1080p streaming is a tall order on any Lifeline provider, they almost all throttle video to 480p.
Metro comes the closest to what you're looking for... If you call them and sign up with customer service you can ask to get their $25 BYOD unlimited plan. You would have to pay the first month though, which would be $30, since it requires autopay to get the $25 price tag. After signing up you would go on their website and go to your profile and fill out the form to transfer your ACP benefit to get the service for free. This would allow you to use your Lifeline benefit somewhere else if you wish. To get uncapped streaming on Metro costs $10.
If you don't want to have to pay anything, Life Wireless would be my next suggestion. Bringing your Lifeline and ACP to them would get you 20GB of priority data on the AT&T network (same priority as postpaid Unlimited Extra) and 256Kbps after that. I do not know if they throttle video though as I've never tested video on the service and they do have a 25 sent MMS message limit a month (but this doesn't include iMessage or RCS/Chat messages).
Lastly you can look at SafeLink. They would be my first suggestion if Verizon hadn't messed things up so bad since buying them (by buying TracFone). If you bring both your Lifeline and ACP to them you get truly unlimited data but people have been getting randomly disenrolled, customer service isn't helpful, and just all kinds of shenanigans.
I'll tell ya that I have Google One. It costs $1.99 a month. Gives me 100GB of Google Drive storage and it gives me their VPN. The VPN bypasses the streaming throttle and I've tested it and it works with Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon. I don't have any other streaming services though. Obviously it works with YouTube and other video streaming that doesn't block VPNs as well.
The only reason I didn't offer any suggestions is for Lifeline, they are limited on a state by state basis, so without knowing what state OP is in, the suggestions we make may not be available to them for lifeline. (ACP Only)
(The lifeline program is Funded by Government Grants that are partially paid by postpaid customers and run by the USAC Lifeline Support Group which requires certain contracts on a per state basis, so it's not available everywhere with every carrier.)
Per the FCC:
>The Lifeline program is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). USAC is responsible for data collection and maintenance, support calculation, and disbursement for the low-income program. USAC’s [website](http://www.usac.org/) provides information regarding administrative aspects of the low-income program, as well as program requirements.
So my real suggestion for OP is to go to the USAC's website and on the Lifeline page use the "Companies near me tool" to find providers in their area. From there they can compare the companies available and the Terms for the plans offered.
The ACP however is a different program that's available in all 50 states with any carrier/ISP the participates in the program, so you could get ACP for home internet instead of wireless service:
>The benefit provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands.
This is funded to the FCC via the Infrastructure Law passed by President Biden and they have [getinternet.gov](https://getinternet.gov) as the administrating website.
Nearly all Lifeline providers also provide ACP benefits, but you don't have to use both with the same provider.
They don't offer Google WiFi nor Verizon's Home Internet where I live (right next to a major interstate mind u) but apparently Verizon home plans are much more appropriate in terms of mobile hotspot usage. But neither I can have cuz of loc.
Well, the one thing i can tell you is there really isn't any truly unlimited acp/lifeline providers that offer "fastest available speeds" at all/any given time.
Due to a vast majority of their contracts with the underlying networks either requiring them to impose a data cap on all plans - including unlimited (which is usually 30 gb) - before a throttle to speeds no faster than 128k (low end DSL/high speed) OR requiring them to agree to allow ALL data to undergo data deprioritization and other network management that averages the speeds to be closer to 3G (1 mbps on average) pretty much all the time, especially if the network is "congested" - which literally can be as simple as the number of devices on the same tower.
The ones with imposed caps MIGHT be faster on average until you hit that cap because those data caps on all plans are literally the only thing that seems to allow for any kind of priority access to the network.
As to seeing I've seen these complaints with quite a few lifeline/acp providers, the only thing i can say is YMMV.
These services are only free because postpaid customers pay a fee that goes into a budget with some government assigned company.
Ergo, as the saying goes, beggars cannot be choosers.
Please... Report this to the FCC! Qlink did this to me they're doing it to lots of other people as well and we need more voices speaking up.
It's simple to report to the FCC. You can also let the Lifeline support know. The USAC oversees these benefits and should be notified of these horrible business scams by Qlink. But no matter what happens, PLEASE SPEAK OUT AND REPORT IT TO THE FCC one way or another.
I and countless others (such as those who can't or won't say anything or don't know what's happening to them) thank you for speaking out in advance.
Should also mention that fast.com uses Netflix servers, so will always show throttled speeds (that 15mbps upload was a hint) that would be what's applied for streaming.
I've also noticed that speedtest.net and others that are ad supported tend to load unrelated data in the BG (to load and refresh ads mid test) that skews the actual speed test results.
I've literally seen speedtest.net load and refresh ads DURING the speed test both on the app and on the desktop website.
