T-Mobile Acquires Mint Mobile

T-Mobile announced that it has acquired the parent company of Mint Mobile—the highly rated Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) partially owned by actor Ryan Reynolds—in a deal valued at $1.35 billion. The company, called Ka’ena Corporation, also owned another affordable, prepaid MVNO, Ultra Mobile.

“This combination is a win-win all around, a perfect pairing of highly complementary brands coming together on our industry-best 5G network to continue shaking things up for the benefit of customers,” T-Mobile president Mike Katz said. “We are excited to maintain the unique style and entrepreneurial spirit that make Mint and Ultra truly special, while also finding ways to supercharge their growth and leverage some of the secrets of that success into other areas of our business.”

Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile both leased T-Mobile’s extensive 5G cellular network in the United States, so this acquisition locks them into that ecosystem for the long term. But it looks like T-Mobile is going to offer Mint Mobile customers, in particular, a best-of-both-worlds opportunity that combines the best of that service with some new T-Mobile perks, and without raising prices.

For starters, T-Mobile is committed to maintaining Mint Mobile’s $15 per month plan for new and existing customers. This plan is prepaid for 3 months for a total cost of $45 and provides 5 GB of 5G data and unlimited phone calls and texts in the US.

But T-Mobile will also address some of the issues that caused me to leave this otherwise terrific service. Mint Mobile customers will soon gain access to Ultra Mobile’s Scam Screener safety feature to protect them against scam calls. They are also getting free roaming in Canada—with unlimited talk and text, and 3 GB of high-speed data—and enhanced data roaming in Mexico that should significantly improve the pointless current offering.

Looking ahead, T-Mobile says it will “continue to find even more ways to supercharge the Mint and Ultra customer experience, all on the same leading 5G network they already enjoy.”

You can explore the Mint Mobile plans on the Mint Mobile website. Likewise, you can view the Ultra Mobile plans on the Ultra Mobile website.