 14 will find 1 GB or 3 GB data passes in Mint’s app for purchase at a price of $0.00 once they reach 95 percent of their previously purchased allocation. You have until June 14 to grab these freebie passes.

Straight Talk

This TracFone prepaid brand, which resells all of the big four wireless networks, touts “additional data benefits” (but does not describe them) for existing customers who contact customer support. Although TracFone has not clarified that statement, posts in Reddit’s r/StraightTalk forum suggest that this benefit can take the form of a 35 GB data boost.

If you’re strapped for cash as well as bandwidth

All of the major carriers as well as TracFone and Google Fi have signed on to the Federal Communications Commission’s Keep Americans Connected pledge, in which they agree not to cut off service or charge late fees to customers who can’t pay their bills because of pandemic-related economic pain. (But don’t just expect that to happen automatically; you should contact customer service to let the carrier know you’ll need this help.) Consumer Cellular has not signed the pledge but says on its site that it will provide the same protections through June 30. Mint’s site makes no such statements; chief marketing officer Aron North said in an email that as a prepaid service, Mint doesn’t charge late fees.