Andrew Yang is borrowing a page from the playbook of Mark Cuban, with Noble Mobile, a budget cell carrier that pledges transparent pricing and cash back for using less data. Instead, the start-up operates as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), purchasing access in wholesale volumes and giving some of those savings back to its customers — a structure that Cuban has likened to his cost-plus business model for generic drugs.
A cost-plus twist for wireless bills and monthly fees
Noble has a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) service that rides on T-Mobile’s network, and the company offers a $50 monthly plan with unlimited talk, text and 5G data. The hook is “Noble Cash”: if you use less than 20 GB of data in a month, you get about a dollar back for each gigabyte that you don’t apply against the cap. Rewards can be cashed out or redeemed, essentially turning lighter use into a rebate.
Your bill’s economics still rest on habit and Wi‑Fi availability. Heavy streaming over home or office Wi‑Fi is not counted against the cellular quota, but streaming while mobile on the go (or even some forms of hotspotting) will be. According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, smartphone users in North America use an average of high-teens to low-20s GB per month, with Noble’s 20 GB figure in the middle of average usage. On prices, industry surveys and data on consumer spending suggest many Americans effectively pay $80 to $110 per line when all the financing of equipment and fees are considered along with monthly service charges — providing an opportunity for a pitch that stresses simplicity at $50.
Why the Mark Cuban template matters for Noble Mobile
Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs gained trust when he revealed its transparent formula: acquisition cost plus a 15% margin, with slight pharmacy and shipping fees. Yang is calling for the same transparency in a category also known for promos, bundle math and surprise surcharges. Cost-plus reframes the relationship: customers see where the value path is and where the margin lives.
That framing can also be potent in wireless, where tiers of plans oftentimes commingle with throttling rules and add-ons that can shift the true costs. A simple price and a visible give-back on unused data provide a psychological counterweight to the concept of “gotcha” billing — inviting comparisons with carriers that make money when customers misunderstand rather than understand what they’re paying for.
Where Noble’s unit economics are put to the test
Noble Mobile purchases wholesale capacity, as all MVNOs do, and is subject to deprioritization in times of network congestion. “Unlimited” usually means that you can use it, but they may slow speeds after a certain point, when comparing premium postpaid plans on host networks. That’s kind of standard fine print in the category, and an essential variable for heavier users.
The unit economics rest on luring more light and moderate users rather than data hogs. Carrier phone ARPU in the U.S. frequently ends up in the mid-$50s per line, industry analysts estimate, which reveals a sluggish margin if usage isn’t quite so top-heavy. On the downside, if Noble is corralling a pool of sub‑20 GB users to create the lowest common denominator service with its cost-plus margin and cash-back mechanic, my bet would be that market (like pay TV) will be sticky too.
To fund the bet, Noble Mobile raised $10.3 million in seed funding led by Corazon Capital, with marketing professor and operator-investor Scott Galloway and others participating. Beyond capital, that roster is a signal of an emphasis on brand discipline and direct-to-consumer execution over expensive retail footprints.
Behavior change is a feature, not just a price play
Yang isn’t simply pitching a cheaper bill; he’s attempting to incentivize different behavior. He has held phone‑free social events and frequently discusses digital overuse. The cash-back nudge connects incentives to that philosophy: the less you scroll on LTE or 5G, and the more you can offload onto Wi‑Fi, the more money is left in your pocket.
Behavioral science backs up the notion that small, immediate rewards can change habits. Pew Research Center surveys have found that many Americans report they would like to cut back on screen time — but feel unable to do so without a push, perhaps in the form of a small nudge. A visible monthly discount makes for a quantifiable nudge — one that may be more realistic than hard policy boundaries, which keep churning along in the form of trade-offs between online safety and privacy limits that lawmakers and courts continue to grapple with.
Competitive landscape and impact on consumers
MVNOs have evolved from a niche to a mainstream category. T-Mobile’s $1.35 billion acquisition of Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile underscored the model’s potential at scale, and other players like Visible and US Mobile are pressing on price, simplicity, and custom bundles. Noble’s twist is to turn under‑utilized data into cash, a far more obvious sweetener for consumers than most loyalty schemes.
There is also a larger shape to the pricing narrative. OECD and Rewheel analyses have ranked U.S. mobile prices among the higher echelon of developed markets on a per‑line or per‑GB basis again, and others also put them among the world’s high rankers for price. Big incumbents are also still playing the shareholder-return game; per company filings, Verizon has reported something like $11 billion in annual cash dividends. A cost-plus challenger that openly passes through savings, however small, applies pressure on that status quo.
Noble Mobile has yet to show that it can keep reliable top speeds, follow clear math, and scale support without the bloat that entangles low, whimsically minded carriers. If it works, Yang’s Cuban-inspired approach could redefine our expectations for what a “fair” phone plan looks like — easy to understand and cloud-free, with things getting marginally cheaper as soon as you stop calling.
