Mint QR for E-Sim

[Tech Junky]

So, I got sick of the app not letting me convert to esm or the website not letting me order a new line with esim. I went to Target to take advantage of their current $25 GC deal on all SIM purchases. I had some stuff to consume the GC anyway and picked up the first sim from one location and the GC and purchased the other items with the GC. I wet to another location to grab another one since I had some other items but, they didn't have a sim but I spotted a handout for the esim version w/ the QR code needed to sign up. Of course you can just tell Mint you have a different device they do support online with a browser and generate the QR needed to tie it to the phone post sale but, that's just more hoops to jump through. I tried before getting them to convert a sim to esim but, they were being dumb about it and couldn't get the auth txt they were sending for some reason.

Anyway..... so, you scan this code, it errors out, but when you open the app it gives you the sign up process if you have a valid IMEI that they say is esim compatible. Of course, you have to have an internet connection either through your existing provider or even Mint themselves to get the app to load / sign up.

The "help" section says if you have a compatible device to switch to esim you can do it through the app by requesting a new sim and picking the esim option. The issue here is if you're not using a whitelisted device the app doesn't give you the option nor does the website through account management. It's supposed to be simple and it's an utter mess in reality unless you jump through the hoops upon sign up initially or have an iphone/pixel/et al.

For the sake of having less issues I would advise moving your number to Google Voice for $20 and not be dependent on Mint for porting or any other carrier for that matter which makes switching to cheaper plans / providers considerably easier if you depend on the number to work. Using GV you can still make calls on your phone / PC with an internet connection regardless of what's going on with the "sim" if they run into a snag during provisioning. Some people mention anywhere from 5-30 mins and others have run into days of sorting things out. I've run into an issue before with a trial sim for 7-days of data / voice / sms trying to convert it once it's spent and they had to manually provision it to make it work w/o sending a new card.

 

[drinkingbird]

So, I got sick of the app not letting me convert to esm or the website not letting me order a new line with esim. I went to Target to take advantage of their current $25 GC deal on all SIM purchases. I had some stuff to consume the GC anyway and picked up the first sim from one location and the GC and purchased the other items with the GC. I wet to another location to grab another one since I had some other items but, they didn't have a sim but I spotted a handout for the esim version w/ the QR code needed to sign up. Of course you can just tell Mint you have a different device they do support online with a browser and generate the QR needed to tie it to the phone post sale but, that's just more hoops to jump through. I tried before getting them to convert a sim to esim but, they were being dumb about it and couldn't get the auth txt they were sending for some reason.

Anyway..... so, you scan this code, it errors out, but when you open the app it gives you the sign up process if you have a valid IMEI that they say is esim compatible. Of course, you have to have an internet connection either through your existing provider or even Mint themselves to get the app to load / sign up.

The "help" section says if you have a compatible device to switch to esim you can do it through the app by requesting a new sim and picking the esim option. The issue here is if you're not using a whitelisted device the app doesn't give you the option nor does the website through account management. It's supposed to be simple and it's an utter mess in reality unless you jump through the hoops upon sign up initially or have an iphone/pixel/et al.

For the sake of having less issues I would advise moving your number to Google Voice for $20 and not be dependent on Mint for porting or any other carrier for that matter which makes switching to cheaper plans / providers considerably easier if you depend on the number to work. Using GV you can still make calls on your phone / PC with an internet connection regardless of what's going on with the "sim" if they run into a snag during provisioning. Some people mention anywhere from 5-30 mins and others have run into days of sorting things out. I've run into an issue before with a trial sim for 7-days of data / voice / sms trying to convert it once it's spent and they had to manually provision it to make it work w/o sending a new card.

Not sure what this has to do with this forum, but you're upset that your phone is not compatible with esim.... and it won't let you use an esim? Get a Psim and be done with it. I have mint and started with physical SIM, switched to esim, then went back to physical, all were smooth and took like 30 seconds. With some phones there are hacks/workarounds to get an esim to install if it isn't on their supported list but why go through the hassle?

If you really want to do it you can try activating on their website which will give you another QR code which you scan and download, but if your phone is not compatible with their esim it may very well error out or not work.

A lot of people have found that bank 2FA etc will not work to a google voice number so you have to keep that in mind if you go that route instead of porting the number directly to your mint acct.

