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Comment by wlesieutre | Hacker News Reader

I bailed from T-Mobile to Mint, an MVNO running on the same network. Downside is that if there's network congestion you'll be deprioritized behind T-Mobile's direct customers, but it hasn't been an issue for me.

Plans from the major carriers are insane, the price structure is always like $80 for the first line plus $10 per additional line, so unless you have four phones on your plan you're really getting screwed.

In comparison, Mint's plans are $15 to $30 per line if you prepay for a year at a time, and there's no extra activation fees. It's been working well for me.

If your phone has eSIM support you can probably install their app and run a free week trial alongside your current phone service if you want to test it out. For older phones they sell a $5 test kit with two SIMs, one for the trial and a second to activate a real account, and it includes a $5 discount to pay back the trial cost.

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If you're willing to pay for a year in advance (which I personally consider a convenience rather than a hassle), you might like the AT&T 12-month prepaid plan:

https://www.att.com/prepaid/multi-month-plans/

$25/month for unlimited talk & text + 16 GB of data each month that rolls over month-to-month.

AT&T's customer support is absolute garbage and migrating to them from T-Mobile was a pain in the ass, but since then it's been simple.

I recall data overages on AT&T being a festival of excessive fees rather than merely getting throttled, but that was over a decade ago.

Doesn't apply to prepaid. You pay a lump sum of $300 for the year, dont even need an associated credit card.

I've been on an AT&T prepaid plan for over a decade at this point. The price is exactly what's quoted. In a very good way, it's almost like you're not even on an AT&T plan. Just look at how off-brand the (impossible to find) prepaid login portal is: https://www.paygonline.com/ vs https://www.att.com/acctmgmt/login

Frankly, I think it's wonderful. I never have issues with the reception, service, or speed. I buy a new phone in full when I have to (4-5 years?), and just move the SIM over.

However, AT&T's commission-based store employees will provide dreadful service when they find out you're prepaid. Prepaid clients rarely buy anything. I recommend delaying sharing that knowledge as much as possible :)

Huh, I didn't know about this, thanks. I'm on Cricket (which was an MVNO running on AT&T but is now actually AT&T owned), where I pay for $30/month for unlimited talk and text and only 5GB of data.

I rarely go over the data, but if I can pay less for 16GB of data if I pre-pay for the year... I might.

Although cricket is really all-inclusive, no additional taxes or fees, $30 is what my credit card actually gets charged. Is AT&T pre-pay the same?

That ad also has "Reg. 8GB/mo" in grey text, which I don't know what that means... 16GB is promotional for first year, after which it's 8GB? Which would still be fine.

I kind of like having no contract and being able to switch carriers at any time... on the other hand, I literally never switch carriers cause it's a pain.

It would be cool to have Canada included for free again too.

Tax usually ends up being 15 to 20 percent so it will probably be a wash. Online agent can tell you the exact price.

Nice—never knew about this. How would you compare the coverage and speed to T-Mobile? Does it come with Wi-Fi Calling? Looks like it supports hot spot usage.

I cannot think of a reason that a mobile network would not include wifi calling. I presume it is all gain for them to take load off their mobile network?

Cricket only allows WiFi calling on certain devices. I had to switch to Mint to get it working

How do they prevent wifi calling?

WiFi calling in this context doesn't mean any random VoIP app, it means using your same phone number as the cellular service uses. That requires the carrier to be involved on the server side even if your handset is not using the cellular modem. (And it probably is using the cellular modem to some extent even during a WiFi call, to support handover between WiFi and cellular.)

I concur, but carriers do weird things. Some of them will want you to purchase a more expensive plan to get that “feature.”

Verizon prevented two of my unlocked phones (Nexus 6P and Moto G6 Power) from using WiFi calling, likely because I didn't buy them through them. The phones were perfectly capable of it but it was just some carrier config that prevented it. I bought an unlocked Samsung A53 and that is suddenly allowed to use WiFi calling, likely because Verizon sells the exact same model. I went years without WiFi calling despite living in two homes that had awful cell signal. Now I have a phone with the feature but have great home cell signal.

I prepay w/ tmobile for 30/mo. No wifi directly but can use google voice for that.

Anecdotally, coverage and speed in my area are slightly better with AT&T than they were with T-Mobile. Based on actual data, AT&T beats out T-Mobile for coverage and speed across most of the US.

