What your $80/mo phone bill actually pays for — and how to cut it to $10–$30
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Deal of the Month: Mint Mobile unlimited for $30/mo
Rob Webber — Founder, MoneySavingPro
15 years of comparison sites. One mission: stop Americans overpaying for wireless.
About Rob
Rob Webber is the founder and editor of MoneySavingPro — an independent phone plan comparison engine built to give Americans the transparent, data-driven alternative the Big Three carriers don't advertise.
His background is unusual in this space: Rob spent 15 years running price comparison platforms in the UK before moving to the US in 2011. In the UK, buying a SIM card separately from your phone — and choosing a low-cost carrier on the same network as Vodafone, EE, or O2 — has been mainstream for well over a decade. MVNO market share in the UK now exceeds 50%. The premise isn't radical: same towers, same signal, fraction of the price. British consumers figured it out a long time ago.
When Rob moved to the US, he found the same carriers, the same towers, the same data infrastructure — and a market where 90% of consumers were still paying the Big Three's full retail price for service that identical low-cost carriers deliver for $20–$35 a month. The information gap between what most Americans pay and what they could pay is staggering. It's not because better options don't exist. It's because no one is telling consumers they exist.
That's what MoneySavingPro was built to fix.
The US is not unique in having MVNOs — it's unique in how slowly the consumer market has adopted them. In most of the world, buying your SIM card separately from your phone, on an independent carrier running on the major networks, is the default. The US consumer is simply late to a transition that the rest of the developed world has largely already made.
Rob's Expertise
5G wireless networks, cell phone plans, cell phone deals, MVNOs, internet services, tablets, comparison shopping, money saving, reviewing telecom products & services
Rob has been featured in
Before MoneySavingPro, Rob spent 15 years running Broadband-Expert.co.uk in the UK — a price comparison platform that tracked mobile broadband speeds across UK carriers. That research was cited by BBC News, The Guardian, TechCrunch, and submitted as written evidence to the UK House of Commons Business Committee in 2009. When Rob moved to the US in 2011, the problem was identical: carriers advertising speeds and prices that bore no relation to what consumers actually experienced. MoneySavingPro is the same mission, same methodology, different market.
UK coverage — Broadband-Expert.co.uk (2007–2013)
UK Parliament 2009
House of Commons Business Committee — Written Evidence Submission
Broadband-Expert.co.uk submitted written memoranda to the parliamentary inquiry into UK broadband quality and advertising. This research contributed to the public record on carrier speed misrepresentation.
BBC News 2009
Mobile broadband speed 'too slow' — Rob Webber quoted as Broadband Expert director after 3,342 speed tests found UK mobile speeds far below advertised.
The Guardian 2009
TechCrunch 2010
TechRadar 2010
IT Pro 2010
Net Imperative 2010
3 beats Vodafone to become Britain's best mobile broadband provider
Bit Tech 2009
US coverage — MoneySavingPro (2016–present)
Yahoo Finance
The Average American Spends $1,342 per Year on Phone Bills — How To Cut This Bill in Half
BadCredit.org
MoneySavingPro Helps Consumers Hang Up on Ballooning Phone Bills Through Low-Cost Carriers
Business Insider
Rob has spent 15 years watching the UK market prove that same-network carriers at half the price is possible — and built MoneySavingPro to bring that transition to the US consumer.
Broadband-Expert.co.uk — UK (2007–2013)
Rob started his first price comparison site in the UK, helping British consumers find the best broadband and phone deals. During this period, Rob watched the UK market go through the MVNO transition in real time — consumers learning to separate their phone purchase from their network choice and cut their monthly bills significantly. The site grew to millions in revenue before being acquired in 2013.
BroadbandExpert.com — US (2012–2015)
After moving to the US in 2011, Rob rebuilt his comparison model for the American market. He immediately noticed the gap: the US had the same major networks, the same low-cost carriers running on them — and almost zero consumer awareness that the cheaper option existed. BroadbandExpert.com generated significant revenue before being acquired in 2015.
MoneySavingPro — US (2016–present)
With two successful acquisitions behind him, Rob launched MoneySavingPro specifically to address the problem he'd seen in both countries — but nowhere more extreme than in the US. Americans were paying $70–$100 a month for service that low-cost carriers on the same exact networks were offering for $20–$35. The only difference was marketing spend and inertia.
The UK proved it was solvable. Rob built the platform to solve it here.
The US consumer is simply late to a transition that the rest of the developed world has largely already made. MoneySavingPro is the platform built to close that gap.
Recent articles by Rob
Lyca Mobile plans from $5/mo — good for light users, not for data-heavy users
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Verified phone plans under $10/mo — real options on Verizon and T-Mobile
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