Cell Phone Plan Costs Price History
1990–2025 · BLS / FCC
Average monthly cost of a wireless phone plan in the United States, tracked from 1990 to 2025. Cell phone plans are a rare bright spot in the consumer price landscape — one of the few recurring expenses that has genuinely gotten cheaper over time. In 1990, a basic cellular plan ran $89 a month and gave you maybe 60 minutes of talk time. Today's $37.50 gets you unlimited calls, texts, and a generous data bucket. The big decline happened in the '90s as competition heated up and the network build-out costs got amortized. Prices have been essentially flat since 2020, suggesting we've hit the floor.
Price in 1990
$89.00
Price in 2025
$37.50
Total Change
-57.9%
Years Tracked
35
Cell Phone Plan Costs Over Time
Compare to inflation: The chart above shows nominal (not inflation-adjusted) prices. Use the toggle to switch to inflation-adjusted values when available, or try the inflation calculator to convert any amount between years.
Key Insights
- Wireless plan costs dropped 58% from $89 in 1990 to $37.50 in 2025, making it one of the strongest deflation stories in American consumer spending. You're getting incomparably more service for less than half the price.
- The steepest decline came in the 1990s, when plans fell from $89 to $43 as carriers built out networks and fought for subscribers. The shift from per-minute pricing to bundled plans fundamentally changed the economics.
- There was a brief inflationary blip in the early 2000s, with prices climbing from $43 to around $50 as carriers added data services and smartphones created new revenue opportunities. But competition quickly pushed prices back down.
- Since 2015, monthly costs have fallen from $42.50 to $37.50 — a slow grind driven by T-Mobile's aggressive pricing and the carriers' strategic shift toward making money on device installment plans rather than service fees.
Year-by-Year Data
| Year | Price (USD per month) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | $89.00 | — |
| 1991 | $85.00 | -4.5% |
| 1992 | $80.00 | -5.9% |
| 1993 | $75.00 | -6.3% |
| 1994 | $68.00 | -9.3% |
| 1995 | $61.00 | -10.3% |
| 1996 | $55.00 | -9.8% |
| 1997 | $50.00 | -9.1% |
| 1998 | $48.00 | -4.0% |
| 1999 | $45.00 | -6.3% |
| 2000 | $43.00 | -4.4% |
| 2001 | $47.00 | +9.3% |
| 2002 | $48.50 | +3.2% |
| 2003 | $49.50 | +2.1% |
| 2004 | $50.00 | +1.0% |
| 2005 | $50.00 | +0.0% |
| 2006 | $49.50 | -1.0% |
| 2007 | $49.00 | -1.0% |
| 2008 | $50.00 | +2.0% |
| 2009 | $48.00 | -4.0% |
| 2010 | $47.00 | -2.1% |
| 2011 | $47.50 | +1.1% |
| 2012 | $48.00 | +1.1% |
| 2013 | $46.00 | -4.2% |
| 2014 | $44.00 | -4.3% |
| 2015 | $42.50 | -3.4% |
| 2016 | $40.00 | -5.9% |
| 2017 | $38.50 | -3.8% |
| 2018 | $37.00 | -3.9% |
| 2019 | $36.00 | -2.7% |
| 2020 | $35.50 | -1.4% |
| 2021 | $35.00 | -1.4% |
| 2022 | $35.50 | +1.4% |
| 2023 | $36.50 | +2.8% |
| 2024 | $37.00 | +1.4% |
| 2025 | $37.50 | +1.4% |
Sources & Methodology
BLS CPI component for wireless telephone services combined with FCC annual reports on mobile wireless competition. Figures represent the average monthly expenditure for individual wireless service, including voice, text, and data.
Primary source: BLS / FCC
For a full explanation of how we collect and adjust data, see our methodology page.