Yes it supports wi-fi calling (my Pixel 6a defaults to that whenever I'm at home). And yes it supports tethering / hot spots.

Is there any downside to having a prepaid plan as opposed to a normal plan ? For example when the next year comes up, is there any additional hassle to continue with the same account and pay for another year ?

It can have effects on the priority your data receives on the network. This post [0] gives a fair amount of detail - from what I can understand, AT&T gives their prepaid plan the same priority as normal post-paid.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_pri...

I have the annual plan and while the auto-renew didn't work for me for some reason, I was able to pay the amount due on their website hassle-free. In some cases I think the pre-paid is more advantageous if you're not a heavy data user since it allows tethering up to your data limit and also includes 1 month of data rollover.

I think the biggest thing missing through pre-paid is the ability to finance devices through the carrier (if this is something you do). Additionally, something like the iphone upgrade program isn't supported if you are on a prepaid plan either. Also, if you ever travel internationally the pricing is absurd ($35/WEEK extra for 5GB of data).

That said, I get the feeling AT&T isn't thrilled about people that opt for their prepaid plans. Porting my number over required me to wait for hours on hold, their support is horrendous if you ever need to get in touch with them for something, and you have to manage your account through an entirely different website that frankly looks like one giant phishing attempt.

> That said, I get the feeling AT&T isn't thrilled about people that opt for their prepaid plans. Porting my number over required me to wait for hours on hold, their support is horrendous if you ever need to get in touch with them for something, and you have to manage your account through an entirely different website that frankly looks like one giant phishing attempt.

Absolutely. I had the same experience & got the same impression.

Honestly, when I'm getting indicators that I'm doing something that a horrible megacorporation dislikes, but enables because it lacks the will to go through the steps to end some particular line-of-business... that's when I feel like I'm doing something right.

I would have expected them to prefer a prepaid plan, they get all the money up front. Isn't that why they give you a discount, to encourage it? But I guess the discount is why they prefer a postpaid plan? Very odd, I wonder why the prepaid plans even exist, or are discounted.

Postpaid plans (the traditional ones which have contracts) usually give discounted or free phone upgrades while prepaid does not, so they can bring the price down.

Ah, right. (Still a mystery why they offer postpaid at that price if they don't want to).

But I think I'll stick with cricket after all. Still has discounted phone upgrades, still with no contract (although the phone can be unlocked from cricket until you've used it a year on cricket, I still prefer that).

(And, of course, to make things even weirder, cricket is owned by AT&T)

Prepaid plans often nickel-and-dime you for small features, although that is starting to happen on normal postpaid plans too.

For example:

- 5G

- Visual voicemail

- Roaming (esp. international)

- Tethering

- Limited to lower video resolutions

- Spam filtering

But in this case, the question is about ATT prepaid. My understanding is that 5G, tethering, and Visual voicemail are included. Not sure about the others.

As I understand it 5G is only included on the unlimited data plans.

I have non-unlimited data and 5G.

For AT&T prepaid, I can verify that all of these work as normal (with a post-paid plan) except for international roaming. I haven't traveled internationally since making the switch, so I don't know about that one.

That said, you can always just buy and pop in a prepaid SIM card if you're traveling for extended periods.

> - 5G

"Luddite", don't need it.

> - Visual voicemail

Built into Android.

> - Roaming (esp. international)

Estoy un gringo.

> - Tethering

Built into Android.

> - Limited to lower video resolutions

My eyes can't see 1080p on a phone screen.

> - Spam filtering

Built into Android.

Roaming is a problem, esp if you are in rural areas. Prepaid is good, if you are in a major metro, and you don't go to rural areas much.

One tangential hassle is situations like Blizzard demanding phone numbers to play games online and not allowing prepaid for some bad reason.

I have yet to run into any such issues. I'm not even sure it would be possible to identify that my ported number, that I've had for ... 17 years?... is prepaid.

But I don't play WoW or anything, so...

My guess is it depends on prepaid carrier. Some of them appear as 'voip' providers. Funny thing is they have no way to detect actual carrier VOIP services like T-Mobile DIGITS as being VOIP.

If it's first party prepaid, Cricket looks the same as AT&T for example. Some carriers do stuff like buy bandwidth.com numbers, these will show up as voip even if it's only usable from a phone plan.

