Anyone ever used it? The Rick Moranis thing caught my eye. Their plans are priced much better than AT&T, that's for sure. It looks like it runs on the T-Mobile network.
It's been alright in Austin. Only issues I've had is the LTE gets throttled at popular times in popular areas (eg lunch time, concerts/events) that I'd have to use local WiFis. Other than that, the speed and calls are good on T-Mobile's network. Been on it for about a year and a half.
There's a bunch of different network resellers (also known as "Mobile Virtual Network Operators" or MVNO's) in addition to Mint Mobile. If you're happy with your current AT&T network signal where you live, I'd recommend sticking with an AT&T MVNO unless you're in a densely populated area where every major carrier has good signal. I live in downtown Austin and I switched from AT&T to Spectrum Mobile (on Verizon network) without complaint 98%+ of the time. Price is obviously the biggest pro for using an MVNO. Not only are the plans cheaper but most are tax/fee inclusive. My unlimited Spectrum Mobile plan is $45/month and I pay exactly $45/month. The drawbacks are usually some combo of: - Throttling. As Duncan said, in busy times, cell phones on MVNO plans can get throttled in favor of the major carrier's customers. It can sometimes be difficult to make a call, send a text or call an Uber when you're at a concert/sporting event. - Data speed caps: some MVNO plans cap the speed of your data. So while the major carrier customers get the full benefits of 4G/LTE, the MVNO's are often hard capped at a lower speed. Furthermore, a lot of MVNO's limit streaming (e.g. youtube/netflix) to 480p while the major carriers will allow 1080P or greater. - Hotspot: some MVNO plans don’t allow hot-spotting. I find it super convenient to have a couple of gig’s of hotspot data in my plan so I can tether my laptop to my phone while traveling instead of joining random public WiFi networks. This was important for me. - WiFi calling: some MVNO's don't have Wifi calling possible in their plans. This was super crucial for me. I work in monolithic hospital buildings and usually the signal for every carrier sucks down in the depths. I hop on the WiFi and everything's gravy again. - Roaming: not sure if this is a consequence of Verizon vs AT&T or specific to my Spectrum Mobile service but the roaming out in New Braunfels/San Marcos is garbage. I think the major carriers have better roaming than their resellers. - Customer service: usually total crap. I fortunately haven't had any CS issues but if you do have a problem it’s often harder to reach a resolution than with the major carriers (who have large/expensive customer service teams). Another option: most major carriers have cheaper pre-paid plans that are similar MVNO's. They have some of the above-mentioned drawbacks but are usually a decent bit cheaper than the traditional post-paid plans.
