Mint Mobile

It's been alright in Austin. Only issues I've had is the LTE gets throttled at popular times in popular areas (eg lunch time, concerts/events) that I'd have to use local WiFis. Other than that, the speed and calls are good on T-Mobile's network. Been on it for about a year and a half.

 

There's a bunch of different network resellers (also known as "Mobile Virtual Network Operators" or MVNO's) in addition to Mint Mobile. If you're happy with your current AT&T network signal where you live, I'd recommend sticking with an AT&T MVNO unless you're in a densely populated area where every major carrier has good signal.

I live in downtown Austin and I switched from AT&T to Spectrum Mobile (on Verizon network) without complaint 98%+ of the time.

Price is obviously the biggest pro for using an MVNO. Not only are the plans cheaper but most are tax/fee inclusive. My unlimited Spectrum Mobile plan is $45/month and I pay exactly $45/month.

The drawbacks are usually some combo of:

- Throttling. As Duncan said, in busy times, cell phones on MVNO plans can get throttled in favor of the major carrier's customers. It can sometimes be difficult to make a call, send a text or call an Uber when you're at a concert/sporting event.
- Data speed caps: some MVNO plans cap the speed of your data. So while the major carrier customers get the full benefits of 4G/LTE, the MVNO's are often hard capped at a lower speed. Furthermore, a lot of MVNO's limit streaming (e.g. youtube/netflix) to 480p while the major carriers will allow 1080P or greater.
- Hotspot: some MVNO plans don’t allow hot-spotting. I find it super convenient to have a couple of gig’s of hotspot data in my plan so I can tether my laptop to my phone while traveling instead of joining random public WiFi networks. This was important for me.
- WiFi calling: some MVNO's don't have Wifi calling possible in their plans. This was super crucial for me. I work in monolithic hospital buildings and usually the signal for every carrier sucks down in the depths. I hop on the WiFi and everything's gravy again.
- Roaming: not sure if this is a consequence of Verizon vs AT&T or specific to my Spectrum Mobile service but the roaming out in New Braunfels/San Marcos is garbage. I think the major carriers have better roaming than their resellers.
- Customer service: usually total crap. I fortunately haven't had any CS issues but if you do have a problem it’s often harder to reach a resolution than with the major carriers (who have large/expensive customer service teams).

Another option: most major carriers have cheaper pre-paid plans that are similar MVNO's. They have some of the above-mentioned drawbacks but are usually a decent bit cheaper than the traditional post-paid plans.

 

I am seriously considering switching now

Rocket River

 

So I switched for 3 months.
I am very underwhelmed
I am dropping call.
Text are failing to send or receive
Overall everything appears slower
The signal never appears to be strong.

I think I read that basically its the T-Mobile network
BUT It's a secondary priority on the network
meaning that TMobile direct users get a higher priority
so you get bumped. . .which explains alot of the issues
I have been having
I've reset the network settings etc like 4~5 times

Rocket River

 

You need to CC Ryan Reynolds with those issues. And/or pull for whoever is playing Wrexham.

 

I've had it for about 9 months. No substantial issues, but there have been a few texts that were delayed. It maybe happens once a month. Hasn't been a problem for me (or the Mrs, who also uses Mint).

That said, once my deal runs out with them, if they don't continue to give me service for $15/mo, I'll probably switch to US Mobile. Seems to have a good reputation among MVNOs and is cheap.

 

Why are you leaving? Is it only the price?

Rocket River

 

Curious myself as I've been thinking of switching out of Straighttalk.

 

Yeah just the price. I just move service providers to save money. IIRC, Mint usually lets you keep the same price for your second contract, so if I can stay at $15/mo then I'll do that, but otherwise I'll jump ship.

 

Any GoogleFi users out there?

They use other's networks (Verizon/At&T..etc.). Maybe not the cheapest, but had it for a few years now, no complaints.

 

So your entire bill for the month is $15? I've seen the commercials but assumed there were "fees" that would jack it up. I am on AT&T and its $100 just for service, I own my phone and if my company wasn't paying for it I would be shopping it. I went to Verizon when the new iPhone came out where they state they give you a free phone which they do but you sign a 3-year contract and like $25 a month is for the phone, so technically they give you the phone up front but you still pay for it and you get a nice 3 year contract........that was $100 a month.

 

Well actually, I've never paid Mint anything for a monthly payment. They had a deal back in November where for ~$360 you get a new Pixel 7 Pro and 12 months of service. So I'm still just riding that out.

My wife was on a 6-month deal with them that also started in November (she brought an iPhone so she didn't do the Pixel deal I did). It obviously expired a few months ago and she had an offer to keep her current plan at $15/mo, but I haven't looked at her bill to see if there's any bullshit fees on top of it. I'll ask her later and see if I can take a look at the actual bill.