I loved AT&t's network, but leaving them was a Royal pain in the ass. They kept sending me bills for new things after I had closed the account, and customer service would barely talk to me since I was leaving anyway

I had to leave AT&T when I moved to California. It was great in the East, but it seems like they don't understand that mountains attenuate the signal -- I had literally 0 bars in my neighborhood because the tower is on the other side of a hill. Not to mention anytime you drive through a canyon, which is almost anytime you're going to the next town/suburb/valley over, which is pretty often for a lot of people in Southern California.

Does the data include tethering?

Yes

Huh that's pretty good. I pay about $18/mo for 2GB and no tethering on an AT&T MVNO. Seems like an extra $7 to never have to worry about data, and to be able to tether would be worth it.

AT&T's websites are complete junk as well. Which you are forced to deal with for any kind of management.

I wish I was able to use the website to sign up. I spent half an hour on their signup flow entering all the fiddly numbers, then got an email saying for some integrity reason my order was cancelled and there was nothing they could do.

I called support and they said the website just didn't like me and I had to sign up by phone, loosing the significant online signup discount. So I spent the next hour and a half repeatedly spelling things out with a phonetic alphabet to someone who only understood a specific kind of formal English before I gave up.

I switched my ex off my Verizon plan to Visible. It cut costs by 60+% for service they haven't seen a difference with.

They lost the ability to go into a store for support, lost phone support, and get deprioritized but they use it for personal use and don't care.

I use my phone to run a business. I will spend the premium to have the best service I can afford to run my company. I pay for the top plan on Verizon as a result.

Choice is good. An MVNO is not for everyone but it is a much lower cost option for those who want the downsides.

Of the multitude of benefits of living in a major city, one of the big downsides is that in denser areas, the networks are permanently congested. I went the MVNO route for a month and in downtown Chicago on a work day, you have five bars and no service.

Depending on your use case - a MVNO that supports wifi calling + iMessage etc can help. It’s nice in rural areas where the signal is weak.

I'm not trying to spend $40/mo to use wifi calling and iMessage. I'd rather spend $80 and never ever have to think about it.

Agreed. I loved the concept of wifi calling when it was introduced, but it always sucks when I use it. It always manages to find all of the flaws in the network I'm using.

It's just not worth the hassle when I can rely on a cell network that specializes in real-time voice communication.

USMobile supports wifi calling.

I can confirm this.

I’m kinda surprised to hear that. I’m on an mvno in London and have had zero issues. Only time I see congestion issues are at huge public events like like festivals or carnivals. But that tends to affect every network.

That tracks. The dense parts of Chicago are denser than the dense parts of London.

Yeah I went with Mint in the South Florida metro once, and it was painful. Once a download started it finished pretty quickly, but the amount of lag between clicking a link and the page starting to load was on the order of 10-15 seconds.

Apps that pre-fetched a lot of data (like social media apps fetching a ways down your feed, music streaming apps that will fetch the next song, etc.) will operate somewhat okay but web browsing and map usage was pure hell.

The second I swapped my phone over to Verizon it was like night and day.

I might look into Mint again, now that I'm in a Verizion weakspot so to speak. Unfortunately, I took a BYOD rebate from them that they'd claw back if I left before April. :-/

Doesn't even have to be an MVNO, depends on the priority level of your data. I have Verizon Prepaid and during weekends in a suburban downtown, my phone is almost a dead weight. In a tourist city, I'll have full bars and no service, every day from noon until night.

I tried Mint and Visible and experienced this. In Chicago and Miami they were useless. Even iMessage didn't work. I had more than a few occasions with no messaging, ride sharing, maps, etc and it was legitimately scary (being completely stranded).

I'm now on post-paid Verizon so I at least have a fighting chance in these permanently congested metros.

Amazing how much we depend on data!

I'm with Cricket Wireless (AT&T MVNO) for a few years now and every time I look at the pricing of major carriers I'm blown away by how intentionally confusing they make it.

So you want unlimited data with your plan right? Well unlimited regular data or "premium" data, are you going to be streaming 1080p, because that only works on "premium" data. Oh and when we said unlimited data, we didn't mean unlimited "premium" data, no you only get 10GB of that before you get another 30GB of regular data and then after that and after that....well consumers with "unlimited data" only really use 30GB max so really "unlimited" is just 30GB plus the 10GB of "premium data" and then you get dial up.

