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T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

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Re: T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

#31

Post by ghufran_syed »

viiralvx wrote: post #27
winternett wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T-Mobile is purchasing Mint to fix pricing obviously. I've been fixed at $75 for my fake "unlimited" plan now for about 10 years and switching plans will somehow only make things more expensive... Now ads and shoddy apps eat up my bandwidth at 5G speeds every month so I get throttled when I work hardest on my device. Even though Mint wasn't useful to me, T-Mobile buying them means that monopolies are getting away wit…

Related if you can afford it, NextDNS[1] on my mobile device has been a godsend for blocking ads. Literally amazing how much speed it saves when sites aren't loading a bunch of ads / tracking libraries. I use it on my router and mobile devices and it's made a huge difference. Re: competition being removed, that really sucks. I'm a Google Fi customer which has similar pricing, only downside is that if I switch to an i…

fyi, they recently implemented wifi calling on iphone, maybe late last year? And IIRC I’ve been using hotspot on Fi for at least a year?

Re: T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

#32

Post by amalcon »

bearjaws wrote: post #6

I used to love Mint, but since the population boom in Central Florida it is entirely unusable due to being a low priority network. This means on many occasions you will have almost no bandwidth, I am talking cannot stream Spotify bad. The worst IMO is traffic jams, the one time I really want to listen to music and it will start cutting out. If you're downtown there is a 80% chance you will not even be able to load a…

Honestly, this kind of statement makes me more likely to consider them. I was on post-paid T-Mobile many years ago, but I left because it was entirely unusable outside of cities. Signal would cut out entirely 4-5 times on a 2 hour drive. If my destination was anywhere with more than about 500 feet between houses, I was probably impossible to contact until I left. This just tells me that the situation might have improved.

I'm pretty happy with my current mobile provider (a Verizon low-priority MVNO), but if that changed I might seriously think about something that runs on T-Mobile.

Re: T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

#34

Post by nonethewiser »

jawns wrote: post #20

I've been a Mint customer for about 4 years, paying the annual upfront payment, which works out to $15/mo. And shaking my head at those who are paying double or triple that rate on T-Mobile, even though Mint uses the same exact network. In terms of why T-Mobile is making this purchase, I'm pretty sure it's to take out someone who was eating their lunch. I've always found it strange that an MVNO is able to operate on…

Same network but TMobile users get preferred access.

Re: T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

#35

Post by mankyd »

viiralvx wrote: post #30
toomuchtodo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google pays for post paid priority on TMO.

Also, does them having US Cellular towers also have something to do with it?

US cellular has been dropped from Fi, except when roaming, supposedly: https://9to5google.com/2023/02/28/google-fi-us-cellular/

Re: T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

#37

Post by deepzn »

bob_loblaw wrote: post #14
petesergeant wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He'd be better off just finding someone rich to front the cash and being the face, much like with Mint

Especially since this so very common in the sports world - Derek Jeter and the Marlins, George W. Bush and the Rangers (back in the day), etc. But, professional sports teams print money. Most of the infrastructure is funded by tax payers. Salary caps (this includes baseball) keep expenditures down. Fans root for laundry, so rationality is out the window. Just look at baseball, you can pull down a healthy profit while…

Sports teams' value is based on the brand. In terms of operations, they actually lose money for the most part, or it's not that profitable. I saw an interview with the Bucks owner Marc Lasry, who recently is selling his stake in the Bucks. The average NBA brand like the Bucks is worth around $3B right now. He bought his stake in 2011 for 150-300M.

Re: T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

#38

Post by QuarterReptile »

CharlesW wrote: post #5
groovybits wrote: post #3

As a long-time Mint Mobile customer, I am wary on two levels: cost and security. The FAQ implies this purchase is in name only, so far, unlike the Sprint purchase. No immediate change in cost or support. T-Mobile's security, however, I am not comfortable with. I'll be keeping my eye on other MVNOs, but how long until they're bought out by the competition?

> T-Mobile's security, however, I am not comfortable with. I've seen anecdotal reports on HN, but is there anything more substantive about how they do in relation to other carriers?

They get breaches far more often than other carriers. The black market price of a SIM swap on TMobile is reputed to be significantly less than ATT or Verizon (see relevant Darknet Diaries episodes.)

Re: T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

#39

Post by orangepurple »

brycethornton wrote: post #29

If you're looking for an alternative T-Mobile MVNO Tello.com might be worth a look. I used to use it and it was _cheap_. I ended up moving to another MVNO on Verizon because T-Mobile coverage isn't great around my house but I was happy with the price and service.

Check if your phone supports band 71. If it doesn't your T-Mobile coverage will be way worse. Band 71 is the real reason T-Mobile coverage is good or great everywhere.

Re: T-Mobile Reaches Agreement to Acquire Mint Mobile for Up to $1.35B

#40

Post by bob_loblaw »

criddell wrote: post #25
pstuart wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fans root for laundry That's a keeper, thanks!

It's from Seinfeld: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we-L7w1K5Zo

I stole it from someone else, but I couldn't remember who. Pretty sure it wasn't Seinfeld, but I definitely didn't come up with it on my own.
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