--- title: How We Picked the Best Cell Phone Plans of 2016 description: MONEY analyzed 87 monthly smartphone plans from 10 providers to bring you the best cell phone plans of 2016. Here's how we did it. authors: - name: Kara Brandeisky url: https://money.com/author/kara-brandeisky/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 76 covers: - Shopping - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/karabrandeisky former_staff: true - 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 published: '2016-06-13T10:30:00.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T02:12:21.000Z' section: Shopping tags: - Best Cell Phones - cell phones - methodology - Spending word_count: 177 canonical: https://money.com/methodology-best-cell-phone-plans-2016/ 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/). ![160614_CEL_HowWePicked](https://img.money.com/2016/06/160614_cel_howwepicked.jpg) Money analyzed 87 monthly smartphone plans from 10 providers ranked by J.D. Power in its [2016 U.S. Wireless Customer Care Performance Study](http://www.jdpower.com/sites/default/files/2016020_wireless_customer_care_fs-nc_release_vol_1_final.pdf). - All plans evaluated have unlimited calls and texts. Plans include those with and without two-year service contracts, and both prepaid and postpaid options. - Total two-year cost of each plan includes two years of service, any activation fees, and the price of a 16GB iPhone 6s for each user (or a Samsung Galaxy S7 if the iPhone wasn't offered), minus any auto pay discounts. Totals do not include taxes, unless otherwise stated. Phone cost assumes device is acquired from the carrier. - Family plans are for four lines. - Winners were chosen on the basis of price, data allowances, and plan features, plus ratings for network quality (from [RootMetrics](http://www.rootmetrics.com/en-US/home)), coverage (from [OpenSignal](https://opensignal.com/reports/2016/02/usa/state-of-the-mobile-network/)), and customer service (from [J.D. Power](http://www.jdpower.com/)). - Data was collected in May 2016. For the full list, read our main story, [The 10 Best Cell Phone Plans of 2016](https://money.com/best-cell-phone-plans/) and use our cell phone picker tool to find out which of these plans is best for you. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/methodology-best-cell-phone-plans-2016/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Shopping", "item": "https://money.com/shopping/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Phones and Tablets", "item": "https://money.com/phones-and-tablets/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How We Picked the Best Cell Phone Plans of 2016" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/methodology-best-cell-phone-plans-2016/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/methodology-best-cell-phone-plans-2016/", "name": "How We Picked the Best Cell Phone Plans of 2016", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-13T10:30:00.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/methodology-best-cell-phone-plans-2016/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/methodology-best-cell-phone-plans-2016/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:12:21.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How We Picked the Best Cell Phone Plans of 2016", "articleSection": "Shopping", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/06/160614_cel_howwepicked.jpg", "width": 3337, "height": 2148, "caption": "160614_CEL_HowWePicked" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kara Brandeisky", "url": "https://money.com/author/kara-brandeisky/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kara-brandeisky/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2015/01/150107_bio_author_brandeisky_011.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "kara.brandeisky@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/karabrandeisky" ] }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Megan Leonhardt", "url": "https://money.com/author/megan-leonhardt/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/megan-leonhardt/#author", "email": "megan.leonhardt@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/Megan_Leonhardt" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-06-13T10:30:00.000Z", "description": "MONEY analyzed 87 monthly smartphone plans from 10 providers to bring you the best cell phone plans of 2016. 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