Oh and you want hotspot too? Well for that we have several tiers of premium and non premium data types. Here are 10 more plans to choose from....

Meanwhile Crickets plan is: $50/mo for unlimited data period.

Now try to get AT&T to tell you the difference between the 2010 grandfathered iPad unlimited data plan sold direct from the iPad UI, currently hovering around $30/month ... and any of the above, or in particular the business iPad add-on claiming to offer unlimited iPad data for $20/month.

// This was the plan that was only around for a few months at launch:

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/02/atandt-replaces-ipad-un...

// And then sort of reintroduced in 2017, pulled in 2020:

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/gear/att-dataconnect-tablet...

What are you talking about? Cricket does the exact same thing.

https://cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans :

"Unlimited": $55/mo. Video streaming restricted to 1.5 Mbps. No hotspot allowed at all.

Add hotspot to your "Unlimited" account: $10/mo. 10 GB of hotspot data usage, after which it is slowed to 128kbps. "only available with Cricket Core and select grandfathered plans," of which I think "Unlimited" is one, but see how confusing this is?

"Unlimited Cricket More": $60/mo. Includes 15GB hotspot. Unclear what happens if you go over it, but "5GB and 15GB add-ons can be purchased separately". Also you can apparently only share the data allowance among 6 devices you're tethering to. Does include HBO max though. Video streaming still limited to 1.5Mbps.

"100 GB simply data": $90/mo. Not unlimited data, but they won't throttle you. Closest to your claim but note not unlimited. Also unclear if it comes with phone service or it's even allowed to be used on a phone.

I can't see how your post could possibly be more wrong.

No there's a huge difference. I was talking about Verizon but AT&T is the same. Cricket has two unlimited plans, an unlimited and unlimited + hotspot. With AT&T you have 3 unlimited plans that give you unlimited "data" and then different amounts of "premium data" and differing amounts of hotspot data.

so much for "unlimited data period".

And it's not like this is less confusing: Cricket's unlimited with hotspot plan has completely orthogonal features (cloud storage, HBO max, more high speed data) to what you get if you buy the unlimited plan, then add hotspot (more devices allowed, fallback to slow data when out of data allotment). There's at least three plans to choose from here.

The only simplifying factor is that Cricket doesn't even offer you the option to have 1080p streaming with any of these plans! Your premium data allowance is zero GB. How is that any better??

AT&T has a business only truly unlimited data plan for hotspots that I ended up getting by actually going into a store and signing up, they don't advertise it at all and at the time, it was the only truly unlimited data plan I could find. It was a lifesaver as someone who sits on Zoom calls for hours each day while in a campervan.

That said, I upgraded to the NETGEAR Nighthawk M6 Pro 5G hotspot and it is a piece of shit that overheats and gets poor performance all the time.

Also a big fan of Mint. They were the first MVNO, and perhaps even carrier, that I can remember having a really slick website, too. Seemed very modern and forward looking. Their founder, Rizwan, is also around on the subreddit and will generally answer valid complaints - which is pretty unheard of for a company of that size.

Also, Ryan Reynolds sent out a postcard once, and also a voicemail, if that's your thing.

Yeah, it still brings me a little smile (smirk?) to recall the voicemail gag he did during the initial COVID lockdown period in LA.

Canada is so much like the U.S. that the subtle differences often feel kind of eerie and weird. One of them, which I see on TV whenever I visit, is how many phone ads there are, and how they're all basically trying to sell four phone plans at a time.

Bundling is a pretty ingenious evil way to make it very painful for a customer to switch away, especially when you've got your teens on the plan.

That is why bundling is generally considered anticompetitive (despite 40 years of slumber on the part of regulators, it's still illegal).

https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

Most of the carriers, including T-Mobile have pre-paid plans that are a much better deal than their post-paid, and I've had fewer problems with them than MVNOs. For example, T-Mobile's less expensive pre-paid plans are:

* $15/month 3GB

* $25/month 6GB

* $35/month 12GB

That is a bit more expensive that Mint, but not insane, and you don't have to prepay for 6-12 months.

T-Mobile prepaid (when their payment processor was Vesta; not sure if it still is) once decided to refuse my payment because my street address started with 4 numbers and they thought I was trying to enter a credit card.

