Photo Credit: Apple
Photo Credit: Apple

So, maybe you want the new iPhone 6, but you aren’t sure if it’s the right time to try out a new carrier, or sign up for a new plan?

A new report released today by Tarifica attempts to wade through all the offers to determine which carrier is offering you the biggest bang for your buck. In making its evaluation, Tarifica took into consideration geographic coverage, data speeds, the cost of plans and whether you were buying a phone on contract or at full price.

“In today’s mobile marketplace, consumers are flooded with hundreds of plan variations and constantly shifting promotions and deals — the majority of which come with different costs and services, and access networks of differing strengths,” said Tarifica Program Manager Will Watts.

With a price war underway, this may be more true now than any other time in wireless history. New plans with slightly different offers are being announced weekly, so finding the best plan can be a mind-numbing project that requires flipping between multiple tabs and reading the fine print with sometimes no obvious answer.

To that end, if you are looking for a high-level summary on what each carrier is currently bringing to the table, Tarifica’s report is the one for you.

Here’s what it found after evaluating the major U.S. wireless carriers:

tmobileLTEsmallT-Mobile: T-Mobile performed well in the “Without Phone” categories. It ranked high for solid average download speeds, generous data allotments, added bonus features like unlimited streaming music and free roaming. Overall, Tarifica said its moderate costs offset the carrier’s weaker network coverage. Specifically, ts “Simple Choice” plan with unlimited data placed first in the “individual plan without phone” category. The carrier also dominated the “shared plans without phones” category, although Tarifica advised that this is currently the most competitive category with all of the tier one carriers scoring well.

Verizon Wireless: The largest U.S. carrier also performed well, showing strength in the “With Phone” categories, and in the higher priced segments where the carrier’s network speed and wide geographic coverage were able to counterbalance its higher costs and lower data allowances. Verizon beat out the other carriers for offering the best “individual plans with phones,” with its More Everything Plan coming with 10 GB of data. The carrier also performed well in the “shared plans with device category,” which offers 30 GB of data.

Photo Credit: William Ross via Flickr.
Photo Credit: William Ross via Flickr.

AT&T: The company’s plans were competitive, but often too expensive compared with T-Mobile in the mid-tier price range and, although the carrier is close to Verizon Wireless in terms of speed and coverage, Tarifica said the latter’s slight advantage in both caused AT&T’s plans to come up short in the higher cost segments.

Sprint: As the third-largest carrier, Tarifica found that its plans benefited from their lower cost and unlimited data, but its average speeds were simply too slow, and its coverage too limited to be competitive with any of its rivals. This resulted in the fewest segment wins and the lowest average scores.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.