Mint Mobile

[TonyL]

We are scheduled to return to the US in May and are currently looking at prepaid data plans for our (hopefully) 6 month stay. We have previously used the $40 15Gb data plan with AT&T as it allowed us to use the network in Canada. We do not require that this trip, and to be honest the problems we had with AT&T last trip were a nightmare, especially the virtually non existent customer service. (Why are communications companies so hard to communicate with??)
We have been looking at Mint mobile and I know we have to pay up front for at least 3 months in advance, but we were wondering if anyone on here uses this provider. If so, what State/s do you use it in and what is the coverage like?
We cannot use an esim as the phone is not compatible, but I have checked and our UK phone is compatible with a Mint mobile physical sim, which AT&T is not, so that also saves carrying two phones everywhere.
Experienced input only please, thanks in advance.

 

[DutchmenSport]

I don't know anything about "Mint". I've never heard of it before until just right now.

Have you looked into Visible? That's what we use when we are on the road and we've had good success with it. We have a ZTE (cheap-o phone for only internet connection with Visible). And we also have AT&T phones with unlimited data as our main phones we use for everything else.

Visible uses the Verison network. Its well worth looking into. It is very reliable.

 

[TonyL]

I don't know anything about "Mint". I've never heard of it before until just right now.

Have you looked into Visible? That's what we use when we are on the road and we've had good success with it. We have a ZTE (cheap-o phone for only internet connection with Visible). And we also have AT&T phones with unlimited data as our main phones we use for everything else.

Visible uses the Verison network. Its well worth looking into. It is very reliable.

Thanks, yes I looked at visible but it will only work on US registered cell phones. They will swap our current US cell phone for a compatible one, but we're back to carrying 2 phones again

 

[Arch Hoagland]

They use the T-Mobile network.
Below is from an internet seach:

Verizon rules supreme when it comes to coverage. Coverage matters a ton, and Verizon leads the wireless pack. WhistleOut reports that Verizon's 4G coverage has reached 70% of the nation, while T-Mobile comes second with 59% 4G coverage.

 

[jackiemac]

They use the T-Mobile network.
Below is from an internet seach:

Verizon rules supreme when it comes to coverage. Coverage matters a ton, and Verizon leads the wireless pack. WhistleOut reports that Verizon's 4G coverage has reached 70% of the nation, while T-Mobile comes second with 59% 4G coverage.

We had Verizon last trip and had lots of outages but AT&T worked.

 

[8Muddypaws]

My honest opinion: Avoid T-Mobile and any MVNO that uses their network.

I have T-Mobile now and it has more dead spots than a cemetery.

 

[Wasillaguy]

more dead spots than a cemetery.

How many dead spots?

It has more dead spots than a cancerous leopard...

 

[Lou Schneider]

I don't know anything about "Mint". I've never heard of it before until just right now.

Have you looked into Visible? That's what we use when we are on the road and we've had good success with it. We have a ZTE (cheap-o phone for only internet connection with Visible). And we also have AT&T phones with unlimited data as our main phones we use for everything else.

Visible uses the Verison network. Its well worth looking into. It is very reliable.

Visible is OWNED by Verizon. This places it in a different league than other 3rd party providers who are at the mercy of their master contracts with the cellular provider. Often they are cancelled or not renewed when they use more data than was anticipated when the contracts were signed.

This is not a new situation, 15 years ago I had to scramble to find new Internet service on short notice for a dozen mountaintop transmitter sites when Verizon refused to renew the third party provider's master contract.

 

[Tom]

My honest opinion: Avoid T-Mobile and any MVNO that uses their network.

I have T-Mobile now and it has more dead spots than a cemetery.

Interesting Russ. Things must have changed.

When we were about to take the 10,000 miles maiden voyage on our new coach in 2004, I got T-mobile phones and internet. Crossing the southern states, returning along the northern states with a few weeks in the Maritimes, we had better coverage than most folks were reporting on the forum. IIRC at that time T-mobile roamed to AT&T in the US, but when we crossed into Canada they roamed to Rogers towers.

FWIW when we got home, the bill for the few weeks in the Maritimes was circa $2,000.

 

[8Muddypaws]

Tom,

yikes! That's why I disabled roaming.

