GoKawiilis a news editor with over a decade’s experience in journalism. He previously worked at Android Police and Tech Advisor.
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Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. This week, I wanted to see how Trump Mobile stacks up to its conservative carrier competition.
Trump Mobile isn’t unique. I mean, it is in some pretty specific senses — it’s not every day the president’s family launches a phone company while he’s in office — but it’s far from the first company to offer a mobile carrier targeted at the conservative crowd.
In fact, there’s a rich history of smaller networks trying to make their money from patriots, Christians, and Republican voters. Like Trump Mobile, they’re all MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), carriers that don’t own their own network infrastructure, but instead lease capacity from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. And the key to any successful MVNO is to find your niche.
While the big carriers try to be all things to everybody, MVNOs are usually more focused. Some target veterans, seniors, or kids. Some prioritize customers on a budget, others those who want unlimited data but don’t care much for calls. Puppy Wireless was simply marketed toward anyone who likes cute pups — I’m not sure it’s even still operational, but it did outlast sister company Kitty Wireless, which shut off service in 2016. Score one for dog people, I guess.
At the risk of stating the obvious, Trump Mobile targets Trump fans. It’s there in the name, in the logo, in the “47 Plan” that nods at Trump’s term as the 47th president. But it also leans into a vague sense of patriotism: It may no longer claim the T1 Phone is made in the USA, but it still calls the network “all-American,” the phone “proudly American,” and insists there are “American hands behind every device” — not even mentioning the American flag emblazoned on the phone’s rear. Believe it or not, that makes Trump Mobile one of the subtler conservative MVNOs around.
But I didn’t just want to know how hard these carriers push to win over the conservative crowd. I also wanted to understand if any of them actually offer value for money, so I’ve compared their cheapest plans to US Mobile’s $25 monthly unlimited offering. Let’s see how much it really costs to pair your phone with these particular politics.
Liberty Mobile
Trump Mobile’s parent company is, like its golden spinoff, fairly restrained.
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