US carriers that closed did not vanish. Each one’s customers were handed to another company, and the name kept turning up in searches long after. This page lists every closed or closing brand we track, newest first, with the date and the company that has its customers now. Each name links to a page with the sources.
The timeline
| When | Brand | What happened | Who has its customers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Cox Mobile | Cox’s site stopped selling it and now sells Spectrum Mobile | Not stated for existing customers |
| 2026 | Net10 | Its site stopped listing plans and points to Simple Mobile. No closing date given | Still serving existing customers |
| August 1, 2025 | US Cellular | T-Mobile closed its purchase of the wireless business | T-Mobile |
| 2023 | Republic Wireless | Its site said it was “transitioning to Boost Infinite” | Boost Mobile |
| April 1, 2020 | Sprint | Merged into T-Mobile. Its networks were retired in 2022 | T-Mobile |
| February 2020 | Virgin Mobile USA | Shut down by Sprint, two months before the merger | Boost Mobile |
| August 2014 | Chit Chat Mobile | Reported closed in a trade report on failed small carriers | No successor found |
| 2014 | Aio Wireless | Merged into Cricket after AT&T bought Cricket’s parent | Cricket Wireless |
The 2026 rows are the dates we read those sites, not announced closing dates.
Closed, date unknown
Two small Sprint resellers are gone, and we could not find when.
Both depended on Sprint’s network, which T-Mobile retired in 2022.
The pattern
Three things stand out when the closures sit side by side.
Big carriers get bought. US Cellular and Sprint both ended inside T-Mobile. Their customers kept service, on a different network.
Prepaid brands get folded into a sister brand. Virgin Mobile went into Boost, Aio into Cricket, Republic into Boost, and Net10’s site now pushes Simple Mobile. In each case the owner kept one name and dropped the other.
Small independents simply stop. Chit Chat, Airlink and Expo left no successor. Their customers had to find a new carrier themselves.
If your carrier is closing
The first thing to protect is your phone number. A number can usually be moved to a new carrier only while the old line is still active, and the closing notices on this page show how short that window can be.
- Read the notice for a deadline. T-Mobile’s page for some US Cellular customers warned that after the deadline “your phone number will be permanently lost”.
- Get your account number and transfer PIN before you need them. Our guide to finding your account number says where each carrier keeps them.
- Move the number. The steps are in our guide to porting your number.
- Check your phone. An old phone may not work on the new network. See using a Sprint phone today for how that played out.
Where to go instead
Every brand still selling, grouped by network, is on our MVNO list. The cheapest are on our cheapest phone plans page.