 

[Tech Junky]

but you're upset that your phone is not compatible with esim

No, the issue I have is with Mint being slow on updating their whitelist of newer phones with esim.

I guess I was being naïve to think that providers had their S together enough to activate QR based Sims since they were hyping it up with new releases.

The funny part is for instance TMO through a browser will say it's compatible but, the app won't on the phone itself but, to get their trial you have to use the app.

There seems to be a disconnect in the provisioning systems that tie everything together.

A lot of people have found that bank 2FA etc

I have plenty of that going on as well and it works just fine. When in doubt open the app. It also links directly to the embedded phone apps just fine.

 

[drinkingbird]

No, the issue I have is with Mint being slow on updating their whitelist of newer phones with esim.

I guess I was being naïve to think that providers had their S together enough to activate QR based Sims since they were hyping it up with new releases.

The funny part is for instance TMO through a browser will say it's compatible but, the app won't on the phone itself but, to get their trial you have to use the app.

There seems to be a disconnect in the provisioning systems that tie everything together.


I have plenty of that going on as well and it works just fine. When in doubt open the app. It also links directly to the embedded phone apps just fine.

When a new phone isn't on their list just select one that is, it will let you activate the esim via their website then install with QR code they email to you. But generally safer to use physical sim in those cases.

 

[sfx2000]

I'm also a Mint subscriber, it's great service for the price.

With Mint, there's definitely room for improvement on their eSIM implementation... my son has an iPhone 14 Pro, which is eSIM only (grrr) and it was a big hassle getting it going proper.

Physical SIM on my test OnePlus Nord N20 - plug the physical SIM and it just worked...

 

[Tech Junky]

So, of course I'm up for renewal and the app now shows esim as a replacement option. However the app doesn't have the $15/mo UNL option and the website doesn't see the OP11 as compatible yet and still lists the apple / samsung / google options.

So, went ahead and played the game and put down the OP11 as a Pixel 7 Pro and hit order. Might as well take the boosted data limit as the same price as 5GB/mo. I don't foresee using 40GB/mo though other than running some speed tests.

 

[drinkingbird]

So, of course I'm up for renewal and the app now shows esim as a replacement option. However the app doesn't have the $15/mo UNL option and the website doesn't see the OP11 as compatible yet and still lists the apple / samsung / google options.

So, went ahead and played the game and put down the OP11 as a Pixel 7 Pro and hit order. Might as well take the boosted data limit as the same price as 5GB/mo. I don't foresee using 40GB/mo though other than running some speed tests.

Keep in mind you only get that rate for 3 months and they make downgrading your plan semi difficult (but can be done by chatting/calling if it won't work via the site). After 3 months it jumps back to $35/mo for the "unlimited" 40G plan. Also keep in mind on that plan you only get 10G of hotspot (which was recently bumped from 5G).

It is interesting that they are offering it to "new and online customers only". Their promos have always require a new number port in and device not used in the last 90 days. I actually read that fine print as meaning you have to be new *and* online but if you were able to get it as an existing customer, guess they may be trying to get people to upgrade and thus pay more in the future.

The best "bang for buck" for existing customers is the 15G for $20 per month since the entire 15G can be used for hotspot, but in my case I hardly use 1G a month so I just stick with the $15 plan. I've done enough referrals that I've gotten 2 years free at that rate and still have enough for another year.....

 

[Tech Junky]

@drinkingbird

Well aware of the gotchas. I signed up for a new line since the existing one is expiring. Since it has two IMEI as a dual sim phone the only other way to track would be by user info required to sign up.

10GB of HS data is fine. If I really needed more I would go for the 20GB plan where you can use all of it for HS. Actually I would go to Tello instead and get the full 40GB for $29/mo

Terms & Conditions | Mint Mobile

Review the terms and conditions for all Mint Mobile prepaid phone plans.

www.mintmobile.com

Not to mention sales tax / misc BS fees they tack on.

If they sold the same promo in store I could save off ~$5 total which isn't worth the cost of gas and going to the store to find the sign up option.

