More Than Half of US Wireless Brands Are Gone: New Dataset Tracks 317 Carriers, 165 Shut Down or Sold
BestCellular.com's free 2026 US Carrier and MVNO List maps the network every carrier runs on and documents each
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BestCellular.com’s free 2026 US Carrier and MVNO List maps the network every carrier runs on and documents each shutdown, sale, merger and rename.
CLIFTON, CO, UNITED STATES, October 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Most US wireless brands do not own a network, and many do not last. BestCellular.com, a free reference operated by Assertive Holdings, LLC, today published the 2026 US Carrier and MVNO List: an open dataset of 317 US carriers and phone-service brands, with the network each one runs on and what happened to every brand that is gone.
The findings:
– 317 US carriers and phone-service brands tracked.
– 165 (52%) are gone: 123 shut down, 28 were acquired, 10 were renamed and 4 merged. Each has its own dated page explaining what happened to its customers.
– 152 still operate. 141 of them are mobile carriers; the other 11 are internet-calling or landline services.
– Of the 141 active mobile carriers, 27 run on T-Mobile, 25 on Verizon and 19 on AT&T. 32 run their own networks, 10 use more than one network, and 28 do not publish which network they use.
“Most people don’t know which network their phone actually runs on,” said M. Curtis McCoy, Director of Marketing at BestCellular.com. “When a brand disappears, nobody tells its customers where to go. We built the record that didn’t exist.”
The list documents more shut-down brands than Wikipedia’s list of US mobile virtual network operators. Where a record rests on a single uncited source, its page says so.
The dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0, so newsrooms, researchers and wireless retailers can reuse it. Free to reuse: credit BestCellular.com and link to BestCellular.com/data/. Every record lists its sources. Each active carrier page gives the account number and transfer PIN steps customers need to switch carriers.
BestCellular.com sells no wireless service. Its free tools include a transfer PIN lookup, a phone unlock checker, a phone compatibility check and a printable port-in card for wireless stores.
About BestCellular.com
BestCellular.com is a free reference for US wireless carriers: account numbers, transfer PINs, host networks and what happened to brands that shut down. It is operated by Assertive Holdings, LLC.
M. Curtis McCoy
BestCellular.com
970-986-2471
Curtis@BestCellular.com
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