Mint Mobile Removes Unlimited Data Cap, Upgrades Hotspot to 10GB

Mint Mobile announced today that its unlimited plan, which was a classic “unlimited” in the sense that it wasn’t actually unlimited, is now unlimited. In other words, they used to have data caps on their supposedly-unlimited plan, but those are now gone.

This upgraded Mint Mobile Unlimited plan is now pretty close to being truly unlimited after the plan’s 40GB data cap was removed. You see, Mint used to reduce your mobile speeds to 3G if you hit 40GB in a month, all while claiming you could technically still use an unlimited amount of data. They aren’t alone in this shady business, by the way, as almost every carrier has some form of this fake unlimited plan nonsense or at least used to.

However, going forward, the plan’s cap is gone and it appears that you can use as much data as you want. Well, almost! There is still something you need to understand here. While you may be able to use all sorts of data – like 100GB in a month, as an example – without being dropped to 3G, there may be times where you are throttled. In the new network management policy (here) that accompanies this unlimited change, the following note has been added:

Specifically, “Heavy Data Users” (currently defined as customers who have purchased a Mint Unlimited Service Plan, including our Unlimited Plan and Unnecessary Plan, and who use more than 35GB of data in a monthly billing cycle) will have their data usage prioritized below the data usage (including tethering) of other customers at times and at locations where there are competing customer demands for network resources, which may result in slower data speeds.

To recap that paragraph, Mint Mobile is saying that if you use 35GB of data in a billing cycle you would be labeled a “Heavy Data User.” If that’s you, should you find yourself in a network situation where the network could be under heavy load and with a lot of other customers, they could drop your data connection to a lower tier than others, giving you slower speeds. While this also sounds bad, it is classic carrier “unlimited” talk. They’ll give you all the fast data you can consume as long as you aren’t in a heavy network usage situation with over 35GB consumed in a billing cycle.

Remember this post from 2018 where we called “Unlimited” the “most meaningless word in wireless?” It still rings quite true. All of the unlimited plans have limits.

Oh, Mint Mobile is also doubling hotspot on their Unlimited plan from 5GB to 10GB per month. That’s nice.

Both new and existing customers on the Mint Unlimited plan will see these changes.

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