The exchange for those lower prices is lower priority. This is a good post (assuming it is true):

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/tn4733/qci_leve...

Basically, pay more and you get a higher probability of higher quality connection. Whether or not the difference in cost is worth the difference (real or perceived) in quality of connection is of course, unknown.

So Google Fi isn't considered a MVNO by T-Mobile?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fi

>Google Fi ... is an MVNO telecommunications service by Google that provides telephone calls, SMS, and mobile broadband using cellular networks and Wi-Fi. Google Fi uses networks operated by T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular.

> by T-Mobile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operato...

> A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers.

T-Mobile owns the wireless network infrastructure, so an MVNO cannot be “by T-Mobile”, in any meaningful sense.

> considered […] by T-Mobile

i.e. as opposed to consideration by you, me, or Wikipedia articles

If you go through Metro by T-Mobile, you can get an unlimited plan for $40/month. (four lines for $25 each).

I tried and liked Mint, but ended up with Red Pocket (MVNO that does Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T) when I moved somewhere that needed AT&T. It is pretty handy having one provider but having a choice of network. It also helps they have plans as low as $5/month, which is great for kids and infrequent users.

Another vote for Red Pocket. I have 5 handsets on the T-Mobile variant for 30/yr(200min/1kTxt/200mb).

Another handset has RP AT&T for incoming sim. Outgoing sim is T-Mobile starter ($23/mo unlim 10gb), good for 2 mos and then a new one arrives.

$5/month is perfect for expats who need to keep a "real" US mobile number for 2FA that insists on SMS, and who only spend a few weeks a year stateside... looking into it now - thanks so much!

… but sadly, it’s currently useless for that purpose, as Red Pocket doesn’t support international roaming: https://help.redpocket.com/can-i-still-use-my-red-pocket-mob...

$2.50/mo is the lowest, but it's eBay exclusive iirc. Gives you something like 200mb of data. (Which coincidentally makes it one of the best deals for a small IoT project sim like a GPS tracker or remote weather station or whatnot)

I used to be on Tello and loved it since the Sprint network had the best performance where I lived. Sadly that went away when they merged with T-Mobile, so I switched to Red Pocket since AT&T is second best here. Great prices and good customer service (the few times I've contacted them).

I'm also on Red Pocket's $2.50/month plan, totally satisfied, and amazed by the quality of the customer service as well considering I'm paying them essentially nothing. Hope it lasts.

I've been on Mint for over a year and have been really happy with it as well. It's saved me thousands compared to T-Mobile, and now that my wife and I work from home full time we really don't need much data at all. We each have 4GB/month, and most of the time I barely use 2GB.

Mint deceptively charges a significant processing fee at the last minute even when paying 6 months at a time. 9 or 10%. 18 months (540 days, really) of Mint service requires about $40 in surprise fees.

Are these fees from Mint or local taxes? How does Mint describe them?

Good point. Some of it was taxes, but I forget how much, and they don't tell you in your email receipt. I might be able to dig up the exact breakdown.

One data point:

* Base amount: $180

* "Recovery fee" (which they describe in [0]): $18.5

* "Taxes and Surcharges": $3.89

[0]: https://www.mintmobile.com/taxes-and-fees-explained

   Renew 10GB 5G • 4G LTE Data Plan for 6 Months
   Summary
   10GB 5G 4G LTE Data 6 Months
   $150.00
  
   Recovery Fee
   $11.50
  
   Taxes & Surcharges
   $2.05

So if we treat the "Taxes and Surcharges" as just normal American customs, 18 months of this would be about $35 in "recovery fees".

> I bailed from T-Mobile to Mint, an MVNO running on the same network. Downside is that if there's network congestion you'll be deprioritized behind T-Mobile's direct customers, but it hasn't been an issue for me. Plans from the major carriers are insane, the price structure is always like $80 for the first line plus $10 per additional line, so unless you have four phones on your plan you're really getting screwed.

In comparison, Mint's plans are $15 to $30 per line if you prepay for a year at a time, and there's no extra activation fees. It's been working well for me.

Mint is nice in urban areas, but don't get it if you need roaming coverage or coverage in rural areas. You won't get it. SMS often breaks down as well when you're out of cell signal range. I've had a few important texts disappear due to that. Otherwise if you don't leave an urban area or deal with a disaster flooding cellular traffic, then Mint is a great, cheap, urban option.

