Lowering the monthly cost of mobile phone: T-Mobile vs. Mint Mobile
I recently found out about a small cell phone provided, Mint Mobile, that uses T-Mobile network. T-Mobile is working very well in my area and it offers quality and features at much lesser cost than the other big carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint).
But with Mint Mobile, I could reduce my monthly mobile cost by 50%. So I decided to give it a try . I purchased a 3 month plan from the web site, and if there is interest in this topic I'll publish my findings in another post.
Bellow, I compare both providers. Note that there are other plans and features that they offer. I just put the once that seem to be more relevant. This information applies to California. It may be similar in other parts of the country but perhaps there are other options. In good Sprint areas, I would consider their 1 year offer without monthly cost (just pay taxes), which sounds great, but their quality is terrible in my and nearby areas.
| Service | T-mobile One | Mint mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited Talk & Text & Data | yes | yes |
| 4G LTE (internet) | Unlimited | 10gig |
| Free Wi-Fi Calling | yes | yes |
| Mobile hotspot data (turn your device into a WiFi hotspot) | 3G unlimited | yes |
| Texting & data abroad | included for 200+ countries, ~ 128kbps | not included ($0.05 per SMS, $0.25 minute call, $0.20 Mb data ) |
| Visual Voicemail | yes | yes? |
| In-flight texting + data | 1 hour (Gogo inflight) | not included |
| KickBack | yes ($10 savings when using less than 2Gb in a month) | no |
| Blocks downloadable content | yes | ? |
| No annual service contracts | yes | no contract, but need to prepay 3/6/12 months |
| Unlimited Streaming for some video providers | Unlimited DVD quality | no |
| Talk in Mexico & Canada | included | included |
| Text in Mexico & Canada | included | not included |
| Data in Mexico & Canada | included up to 5Gb data, then 128kbps | not included |
| Prioritization | Yes for customers using 50Gb+ / month | Less than T-mobile customers |
| Support | Good | Probably pretty bad (based on internet reviews and cost of this plan). But don't know for sure at this time. |
| Add Ons | $10 and $25 monthly upgrades | extra data for a fee |
| Web Site | https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans | https://www.mintmobile.com/plans/ |
| Taxes & Fees | Included | Not included |
| Monthly cost per line | $50 (discounted with 2 line plan) | $25(discounted with 12 months prepaid) + $2.1 (tax + fees) |
Breakeven cost: If 4 phone lines are needed, the cost of T-mobile drops to $35/line. It is still more expensive than MintMobile at $25/moth.