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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

#141

Post by briHass »

unshavedyak wrote: post #112
monksy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It all depends on how much they oversubscribe their frequency band. As a Verizon, Tmobile, or Att customer you might be able to get 1gbps down .. but why do you need that on your phone? Why are they popular? It makes little sense to pay $90 a month per line. With MVNOs the price is about 20-30$/mo. (Options out there: StraightTalk, USMobible, Lycia, Mint, Visble, Ting, Google FI, etc) Some of these carriers are even…

For MVNO on Verizon's network, any recommendations? I pay some absurd number for my Verizon plan in the Pacific Northwest because the mountains cause other providers (TMo, for example) to have no reception constantly. Verizon is basically the only choice. However i rarely use it, i spend 90% of the time on Wifi. I just want to be able to get texting/voice SMS/Phone/Data for emergencies (not just 911). So perhaps an M…

Total Wireless used to be the easy answer here, but VZ just bought them (of course.) However, their plans (Total By Verizon, it's now called) are still pretty competitive: $30/m for 5GB data (2G speeds after that), unlimited T/T.

I've been a customer of theirs for years, and like you, I barely ever use more than 1/2 GB of data. I always preferred the VZ network in my area as well. Not sure if VZ carried over the tradition, but TotalWireless used to run nice Black Friday sales on low-midrange Android phones as well. I highly recommend one of the Motorola phones around the $200-$300 (less on sale) price point.

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

#142

Post by rockostrich »

selectodude wrote: post #62
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…

>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.

I have Mint and live in a major city and have never had any noticeable issues. If you're talking about power users, i.e. people using their phones constantly on network to do a wide range of network intensive things like watching videos, then sure it makes sense to not use a MVNO. If you're the average person that spends 90% of their time on wifi and uses their network data occasionally when not at the home or office then MVNOs are a godsend.

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

#143

Post by wtallis »

pkulak wrote: post #116
wtallis wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hard to understand: many people simply don't need a high-speed unlimited data plan for their phones. Not everyone makes a habit of streaming video over their cellular connection.

Are we sure that no matter how de-prioritized you are, some data is always available, with reasonable latency? I was just at a large sports stadium last night, and I was able to message my wife to tell her I was on my way home while looking up the best bus to take. I remember that not being possible a few years ago, but I don't know if that's because networks in general have gotten better, or because I'm now paying q…

I haven't used a MVNO at a packed stadium, but I've never experienced complete bandwidth starvation even in large crowds.

I've also never had any problems with tethering on a MVNO; I think the restrictions are only for the "unlimited" plans which don't make a lot of sense (may as well get service from the major carrier at that point). In my experience, if you're paying for x GB per month, you are free to use that via tethering without extra interference from the carrier.

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

#144

Post by [deleted] »

sanp wrote: post #67
nwah1 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#145

Post by nwah1 »

sanp wrote: post #67
nwah1 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Mint Mobile is a service that offers cheap phone plans but doesn't have their own telecommunications stack.

It is just enabling a lower tier of customer to operate on the same stack as everyone else.

This is vertical integration, not horizontal integration.

The level of monopolization remains the same.

And even with a monopoly, some of the benefit of simple convenience could come into play when there is acquisitions.

Not having to go to a separate store and maintain separate accounts for different things.

Having a cable company that sucks and a phone company that sucks is not good. If they merged and the service remained the same then now you just have two bundled services that both suck.

Yet, having a bundled plan would potentially be more convenient.

T-Mobile offers streaming services, home internet, and other things that Mint doesn't.

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

#147

Post by adolph »

recuter wrote: post #103
nolok wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryan Reynolds youtube channel is an exemple in how bad 99% of advertising campaigns are. Almost everything he posts are ads for his companies or ventures, and not only am I subscribed but I eagerly watch every content he post as soon as I get the notification. A part of it is that it's funny and well made, the other parts is that the content doesn't have that "bullshit ad" factor, I don't know how to explain it, he k…

90% of YouTube comments are hive mind borderline bot generated "direct quote from video" foam finger NPC I'm with stupid verbal diarrhea. His videos/ads tee up such comments which are social proof to further draw in more viewers that generate more such comments.. and now "ads are fun to watch when Ryan does them". He gets a pass, fine, sure, but goddamn.. I watched (and yes, enjoyed as a guilty pleasure) a few of tho…

hive mind borderline bot generated "direct quote from video" foam finger NPC I'm with stupid verbal diarrhea

Using commas between adjectives would help with readability to optimize your content engagement. As it stands, it can be difficult to distinguish between adjectival phrases that use nouns like "foam finger." Since diarrhea can be foamy with integrated gaseous contents and I guess can be initiated with a finger (maybe?), it is unclear if the phrase should be "foam, finger, verbal diarrhea" or "foam finger, verbal diarrhea."

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/204202/can-the-o...

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

#148

Post by mikewarot »

I went with Mint and a 5g unlocked Motorola phone when T-Mobile stopped supporting the 3g phone I got from T-Mobile. I wonder how long it'll be before I'm forced to discard another otherwise fully functional phone?

I'm not a happy camper, but that's par for the course in this, the worst timeline.

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

#149

Post by subsaharancoder »

Been a Mint Mobile customer for about 2 years but recently made the switch to Verizon's Visible service for one simple reason, data connectivity on Mint Mobile was terrible, my best example of having zero access at Home Depot or Safeway, it became so bad I'd just do the searches for products at home and screenshot the results, my wife complains about the same problem but she's still on Mint Mobile. My two cents is for the cheapest $15/month package you get the bottom of the barrel data connectivity..but YMMV..

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

#150

Post by morpheuskafka »

unshavedyak wrote: post #112
monksy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It all depends on how much they oversubscribe their frequency band. As a Verizon, Tmobile, or Att customer you might be able to get 1gbps down .. but why do you need that on your phone? Why are they popular? It makes little sense to pay $90 a month per line. With MVNOs the price is about 20-30$/mo. (Options out there: StraightTalk, USMobible, Lycia, Mint, Visble, Ting, Google FI, etc) Some of these carriers are even…

For MVNO on Verizon's network, any recommendations? I pay some absurd number for my Verizon plan in the Pacific Northwest because the mountains cause other providers (TMo, for example) to have no reception constantly. Verizon is basically the only choice. However i rarely use it, i spend 90% of the time on Wifi. I just want to be able to get texting/voice SMS/Phone/Data for emergencies (not just 911). So perhaps an M…

As far as I know, US Mobile is the only one other than Verizon-owned Visible that has some allocation of data at equivalent priority to Verizon postpaid customers.
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