> Downside is that if there's network congestion you'll be deprioritized behind T-Mobile's direct customers, but it hasn't been an issue for me.

I’ve wondered how much of a difference this actually makes. How often does a network get congested enough to impact MVNO users, but not congested enough to impact major carrier users as well?

If I have to guess, congestion can’t be just about the total bandwidth being used. It has to also do with the number of connections to a tower. So any densely populated areas will likely be perennially “congested”.

As an mvno user I do occasionally see it. My wife and I will both independently notice that our data has been garbage that day.

Looks like Selectdude in another thread said it happens all the time in Chicago

I can confirm that an MVNO I was using in Tokyo barely worked during rush hour. It was like a 2g connection or worse

Another person here chiming in with my experiences, I see it a good bit but it is not as bad as one might think most of the time.

If I do a speed test in the city square near me late at night, I'll easily pull >100Mbit on my phone. Utilization at like 3:00 AM is next to nothing. All the bars closed over an hour ago, there's nobody out and about but me coming home from a late night datacenter run.

I go to the same public square at 3:00 PM and I'll likely get 10-20Mbit. More than enough for most things I need, but definitely nowhere near what I was pulling at 3:00 AM. Friends with T-Mobile postpaid plans with me will probably still be able to pull ~100Mbit.

At big crowd events especially in places where there aren't usually as big of crowds (balloon festival, airshow, etc.) connections can be anywhere from okay to next to worthless. Maybe I'll get a megabit, but chances are even Signal might have to retry every now and then to send a text message.

Does everyones speed decrease like that or only MVNO?

I've definitely experienced big crowd events where friends with me on T-Mobile on similar generation phones had plenty of network performance available to even stream video while my phone on Mint could barely load a webpage.

I use Mint in the Bay Area and I’m quite happy with it. Just paid for my second year. I generally don’t perceive much deprioritization. I notice it when I’m streaming music and I hit the Bay Bridge toll plaza with a bunch of traffic (or that’s my assumption, at least). Other than that and maybe a very crowded airport, I can’t think of any other cases.

My wife and I have had Mint for 3 years in NYC and I don’t recall ever having had a situation where there was good service but slow data. Speed tests on 5G generally run over 400mbps.

I did a trial before we switched from a regular AT&T plan and I had significantly faster internet at my office, on the subway, and at home than with AT&T. The AT&T service was typically useless at sports games and concerts and stuff anyway, so the concept of deprioritization didn’t really phase me. Saved us $1000/year and we got better service. Couldn’t be happier.

I have Verizon prepaid. I pay $26.56 a month including state sales tax.

For that I get…

* Unlimited voice.

* Unlimited SMS.

* “Unlimited” data. The first 5GB/mo is at 5G speeds, the rest at 4G speeds which I typically see between 60-110Mbps.

* Yes, tethering as well.

Post-paid from all carriers is vastly overpriced, and that’s what they push push push. Pre-paid is always cheaper, though you can’t bring some things like a watch along. Check the major carriers, and get over not being able to stream unlimited 4K video in the field.

I’ve been paying that $26.56 a month for years now, and that price has come down at least THREE TIMES since I switched to prepaid many years ago. Think I went from $45 -> $35 -> $30 -> $25 pre-tax over the years.

MVNOs are certainly an option, but just look hard at the major carrier prepaid offerings. They don’t actively advertise them, so, “It’s a secret to everybody.”

i've had t-mobile before and even tried mint too, but t-mobile is awful in (my area of) LA. so during the pandemic, i switched to visible ($30/mo) and it's been great. no congestion slowdowns yet. it has unlimited talk/text/data, and crucially, unlimited hotspot (for 1 device at a time) when i'm out and need internet for a laptop or tablet. the only potential trip-up is that customer service is chat-/email-only (no phone).

visible just recently added a higher-priced tier for 5G, but don't fall for it. the 4G tier is more than fast enough.

The biggest plus for Mint is they now support legit TOTP for account access.

T-Mobile has similarly priced prepay plans to Mint:

https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans/connect

Is Mint cheaper than Google Fi?

And does it work on multiple networks and globally?

Google Fi just seems like it's substantially better than any other carrier - at least in the US.

Mint is a little cheaper, and works with more phones. Which is why I went with Mint. But if you need/want that multi network support and global connectivity, you should probably go with google fi.

