If you are looking for a new cell phone plan, you may have come across Mint Mobile and its affordable plans.
But, how good is Mint Mobile coverage?
In this article we will cover:
Let's dive in!
The above statistics come from our analysis of the FCC signal strength data for the contiguous United States. The statistics ignore coverage data for Alaska and Hawaii. You can still see coverage data for Alaska and Hawaii in the interactive map below and in the table that shows cellular coverage by state.
Mint Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that operates on T-Mobile.
By leveraging T-Mobile’s infrastructure, Mint Mobile is able to offer affordable plans without compromising on the quality of service.
Mint Mobile covers 99% of the U.S. population thanks to T-Mobile's nationwide LTE network.
Mint Mobile customers also get coverage on T-Mobile's nationwide 5G networks, including the Extended Range 5G network and the Ultra Capacity 5G network. Over 325 million Americans are covered on Extended Range 5G. And just over 275 million are covered by Ultra Capacity 5G.
The Ultra Capacity 5G network delivers exceptional speeds and performance, making T-Mobile, and therefore Mint Mobile, the fastest 5G network in the country.
Check Mint Mobile coverage in your area using the coverage maps below.
Measure your cellular data speeds. Compare cellular coverage. Completely free.
Mint Mobile uses the T-Mobile network to provide coverage.
Since Mint Mobile relies on T-Mobile, its coverage is essentially the same as that of T-Mobile.
This means that Mint Mobile offers extensive 4G LTE and 5G coverage across the country.
Mint Mobile offers nationwide 5G coverage on T-Mobile’s 5G network.
T-Mobile currently covers about 323 million people with their 5G network, or about 97% of the U.S. population.
You can see 5G coverage on Mint Mobile's self-published coverage map.
Nationwide 4G LTE coverage is available on Mint Mobile thanks to T-Mobile’s extensive 4G LTE network, which covers 99% of Americans.
How good is Mint Mobile's coverage in each state?
Here is a full breakdown of what percentage of each state Mint Mobile has coverage, as well as what percentage of that coverage is great, good, or poor:
Data speeds play an important role for determining what your experience is like on a network. Fast speeds provide a great experience, while slow speeds make for a poor experience.
How fast are Mint Mobile's data speeds?
To find out, we analyzed the speed tests submitted as part of our crowd-sourced speed test map.
We found Mint Mobile had median download speeds that ranged from 13 Mbps in Alaska to 371 Mbps in the Washington, DC. Median upload speeds on Mint Mobile were between 5.5 Mbps in Mississippi and went up to 47.2 Mbps in Idaho. And Median latency was between 22 ms and 184 ms.
Since Mint Mobile runs on the T-Mobile network, coverage is about the same between the two carriers.
The only difference is that Mint Mobile doesn’t include domestic roaming.
Domestic roaming is where your phone switches to a partner network for coverage in areas where your primary network doesn’t have service.
For example, T-Mobile’s native network doesn’t have coverage in large parts of Nebraska. Instead, T-Mobile customers will roam on the Viaero Wireless network for coverage.
Viaero Wireless is a regional provider in Nebraska, and they made agreements with the three big carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T) so customers using the big three could roam on the Viaero Wireless network for service.
Unfortunately, Mint Mobile doesn’t have access to this roaming agreement, or others.
Mint Mobile coverage will be limited to what the native T-Mobile network offers.
You can see Mint Mobile’s exact coverage footprint on their website.
Mint Mobile coverage is a little bit worse than AT&T coverage.
AT&T covers more of the United States than Mint Mobile, with 74.6% total coverage compared to 59.5% total coverage.
However, Mint Mobile has a bigger 5G coverage footprint. Mint Mobile 5G covers 49% of the contiguous United States whereas AT&T 5G covers 41.4%:
You'll also get faster speeds on Mint Mobile, according to our crowd-sourced data.
Mint Mobile customers saw median download speeds of 152.3 Mbps, compared to 61.2 Mbps on AT&T. Upload speeds were faster on Mint Mobile, too, with a median performance of 17.3 Mbps. AT&T's median upload speeds were 11.3 Mbps.
In major cities, both Mint Mobile and AT&T will likely perform well, but in more rural areas AT&T may be a better option.
Check our AT&T coverage map to see what AT&T's coverage and data speeds look like in your area.
Mint Mobile’s coverage is a bit worse than Verizon’s coverage.
Verizon covers a whopping 71.5% of the area in the US, compared to 59.5% covered by Mint Mobile:
That said, Mint Mobile has substantially more 5G coverage than Verizon does. Mint Mobile has 49.0% 5G coverage compared to Verizon’s 14.7% 5G coverage.
According to our crowd-sourced speed test data, Mint Mobile also gets faster speeds than Verizon does.
Mint Mobile customers got median download speeds of 152.3 Mbps down and 17.3 Mbps up.
Verizon got median speeds of just 69 Mbps down and 9.3 Mbps up.
Both carriers will likely provide adequate coverage in major cities.
Outside of cities, Verizon’s greater overall coverage area may be beneficial.
Check our Verizon coverage map to see what Verizon's coverage footprint and data speeds look like in your area.
Mint Mobile uses T-Mobile towers to provide service.
Mint Mobile covers over 99% of Americans and it has one of the fastest overall networks in the country, so odds are you'll have good Mint Mobile coverage in your area.
Yes. All Mint Mobile plans include 5G at no extra cost. Mint Mobile's 5G network covers over 98% of Americans.
Mint Mobile offers pay per-use-rates for talk, text, and data roaming in Canada. The rates are $0.06 per minute, $0.02 per text, and $0.06 per MB ($60 per GB).
Mint Mobile offers pay-per-use rates for talk, text, and data roaming in Mexico. Mint Mobile's rates are $0.06 per minute, $0.02 per text, and $0.06 per MB ($60 per GB).
Yes, Mint Mobile offers international coverage at pay-per-use rates in a wide selection of countries. The rates for minutes, texts, and data vary by country. You can check what the specific rates are for the country you are visiting using this tool on Mint Mobile's website.