Xfinity Mobile launching for just $12/month for the Per Gigabyte plan or $45/month Unlimited

If you like to pay significantly less than the post-paid plans offered by the Big Four carriers, the XFinity (Comcast) Mobile phone service has launched in select regions today! If you already have an Xfinity internet service (or other post-paid account with them), you can sign up for their service. There are two options:

  • Unlimited plan: $45 per month for 24 months, up to 20GB/month high speed, then slowed down
  • By the Gigabyte: you pay $12 per gigabyte

BY THE GIGABYTE

The “By Gigabyte” plan is particularly tempting if you are almost always going to be near Wifi, yours, at work, other people’s (eg Starbucks or friends), or near a Comcast Wifi hotspot. You pay $12 per gigabyte, and that’s it. The unlimited calling and texting is included for free. There is no line access fee as long as you have Xfinity Internet service or other post-paid Xfinity service.

So this defeats even Project FI as well, because Project FI charges $20 per month for the phone and texting service!

$45 per month UNLIMITED PLAN

So if you like unlimited data service, and you have other Xfinity service (eg internet service), you can sign up for their unlimited plan that gets you up to 20GB of high speed data per month. Once you reach that limit, it drops to a lower but still usable (for non-HD video) speeds as outlined below…

Here are the terms of the service, with yellow highlighter on the most relevant parts:

HOWEVER ~ NO BRING YOUR OWN PHONE

This sounds great, but if you are a fan of buying your own smartphones and not getting them from your carrier, then this service is not for you. You can only use it with a select number of smartphones available from the Xfinity store. They have the most famous flagships (both Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7 flagship duo), along with the previous flagships (Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S duos), and the iPhone SE. The only budget phone available is the LG X Power.

They do offer financing deals for the phones, so that helps if you like to pay month to month instead of a giant payment for the phone.

They have an FAQ question that specifically addresses this. Sadly πŸ™

“You can’t bring your own phone to XFINITY Mobile. Phones purchased independently or through other carriers will not work with XFINITY Mobile service.

By keeping everything in the family, we’re able to support all aspects of your XFINITY Mobile experience. And the great news is, we have such awesome phones that you won’t even miss your old one.”

I do not know if it will be possible in the future to bring your own phone. Sadly this is a deal killer if you have any kind of preferences on what phone to use πŸ™

I would have definitely given it a try, but the lack of phone flexibility is a dead killer for me. I don’t want to buy any of those smartphones, definitely not at those prices. The lowest priced model is the LG X Power for $156 total or $6.50 per month on an approved credit.