Verizon has been among the go-to wireless carriers for decades, attracting users with nationwide coverage and numerous deals. With the rise of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), Xfinity Mobile gained traction as a popular alternative.
Whether you’re thinking about switching to either carrier or doing some window shopping, this Xfinity Mobile vs. Verizon guide will help by comparing the key features and aspects of both options.
Verizon at a Glance
Founded in 2000, Verizon has gained the status of a Tier-1 carrier through extensive coverage and advanced telecommunications technologies. It owns a comprehensive cellular infrastructure, offering nationwide LTE and both sub-6GHz and Ultra Wideband 5G connectivity.
Thanks to a variety of plans, Verizon accommodates broad audiences, from those looking for basic prepaid services to the more demanding customers in need of premium unlimited packages.
As a result, Verizon now serves over 146 million customers and is the largest U.S. network operator as of Q4 2024.
Xfinity Mobile at a Glance
Owned and operated by Comcast, Xfinity Mobile is an MVNO focused on providing budget-friendly services. As a part of Comcast’s ecosystem, it leverages the media company’s infrastructure and is available only to its existing internet subscribers.
As such, Xfinity Mobile is much smaller than Verizon. In 2024, Comcast announced that Xfinity Mobile surpassed 7 million users, which is a fraction of Verizon’s customer base.
Interestingly enough, Xfinity Mobile uses Verizon’s cellular network to provide services. This means the two carriers share a few key similarities in terms of network coverage. Still, they differ in several key aspects.
Verizon vs. Xfinity Mobile: 6 Key Differences
To compare Verizon and Xfinity Mobile, you need to look at the following factors:
- Network infrastructure and coverage
- Availability
- Data allowances
- Pricing
- Privacy practices
- Security measures
1. Network Infrastructure and Coverage
As Xfinity Mobile runs on Verizon’s network, the service area is effectively the same. Unlike competitors that add their own solutions or mesh networks to expand the service area, Xfinity Mobile exclusively leases Verizon’s physical radio access. With that in mind, you can use Verizon’s coverage map to check the network availability of both carriers.
Despite the shared infrastructure, Xfinity Mobile has a notable disadvantage. As an MVNO, it gets lower priority on crowded towers. In case of network congestion, Verizon will most likely throttle or slow MVNO traffic first to ensure its postpaid customers maintain a stable connection.
To compensate for this, Xfinity Mobile has an edge in terms of Wi-Fi offload—it lets customers use Comcast’s extensive public Wi-Fi network for free. With over 23 million public Wi-Fi hotspots across the U.S., Comcast helps Xfinity Mobile subscribers stay connected beyond the cellular service.
Still, if network reliability is your priority, Verizon might be a better option, especially if you opt for one of the higher-end tiers. They promise high-speed data and access to the fastest 5G bands, making your connection as stable as possible.
2. Availability
Verizon and Xfinity Mobile have different target markets. Unless you’re already a Comcast internet or TV subscriber, you can’t get Xfinity Mobile as a standalone service. To encourage users to join its ecosystem, Comcast often runs promotions and bundles the mobile service with the internet and/or TV package.
The problem is that once you do so, you’re locked into Comcast. If you change your provider, you’ll lose access to your Xfinity Mobile services.
This somewhat explains Xfinity Mobile’s relatively small subscriber base compared to Verizon, which caters to a much broader audience. It offers various plans and options, including:
- Prepaid
- Postpaid
- Family plans
- Business plans
You don’t need any other Verizon service to use the cellular network, so you have much more flexibility than with Xfinity Mobile.
3. Data Allowances
Virtually all carriers give you a specific amount of high-speed 4G/5G data, after which the speed is throttled. While the same goes for Verizon and Xfinity Mobile, the amount of high-speed data varies considerably.
Xfinity Mobile offers 30 GB of high-speed data, after which the speed drops to around 1.5 Mbps. While this is enough for basic tasks like checking emails and scrolling through social media, it’s not suited for 4K (or even HD) streaming.
Verizon is a bit more generous, but only with the higher-tier plans. The following table outlines the fine print related to 4G/5G connectivity.
As for mobile hotspot (tethering), the discrepancy between Verizon and Xfinity Mobile is largely the same. Depending on the plan, Xfinity Mobile either allows unlimited low-speed tethering or 30 GB at high speeds, after which the speed drops to 600 Kbps.
Verizon’s Unlimited Ultimate plan offers unlimited tethering, though the speed drops to 6 Mbps after 200 GB. If you opt for Unlimited Plus, you’ll get 30 GB of high-speed data, as well as:
- 3 Mbps 5G on Ultra Wideband
- 600 Kbps on 5G/4G LTE
4. Pricing
Below, we’ll go over the plans and pricing of each carrier separately.
Xfinity Mobile Pricing
Xfinity Mobile focuses on cost-effectiveness, so it’s best suited for budget-conscious customers. You can get started at $20–$50, depending on whether you choose the Unlimited or Premium Unlimited plan.
For specific pricing, you need to log into your Xfinity account and explore the available offers. If you opt for Premium Unlimited, you can enjoy some features and add-ons unavailable with the base-level plan, such as:
- Xfinity Call Guard: Xfinity Mobile’s spam protection measure, which can somewhat increase cell phone security
- Elite Upgrade: Allows you to upgrade your device up to two times a year with special discounts
- WiFi Power Boost: Increases your Wi-Fi speeds to up to 1 Gbps
Keep in mind that if you wish to cancel your service, you might encounter considerable charges, as reported by several users.
