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

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61–70 of 197 posts

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

#61
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…

> since the population boom in Central Florida it is entirely unusable due to being a low priority network.

Wouldn't that mean it has never been usable?? When has it not been steadily growing? It has been steadily growing since at least the 70s.

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

#62
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…

>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.

I tried every MVNO and find myself stuck on Verizon postpaid spending $90/mo because my phone actually works. If you live in a major city, throttling is the norm, not the exception, on these MVNOs.

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

#63
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…

I have full fledged TMobile and my service has never been worse. I've just gotten used to the idea that I won't have service outside of wifi range.

This is why I switched to Verizon years ago--I had T-Mobile and one of ATT's grandfathered in unlimited data plans but you simply could not rely on them to deliver workable telephone calls and data access. As a consultant that was not workable. So even though it was WAY more expensive I made the switch.

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

#64
post #24

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…

Product differentiation for various markets and price discrimination are both common techniques that even a monopoly can use to extract more profit. They know that not everyone would be able to afford the top tier of service. If Toyota were the only car company, they wouldn't only offer top end Lexus models. They would probably retain the various tiers, and simply try to capture the maximum consumer surplus at each t…

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

#65
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…

>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. I tried every MVNO and find myself stuck on Verizon postpaid spending $90/mo because my phone actually works. If you live in a major city, throttling is the norm, not the exception, on these MVNOs.

Mint was never a problem for me in both Portland and Seattle (downtown and about the city), except at massive sporting events

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

#67
post #24

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…

Product differentiation for various markets and price discrimination are both common techniques that even a monopoly can use to extract more profit. They know that not everyone would be able to afford the top tier of service. If Toyota were the only car company, they wouldn't only offer top end Lexus models. They would probably retain the various tiers, and simply try to capture the maximum consumer surplus at each t…

Why would a monopolist keep things the same or better? As you said, consumer surplus is the key here. The monopolist will capture almost all of the consumer surplus. This is a worse situation for customers than with competition. With competition this isn’t likely.

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

#68
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…

>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. I tried every MVNO and find myself stuck on Verizon postpaid spending $90/mo because my phone actually works. If you live in a major city, throttling is the norm, not the exception, on these MVNOs.

Purely for the anecdata, I'm also in this group. Had Tracfone's $40/mo plan for a few years and then a cc change caused a missed payment. Within 8 hours my service was discontinued, which was a huge headache trying to 2-factor my way into my tracfone account to update cc details. In the end I decided to move to a verizon plan for twice as much but now I have unlimited data and a company that _sounds_ like it won't throw you around at the smallest paperwork hiccup.

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

#70
post #60

15$ for 4GB/Month ???? Jio India gives 1GB per day for like 3-4$monthly

Average income in India (in USD): $422/mo.

Average income in US: $4585/mo.

Considering most streaming/online services are out of reach for Indians, due to cost, and not for Americans, there is significantly lower impact on cell service. 4GB/$15 is isn't unreasonable for most people and can provide plenty of data for Spotify/Waze/browsing. Of course, that varies a lot when you start streaming movies over your dataplan. You'll hit 4GB in no time.

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