

Mint's plans are prepaid, so you need to pay for your minutes (and data) in advance. Mint's phone compatibility checker came in handy when I wanted to see if I could “bring” my phone with me if I signed up with Mint. I just typed in my brand and model, and voilá. The final check - phone compatibility - was easy with Mint's phone compatibility checker (see below). For instance, if I had signed a three-year contract with Verizon for my iPhone, I couldn't have taken that phone and started using Mint.

Unlocked phones, by the way, are just phones not tied to any particular carrier. But first, I had to make sure it was compatible and unlocked. More on this below.) I just brought my own phone, or BYOP, as they say at Mint Mobile. So I was relieved that I didn't have to buy a phone through Mint to use their service.

Rather than pushing new phones with multi-year contracts on new customers, Mint Mobile lets you bring your own phone. Running the Mint Phone Compatibility Checker In other words, when you make a call with Mint, you're actually connecting to one of T-Mobile's towers. Mint Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means it piggybacks off the infrastructure of another mobile provider in this case, T-Mobile. 5G connections can reach speeds of 10 gigabits per second (download).
