With smartphones becoming more and more dependent on having a data plan,  one of the biggest things to look for when shopping for a new smartphone and plan to match is how much data is included.

My research has shown that most current plans from mobile carriers in the US fall into two categories:

• Shared Data Plans
• Unlimited Data Plans

I think the unlimited plan is the best deal for those that use data-heavy programs like web browsing,  music streaming or some other applications like gaming that can burn through your data in no time.  I don’t use a lot of data currently but I am thinking of changing to T-mobile in the near future so I thought I’d research at the best unlimited data plans for 2013.

Verizon Unlimited Data Plans

Verizon does not currently offer unlimited data and they make you pay for any overages but the share everything plans do offer some customization so you can mix/match lines and then add the amount of data you think you may need montly. For example, $110.o0 a month gets you one smartphone line with 4GB of data, and you can buy a bigger data plan all the way to 35GB of data – this last option is pretty expensive though as this much data on Verizon is priced at $375.00 a month.

Sprint Unlimited Data Plans

Sprint offers unlimited talk, text and data for just $80.00 a month with their Unlimited My Way plan. This is a pretty good deal on a smarthone plan with unlimited everything including  talk text and data.

AT&T Unlimited Data Plans

AT&T doesn’t offer unlimited data plans for their smartphone plans, but does offer data plans as little as 300MB a month and all the way up  to 50GB of data plans can be bought for heavy data users.

T-Mobile Unlimited Data Plans

The T-Mobile unlimited plan is the cheapest unlimited data plan I could find with Sprint coming in a close second. The T-Mobile unlimited plan costs just $70.00 a month, while the Sprint is offered for $80.00

It should be noted though that T-mobile seperates the plan and device. With T-mobile, you choose a phone and then choose a plan to match your needs. The plan is billed monthly with no contract, and the phone is spread out over equal payments or can be purchased outright. There is no contract with T-mobile, but you have to pay full price for the phone or the balance owing if you choose to cancel your service early.

Summary

For those shopping for an unlimited data plan, T-mobile offers the best value currently for an unlimited data plan, with Sprint coming in a very close second  at $80.00 a month.