If there is any industry that has boomed significantly over the last decade, it is the smartphone industry. The last few years have seen a swift introduction and establishment of smartphones into our daily life. If there is any business that has benefited from the extravagant growth of the smartphone industry, it is one that is directly associated with the smartphone. If you have not figured it out yet, it is the cell phone companies that have been the associated beneficiaries.

Having an opportunity to benefit from something and making active alterations to benefit from the opportunity holds a thin line in between. There are a few brands that made most of the presented opportunity, most of them being established ones. Following is the list of the best cell phone companies in the market.

Let’s start with why these companies have qualified as the best cell phone companies and the criteria for this list. The criteria include five major categories that the companies have to excel in to find their place in this article. Performance, customer support, phone selection, plans, and extras are the five examined categories. Here is a list of the best cell phone companies based on the aforementioned criteria.

Verizon
Who would not want to put a cell phone company that stands out with its performance and customer-support tests in this list? Verizon is rated as one of the best cell phone companies as it now also offers unlimited plans along with its excellent performance and customer support. Also referred to as the Big Red, this cell phone service provider has included a data rollover facility on its tiered plans, which allows you to roll over the data from the previous month to the next one.

T-Mobile
This carrier has been the leading the pile for the best cell phone companies for a long time and had a pretty good run maintaining the top spot. Unfortunately, it came second fiddle to Verizon this year around. They also have a significantly alluring program for international travelers. The only reason they come second in the list is Verizon’s amazing network performance and customer support. T-Mobile does great on the plans, with unlimited plans, low-priced plans, and offers on contract phones.  

AT&T
AT&T is a popular cell phone service provider, has a strong network and customer-support, unlimited plans and great deals. However, they are slightly behind Verizon and T-Mobile in the overall score, as these companies have slightly more to offer. Apart from their drawbacks, they do a lot of good things that have helped them jack-up the third spot on the best cell phone companies list. Just recently, they added unlimited phone plans to their offerings. The network performance and customer-support are their main point-gainers.

MetroPCS
Earlier operating as a subsidiary of T-Mobile, MetroPCS established as a single entity and has been doing particularly well over the past few years. They are the perfect mix of prepaid plans that will save your money or max out your data allowance. They have ranked well as one of the best discount carriers on many review websites. Some users have also claimed for Metro PCS to be better than T-Mobile in terms of their pricing.

Sprint
An LTE test has shown that the network performance of Sprint has increased massively over the past two years. However, it still trails the Big Four in terms of overall performance. The network connectivity has increased but the customer-support is what stacks this brand to the fourth spot on the best cell phone companies list. A slightly improved customer-support system could see it climb over MetroPCS in this list. The pricing is another key factor for their excellence, their unlimited plans are priced quite aggressively.

If you are looking to get a new connection, this list of five best cell phone companies should be your guide. These brands are the highest-rated as well as the best service providers in the country.