According to the Reddit link in another comment it looks like T-Mobile treats Google Fi higher priority than MVNOs, it's in the same tier as the normal plans.

Surprisingly, I've found the Mint's speeds always comparable if not faster than T-Mobile. I did a speed test before/after I switched from T-Mobile to Mint, and Mint was actually faster (I ran the tests within 5 minutes of eachother).

Also, it was pretty amusing to get a voicemail from (a recording of) Ryan Reynolds telling me I could downgrade since I'm not using my full data amount each month.

Mint customer here.

It doesn't always get the best service (live in the Colorado mountains) but my phone is such a small part of my life, I don't really care if it is occasionally slow.

I have the massive privilege of working from home, where I have a consistent internet connection anyway. If I am out and sometimes can't look at HN while taking a shit... life goes on.

Prepaid on Verizon has a couple discounts that cut costs, without any lock-in or long term payments.

$10/mo Auto Pay discount on plans $45 & higher after the 1st month. $5/mo loyalty discount applies after 3 months of service; additional $5/mo applies after 9 months of service, for a total of $10/mo on plans $45 or higher.

But on the lowest tier plan after your data is used you're living a rough life on 2G speed.

"Once high-speed data is used (including Mobile Hotspot), you will have 2G speeds the remainder of the month. Your data experience and functionality of some data applications such as streaming video or audio may be impacted."

I moved from Mint to T-Mobile. The internet speed was so unbearably slow that it was useless. This is in NYC btw.

Getting Mint service activated and working was a 3 day train wreck for me. Can't remember details but they couldn't get the number ported, then they couldn't activate my phone for some reason.

Went with Ting mobile and it's been great.

I have no idea why anyone stays on the 'big' carriers these days.

To answer your last question: because when I go abroad, my phone just works almost everywhere I go. Literally when the plane lands, I get a text message from T-Mobile saying "Welcome to _____" with additional information about my service in that country. Places like Mint, Visible, Ting, etc all charge you per text/minute/MB used abroad which makes them non-starters since that's usually where I'm going to be using my phone even more than usual.

Haven’t traveled internationally since 2019 but AT&T was always good for a chuckle on landing: “Welcome to {country}! You can continue using your AT&T data at our roaming rate of $25/megabyte.” Then I’d buy a 10GB SIM for $15 on the way out of the airport.

Ting is just Dish Network reselling T-Mobile’s network, which means Ting’s users are prioritized behind people directly paying more (or more valuable) to T-Mobile.

I stick with one of the 3 mobile network operators because I do not mind the extra cost for being higher up in the priority chain (or believing that I am).

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/tn4733/qci_leve...

Same story for me - but we are on Ting (MVNO of Verizon). They have great customer service, have always been really competitively priced (our two-phone family is usually right around $55/mo), and the cell service has been great.

I left my 20 year career with a telco, and immediately signed up with Visible. (No way I am paying insane prices for a phone that I seldom use).

$25/mo and Apple Watch for $5/mo.

Visible or Mint is a good way to go.

Has Visible worked out the signup problems they had? I remember hearing a lot of people complain about their experience trying to sign up for Visible. A lot of them just gave up and got service elsewhere.

Of the 6 people I brought over with me, there were zero issues. If you were to read the sub-reddit dedicated to Visible, you'd think it was a hot dumpster fire. But from everything I have seen and interacted with their customer service (the two times I needed to), I have zero issues. And this is coming from a person that worked in all aspects of Big Telco and believe me, I know what horrible customer support in telco really is. :)

I love my Mint. There have been no downsides for me. $15 a month. Got my whole extended family and friends on it. Everyone loves it.

Same except switched to Visible, which runs on Verizon (May even be partially owned by them, not sure).

Visible is completely owned by Verizon. Many US “MVNOs” are just businesses created to implement price segmentation (price discrimination) for the 3 mobile networks.

It's not price discrimination. MVNO customers, whether owned by the carrier or not, pay less and get less. In order for it to be price discrimination, it would have to be the same service that direct customers of the carrier receive. And it's simply not.

That is a good point. I guess it is more similar to “product binning”? Or whatever it is called when you go to an amusement park and purchase passes to cut 50% of the way into the line, or 75% of the way into the line, and then 95% of the way into the line for a ride?

Yeah, I think that's a better analogy.

same, Mint has been great.

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