“...I requested to disconnect my service, and they charged me $630 just for the disconnection. I returned the equipment the same day I submitted the disconnection form, but I was told I still had to wait 30 days. And guess what? I did — and they charged me another $130 for service I didn’t even use because they claimed the billing cycle continued, even though they had the equipment.”
Verizon Pricing
As a premium service, Verizon is considerably more expensive. The following table outlines the pricing options:
The price per line drops as you increase the number of lines, so you can bring it down to $40/line for Unlimited Welcome with four lines. You can get an additional $10/month discount on all plans if you opt for Verizon’s Auto Pay & Paper-Free Billing.
Note that these prices don’t include taxes and fees, so you should add a few dollars to them. Even if they were included, the prices are quite high for a traditional cell phone service.
“We spent WEEKS trying to get Verizon to port a number from another carrier. Kept getting transferred or disconnected! Was able to finally use the business phone for ONE week and then found out our bill went from $79 to over $200 a month with extra lines having been added. Decided to discontinue due to all the problems and was told we would have to pay over $800!”
5. Privacy Practices
All major carriers collect plenty of user data, and Verizon is no exception. Besides personal information (name, address, etc.), it collects, stores, and monetizes massive amounts of data, including:
- Call records (containing phone numbers called and received)
- Sites you visit
- Wireless location
- Text records
Verizon’s Privacy Policy lists various other data points collected, so it’s safe to say you get little to no privacy with the carrier.
Worse yet, the carrier has been known to misuse customer data. In 2024, the FCC fined Verizon around $46 million for collecting and sharing customers’ location data without their consent.
Despite being a smaller carrier, Xfinity Mobile is equally invasive when it comes to user privacy. It collects contact details, identifiers, and various other information, including highly specific and personal data like:
- Race and ethnicity
- Political affiliation
- Philosophical beliefs
This data is used for marketing purposes, personalized recommendations, and similar uses that aren’t necessary for providing cellular services. Simply put, Xfinity (and most other carriers) monetizes subscriber data. While you can opt out of data collection, the process is intentionally complex, further exacerbating the issues related to Xfinity Mobile’s privacy practices.
6. Security Measures
Extensive data collection might’ve been slightly less concerning if strong security measures protected subscriber data. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with either Verizon or Xfinity Mobile.
Both carriers offer surface-level protection, such as Xfinity’s Call Guard and Verizon’s optional VPN and identity theft monitoring add-ons. The problem is that all big telcos and MVNOs using their networks suffer from much deeper security vulnerabilities created at the architecture level.
Specifically, they use weak and outdated protocols like SS7 and Diameter, which are prone to issues like:
- SIM swaps
- Surveillance
- Interceptions
In many cases, these attacks happen without subscribers’ knowledge, so they escalate before customers can take any action.
On top of this, Xfinity and Verizon have fallen victim to major security breaches over the last few years.
For example, a misconfigured security setting led to the personal data of over 6 million Verizon subscribers leaking in 2024. Similarly, hackers stole data of almost 36 million Xfinity customers (including Xfinity Mobile users) in 2023.
These issues highlight the main security problem of big telcos and MVNOs—a trust-based approach where customers are expected to hand out personal data, which ends up misused, monetized, or stolen by malicious parties.
If you’re a security-conscious subscriber (like an increasing number of people), you should explore privacy-first mobile carriers that won’t store, sell, or let your data fall into the wrong hands.
There are several secure phone services that promise privacy, but Cape stands out with its superb security features and privacy practices.
Cape: Safety, Privacy, and Reliability Combined
Cape is a privacy-first cell phone service that overcomes the long-standing security vulnerabilities of traditional telcos and MVNOs. It does so through a simple philosophy—“Don’t trust us.”
Malicious parties can’t steal data from Cape because it’s never collected in the first place. You can sign up anonymously to ensure private information never leaves your device.
As you do, you can use Cape’s secure authentication to minimize the risk of issues like SIM swaps. You’ll get a unique digital signature, which represents a private encryption key that protects all account information and stays on your device at all times.
Nobody can make account changes without the signature, so as long as you protect the device, the risk of SIM swapping is minimal.
To further safeguard your communication and data, Cape implements additional security measures:
- Cloud-based mobile core: Cape runs its own mobile network to replace weak legacy architecture, shield data from big telcos, and keep all traffic safe.
- Enhanced signaling protection: Using a proprietary signaling proxy, Cape protects you from call/SMS interceptions, location tracking, and extraction of unique identifiers.
- Private payment: Thanks to Stripe’s tokenization process, Cape lets you get started without entrusting anyone with your billing information.
- Encrypted voicemail: Cape keeps the voice messages encrypted, so nobody but you can access them.
These features don’t come at the cost of network performance. Cape has the highest network density in the U.S., so you can expect superb connectivity across the nation.
One Transparent Plan, Unlimited Data
Cape offers one plan—for $99/per month, you get unlimited:
- Calls and SMS
- 4G/5G data
- International roaming (for eligible devices and locations)
The plan includes all applicable taxes and fees, so there are no hidden costs or surprise charges on your bill. Security features aren’t tiered or paywalled, so every subscriber gets the same level of advanced protection.
As long as you have an eSIM-enabled device, you can get started by following these steps:
- Download the Cape mobile app from the Play Store/App Store
- Choose a new number or port in your existing number
- Save your unique 24-word passphrase
- Download and activate your eSIM
Besides network protection, Cape offers comprehensive online security thanks to its partnership with Proton. Cape subscribers can get Proton Unlimited or Proton VPN Plus for only $1 for six months.