Optimum Promo Challenges Verizon and AT&T

Customers can lower their bills by switching to Optimum for mobile phone service, according to a bold new “UnBig Your Bill” campaign being launched across the provider’s entire coverage footprint.

The ads encourage eligible customers to visit an Optimum store in person and show their current AT&T or Verizon mobile bill. If Optimum can’t help customers save, they’ll get a $150 gift card.

Optimum offers home internet on cable and fiber networks in 21 states, serving more than 4.4 million households. The brand has the furthest reaches in the New York tri-state area, New Jersey, and Texas, but it also reaches into parts of the South, Midwest, and West.

“Wireless bills have gotten way too complicated and way too expensive,” said Mike Parker, President, Consumer Services at Optimum. “With UnBig Your Bill, Optimum Mobile is putting transparency and affordability front and center. Customers bring us their bill, we do the math together, and either they save with us or we give them $150. It’s that simple.”

Whether you can save by switching to Optimum Mobile depends on how many lines of service you need. Here’s the breakdown for standard pricing:

Optimum’s Unlimited plan comes with 20GB of high-speed data and 5GB of monthly hotspot data. If you need more high-speed data, you’ll be charged $15 per gigabyte. If you want to upgrade to 50GB of data and 15GB of hotspot, prices start at $55 per month for a single line.

However, the UnBig Your Bill promo offers three lines for $20 per month, per line, with the coupon code BIGSAVINGS. To get the deal, you have to buy two unlimited lines and get the third free, and you’ll get a credit worth up to $55 per line. It’s a little confusing, to be honest, and you have to either call in or visit a store to get the deal. But those prices are low enough to look twice.

Verizon’s Unlimited Welcome plan doesn’t include hotspot data, and your speeds could slow down during congestion (with no high-speed data allotment). However, you get a nice three-year price lock and low prices with multiple lines. If you want to upgrade, you can get up to 200GB of premium data and another 200GB of hotspot data every month, but prices start at $80 for a single line.

With the AT&T Wireless Value 2.0 plan, you get 5GB of high-speed data and 3GB of hotspot data per month, and you can test drive the plan for 30 days before you commit. If you upgrade to the premium plan, you get truly unlimited high-speed data and 100GB of hotspot data per month, but prices start at $90 per month.

Each carrier charges activation fees, but Verizon stands out for including taxes and fees in the monthly plan price. For Optimum and AT&T, those charges are added on top of your monthly bills.

How Optimum Mobile works

Optimum Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). It provides coverage by renting space on T-Mobile’s 4G LTE and 5G networks. After you reach your data limits with Optimum Mobile every month, your speeds will be slowed to 2G or 3G speeds unless you pay extra.

To be eligible for Optimum Mobile, customers must also have internet service from Optimum. To be eligible for the UnBig Your Bill offer, the customer must be the account holder.

If you drop your internet plan later, you’ll be charged an extra $20 per month on your mobile bill.

My take: Bundle mobile and home internet if you can

This deal from Optimum Mobile is worth your time if you are already an Optimum internet customer. Even if you aren’t, you might want to be. Optimum is offering internet service on either its cable or fiber networks for as low as $25 per month, with a five-year price lock. That deal earned it the Best Value recognition in our Annual Internet Service Provider Review this year, compared to all other national providers.

When you add that plan to an unlimited plan from Optimum Mobile, you can save an additional $10 per month on the bundle. Unfortunately, our research shows that it can be tricky to actually get that price cut, and Optimum makes you order (and pay for) mobile and internet bills separately.

You might also be concerned about Optimum Mobile being an MVNO or offering relatively low amounts of high-speed data, but you probably don’t need to be. That’s because if you’re an Optimum Internet customer, you’ll likely spend most of your time on Wi-Fi rather than on the MVNO network, so you won’t use much mobile data anyway.

One more thing to note: The UnBig Your Bill campaign covers only Optimum Mobile, but all three providers let you bundle home internet and mobile service, considering you can get their respective internet service at your address. Any time you’re bundling home internet and mobile, we recommend going with the most affordable mobile plan on offer.

Use a tool like the one below to see what you could get.

Disclaimers