Despite all the recent hardware and mobile software innovation, choosing a wireless service provider remains the most important decision. No matter what device you buy, it's a paperweight unless you have solid wireless coverage. You should choose a carrier that offers fair prices and provides the best coverage in your area. If you're interested in performance and you live in a metro area, pay the most attention to where carriers have "mid-band" 5G and use phones that support that technology. T-Mobile won our Best Mobile Network award in 2022 because it's far ahead of the other carriers on both counts. It has speedy mid-band in more places than the other carriers, and all its current 5G phones support mid-band. AT&T performed best in areas away from cities and off the interstates. Verizon's C-band 5G is spreading fast: It now covers some 200 million Americans, but you need the right phone to take advantage of it. UScellular is available only in about half the country. It has a reputation for good customer service, but we haven't been able to test it because its service is not available near where our staffers live. The newest national carrier is Dish. We tested its network early on, but the carrier now says coverage is available for roughly 70% of the US population. There are also plenty of virtual operators that use the big three networks for service but offer lower monthly rates, cheaper international calls, or other benefits. They're typically better for less intensive users, and most don't have family plans. Mint Mobile (on T-Mobile's network), Consumer Cellular (on AT&T's), and Spectrum Mobile (on Verizon's) all got higher ratings in our Readers’ Choice survey than the companies that host their service. AT&T owns Cricket, T-Mobile owns Metro by T-Mobile, Verizon owns Visible, and Google owns Google Fi. Verizon now also owns Net10, Page Plus, Simple Mobile, Straight Talk, Total Wireless, and Tracfone, although it might sell off some of those brands. We spotlight some of our favorite virtual operators in our roundup of the best cheap phone plans. We also have a story on the best cheap phones.