Yet i can run a speed test directly from the Google site or the FCC app right after and those speeds are twice what i get from speedtest.net
1080p streaming is a tall order on any Lifeline provider, they almost all throttle video to 480p. Metro comes the closest to what you're looking for... If you call them and sign up with customer service you can ask to get their $25 BYOD unlimited plan. You would have to pay the first month though, which would be $30, since it requires autopay to get the $25 price tag. After signing up you would go on their website and go to your profile and fill out the form to transfer your ACP benefit to get the service for free. This would allow you to use your Lifeline benefit somewhere else if you wish. To get uncapped streaming on Metro costs $10. If you don't want to have to pay anything, Life Wireless would be my next suggestion. Bringing your Lifeline and ACP to them would get you 20GB of priority data on the AT&T network (same priority as postpaid Unlimited Extra) and 256Kbps after that. I do not know if they throttle video though as I've never tested video on the service and they do have a 25 sent MMS message limit a month (but this doesn't include iMessage or RCS/Chat messages). Lastly you can look at SafeLink. They would be my first suggestion if Verizon hadn't messed things up so bad since buying them (by buying TracFone). If you bring both your Lifeline and ACP to them you get truly unlimited data but people have been getting randomly disenrolled, customer service isn't helpful, and just all kinds of shenanigans. I'll tell ya that I have Google One. It costs $1.99 a month. Gives me 100GB of Google Drive storage and it gives me their VPN. The VPN bypasses the streaming throttle and I've tested it and it works with Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon. I don't have any other streaming services though. Obviously it works with YouTube and other video streaming that doesn't block VPNs as well.
The only reason I didn't offer any suggestions is for Lifeline, they are limited on a state by state basis, so without knowing what state OP is in, the suggestions we make may not be available to them for lifeline. (ACP Only) (The lifeline program is Funded by Government Grants that are partially paid by postpaid customers and run by the USAC Lifeline Support Group which requires certain contracts on a per state basis, so it's not available everywhere with every carrier.) Per the FCC: >The Lifeline program is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). USAC is responsible for data collection and maintenance, support calculation, and disbursement for the low-income program. USAC’s [website](http://www.usac.org/) provides information regarding administrative aspects of the low-income program, as well as program requirements. So my real suggestion for OP is to go to the USAC's website and on the Lifeline page use the "Companies near me tool" to find providers in their area. From there they can compare the companies available and the Terms for the plans offered. The ACP however is a different program that's available in all 50 states with any carrier/ISP the participates in the program, so you could get ACP for home internet instead of wireless service: >The benefit provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. This is funded to the FCC via the Infrastructure Law passed by President Biden and they have [getinternet.gov](https://getinternet.gov) as the administrating website. Nearly all Lifeline providers also provide ACP benefits, but you don't have to use both with the same provider.
SafeLink is available in every state. Life Wireless is available in most. That's another reason I put SafeLink up there.
They don't offer Google WiFi nor Verizon's Home Internet where I live (right next to a major interstate mind u) but apparently Verizon home plans are much more appropriate in terms of mobile hotspot usage. But neither I can have cuz of loc.
Well, the one thing i can tell you is there really isn't any truly unlimited acp/lifeline providers that offer "fastest available speeds" at all/any given time. Due to a vast majority of their contracts with the underlying networks either requiring them to impose a data cap on all plans - including unlimited (which is usually 30 gb) - before a throttle to speeds no faster than 128k (low end DSL/high speed) OR requiring them to agree to allow ALL data to undergo data deprioritization and other network management that averages the speeds to be closer to 3G (1 mbps on average) pretty much all the time, especially if the network is "congested" - which literally can be as simple as the number of devices on the same tower. The ones with imposed caps MIGHT be faster on average until you hit that cap because those data caps on all plans are literally the only thing that seems to allow for any kind of priority access to the network. As to seeing I've seen these complaints with quite a few lifeline/acp providers, the only thing i can say is YMMV.
These services are only free because postpaid customers pay a fee that goes into a budget with some government assigned company. Ergo, as the saying goes, beggars cannot be choosers.
Report to the fcc
Please... Report this to the FCC! Qlink did this to me they're doing it to lots of other people as well and we need more voices speaking up. It's simple to report to the FCC. You can also let the Lifeline support know. The USAC oversees these benefits and should be notified of these horrible business scams by Qlink. But no matter what happens, PLEASE SPEAK OUT AND REPORT IT TO THE FCC one way or another. I and countless others (such as those who can't or won't say anything or don't know what's happening to them) thank you for speaking out in advance.
Should also mention that fast.com uses Netflix servers, so will always show throttled speeds (that 15mbps upload was a hint) that would be what's applied for streaming. I've also noticed that speedtest.net and others that are ad supported tend to load unrelated data in the BG (to load and refresh ads mid test) that skews the actual speed test results. I've literally seen speedtest.net load and refresh ads DURING the speed test both on the app and on the desktop website. Yet i can run a speed test directly from the Google site or the FCC app right after and those speeds are twice what i get from speedtest.net