Cell phone plans seem to be getting more expensive, which can be hard on the wallets of college students. There is an affordable option that few know of. Mobile Virtual Network Operators, MVNOS, are services that lease space from the four major cellphone carriers. These MVNOS can set their own prices, making them a more affordable option.

One such company is US Mobile. According to the company website, “US Mobile was originally founded by a student for other students. It all started 10+ years ago when founder Ahmed Khattak set foot on Yale’s campus as a freshman only to find that getting a cell phone plan in the US was unnecessarily cumbersome. After graduating from Yale, Ahmed decided to solve this problem by launching US Mobile. His dream was to provide excellent coverage, free international text messaging, and 4G LTE data speeds.”  US Mobile offers two types of plans, custom and unlimited. Both options are entirely customizable.

Custom plans allow you to choose how much of each aspect of the plan is right for you. For example, if someone needs more text and use mobile data but hardly any minutes, plans can be customized with more texts and data, and fewer phone minutes. If you make lengthy calls, then more minutes can be purchased.

If a student built a plan with 100 phone minutes, 600 text messages, and 3gb of LTE data, it would come to $27 a month, not including taxes and fees. A plan with 1,000 minutes, 100 texts, and 300mb of data would be $15 a month. The plans are entirely customizable, which makes US Mobile a flexible option. They also offer unlimited plans.

The service looks affordable, but does it work? Yes, it does. US Mobile runs off “two of the largest cellular networks in the [United States],” so the coverage is excellent. Also, their website says that 99 percent of devices will work with their service, and every phone I have used has worked perfectly on their network.

To learn more, you can visit their website at https://www.usmobile.com/ and students can get a free starter kit, get yours at this link, https://www.usmobile.com/student-discount