
(Note: This comparison is mainly for traditional contract and other “postpaid” plans. So how unlimited is your plan? Here’s a look at the fine print of the four biggest carriers.

The Federal Trade Commission said TracFone didn’t clearly tell customers about those restrictions. TracFone, whose service is sold under such brands as Straight Talk, Net10, Simple Mobile and Telcel America, agreed last week to pay $40 million in refunds. So I wasn’t surprised to learn that the nation’s largest prepaid wireless company, TracFone Wireless, had similar restrictions on its unlimited data plans. Some carriers threaten to slow down speeds after heavy use or curb how much you can stray from their own networks.

With cellular-data plans, unlimited doesn’t really mean unlimited.
