--- title: How Money Picked the Best Cell Phone Plans of 2017 description: To choose 2017's Best Cell Phone Plans, MONEY evaluated roughly 100 prepaid and postpaid plans from 15 carriers. authors: - name: Megan Leonhardt url: https://money.com/author/megan-leonhardt/ at_money_since: 2016 articles: 204 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/Megan_Leonhardt former_staff: true - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com. Since joining in 2015, she’s written and edited about a variety of personal finance topics, including banks, credit, student debt, saving strategies and more. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2017-06-12T12:00:25.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T05:54:37.000Z' section: Shopping tags: - best cell phone plans word_count: 169 canonical: https://money.com/best-cell-phone-plans-2017-methodology/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![money-best-cellphones-methodology](https://img.money.com/2017/06/money-best-cellphones-methodology.jpg) To choose 2017's [Best Cell Phone Plans](https://money.com/best-cell-phone-plan-2017/), Money—using data provided, in part, by [BestMVNO.com](https://bestmvno.com)—evaluated roughly 100 prepaid and postpaid plans from 15 carriers. We narrowed the set to include only plans with unlimited calls and texts, and at least 1GB of data per month. To make an apples-to-apples comparison, we looked at the annual cost of each plan, factoring in any device access costs, activation fees, and SIM card pricing, as well as applicable discounts such as autopay. For an objective measure of customer service, Money used the ratings featured in J.D. Power's 2017 U.S. Wireless Customer Care Performance Study, plus information gathered through reporting. We also evaluated each carrier's voice and 4G/LTE data network footprints, and took into account published reports by RootMetrics and OpenSignal. Winners were chosen on the basis of price, data allowances, and plan features. All of Money's best plans are from carriers that were at least above average on network quality, coverage, and customer service. 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