My DW and I were on our sons Verizon family plan. It was very expensive but the coverage was always pretty good. He decided to switch over to T-Mobile and saved a bunch of money, even though it doesn't work in their neighborhood. (????). In order to use it in my house I had to install a micro site in and upstairs window. The good news is that the hardware for that is only $25. TM does not work at all in my office. No signal at all. We haven't done much traveling since getting TM but just driving around in Santa Clara and San Benito Counties I've been in lots of places where I get no data connection at all, or it's so slow it can't be used. It is reasonably priced though. $30 a month for unlimited data on the phone and 30GB hotspot data per phone.

I predict that the first time we go on a trip and the DW can't play her Facebook games in the evenings she will demand that we change back to Verizon.

 

[jackiemac]

Our UK network flips to T-Mobile or AT&T and the latter has much better coverage out West so far...

 

[TonyL]

Our UK network flips to T-Mobile or AT&T and the latter has much better coverage out West so far...

I have to admit we have no issues with ATT coverage, it's just dealing with them!

 

[Tom]

Tom,

yikes! That's why I disabled roaming.

My DW and I were on our sons Verizon family plan. It was very expensive but the coverage was always pretty good. He decided to switch over to T-Mobile and saved a bunch of money, even though it doesn't work in their neighborhood. (????)...

I predict that the first time we go on a trip and the DW can't play her Facebook games in the evenings she will demand that we change back to Verizon.

Russ, we switched to VZW for cell phone, home phone, and internet some years ago, and usually get good coverage wherever we go (almost). I also have the Mobley device with AT&T which costs $20 +taxes a month. Don't need to use it very much, but it usually provides coverage in areas where VZW doesn't. It's unlimited.

At our WY RV lot I put in a DSL line (no data cap) which, surprisingly allows us both to stream stuff. At our OH townhome I recently opted for Spectrum cable internet; No contract, but vacation holds are not cheap. When we were in OH over the Christmas/new year season, we noticed guys running fiber around the community. Chris asked them what it was all about, and they said "this is for AT&T". We'll likely change if the price is right.

Late last year I switched Chris' phone to Comcast (our home cable provider) and, on our last trip to the mid west, with both phones in hand, it was clear they're using Verizon all the way. While in OH, Spectrum was pushing hard to get me to switch my cell phone to them (which I didn't), and they were open about the fact that they use VZW's network for cell coverage.

What I get from all this is that Verizon are destined to be the main cell provider, and they lease/sell bandwidth on their network to numerous other "providers".

 

[jackiemac]

I have to admit we have no issues with ATT coverage, it's just dealing with them!

We didn't have trouble. Just say technical problem and you get to speak to someone.

 

[mhicks3]

We thought we would try both Mint and Visible to save some bucks. Bad mistake! Weren't on Mint long before changing to Visible, but I've never had such a terrible time as I did with Visible! Could NOT talk with a human, had to text questions and answers back and forth. Once it was finally set up, the quality was poor and internet speed was agonizing slow. I expected better since they use Verizon's network but it was not. Finally decided to swallow my pride and go back to Verizon and pay the extra money.

 

[NY_Dutch]

We thought we would try both Mint and Visible to save some bucks. Bad mistake! Weren't on Mint long before changing to Visible, but I've never had such a terrible time as I did with Visible! Could NOT talk with a human, had to text questions and answers back and forth. Once it was finally set up, the quality was poor and internet speed was agonizing slow. I expected better since they use Verizon's network but it was not. Finally decided to swallow my pride and go back to Verizon and pay the extra money.

Visible recently started switching everyone to a new network setup that more directly uses the full Verizon system without routing everything through the Kansas data center. Since the upgrade, I'm routinely seeing much faster speeds than previously. One clue to the scope of the change was that the APN changed from "VSBLINTERNET" to "VZWINTERNET", the same as used on Verizon direct devices.

 

[Steven UK]

I was thinking about switching to Mint but I'm still not clear if its any good... Anyone actually using it?

 

[RNS]

I predict that the first time we go on a trip and the DW can't play her Facebook games in the evenings she will demand that we change back to Verizon.

I will be in that boat with you, God forbid she can't FB.