I think there's a bit of a loophole for sign up due to the pending TMO deal and/or the fact that I signed up for a new # / plan / esim vs upgrading or adding a line within the online / app account management option. There's usually a big promo like this outside of new phone purchases through Mint maybe twice a year. Considering i also got a free month out of them with their Feb promo it's not a bad year to Mint some savings.


The true test will be when I actually activate it later and see if they prorate the bundle or not. I don't recall if they use to check user info at checkout or not but, that would be the way to stop people from signing up for 3 month periods more efficiently. They might have just given up on forcing renewals though with the pending sale to hey their sub count up to get more money at closing of the deal. There's always shenanigans when it comes to telco stuff. Even the cable industry does it but, they tend to be worse at inflating final costs. I think I read something about legislation being proposed to force showing the total monthly costs but, then again legislators have been trying to do that for decades. It's a given with TV/ISP services your bill will jump at least $30/mo after the promo period.

 

[drinkingbird]

@drinkingbird

Well aware of the gotchas. I signed up for a new line since the existing one is expiring. Since it has two IMEI as a dual sim phone the only other way to track would be by user info required to sign up.

10GB of HS data is fine. If I really needed more I would go for the 20GB plan where you can use all of it for HS. Actually I would go to Tello instead and get the full 40GB for $29/mo

Terms & Conditions | Mint Mobile

Review the terms and conditions for all Mint Mobile prepaid phone plans.

www.mintmobile.com

Not to mention sales tax / misc BS fees they tack on.


If they sold the same promo in store I could save off ~$5 total which isn't worth the cost of gas and going to the store to find the sign up option.

I think there's a bit of a loophole for sign up due to the pending TMO deal and/or the fact that I signed up for a new # / plan / esim vs upgrading or adding a line within the online / app account management option. There's usually a big promo like this outside of new phone purchases through Mint maybe twice a year. Considering i also got a free month out of them with their Feb promo it's not a bad year to Mint some savings.


The true test will be when I actually activate it later and see if they prorate the bundle or not. I don't recall if they use to check user info at checkout or not but, that would be the way to stop people from signing up for 3 month periods more efficiently. They might have just given up on forcing renewals though with the pending sale to hey their sub count up to get more money at closing of the deal. There's always shenanigans when it comes to telco stuff. Even the cable industry does it but, they tend to be worse at inflating final costs. I think I read something about legislation being proposed to force showing the total monthly costs but, then again legislators have been trying to do that for decades. It's a given with TV/ISP services your bill will jump at least $30/mo after the promo period.

Just FYI on dual SIM phones, IMEI 1 is always transmitted out during activation as your phone's identifier. They validate during activation so you may not get the deal. But many have found they seem to be much more into making sure you are using a new number (many deals actually require you to port in during activation and won't let you skip it, but that's not the case with this one) than the IMEI. The IMEI seems to be YMMV, hit or miss.

 

[Tech Junky]

IMEI

I know w/ ATT / VZW / TMO direct sales want you to port to make sure they're stealing a customer from each other. Usually in the MVNO realm though it's not a big deal which is why they usually do trials w/o a port.

Since the dual pSIM phones have dual IMEI + EID (esim) it's mostly just checking the brand like you would a MAC lookup using the OUI DB for a vendor translation and of course checking blacklisting of the phone itself. However, if someone loses their phone there's a good chance they don't have both IMEI's recorded somewhere and it's not 100% the provider actually has them either even if they sold the handset and it's not a secondhand.

I'll know more when I actually activate it later though. Should show up fairly quickly in the online / app shortly after activation whether it's a prorate situation or not. If they want to be idiots about it then I'll just fill out the refund form and move over to Tello and call it a day. There's a reason I don't tie my # to a sim anymore. I trust these companies to actually work by using the plan for the worst and hope for the best method. Figuring they can't mess it up too badly if it's a new line rather than portng. Tello makes you sign up for a new line and then port which tends to work better. At least if there's an issue you still have service while they work it out. Portin to Tello was actually pretty quick last time I did it. It happened faster than a reboot of the phone.

 

[drinkingbird]

I know w/ ATT / VZW / TMO direct sales want you to port to make sure they're stealing a customer from each other. Usually in the MVNO realm though it's not a big deal which is why they usually do trials w/o a port.

Since the dual pSIM phones have dual IMEI + EID (esim) it's mostly just checking the brand like you would a MAC lookup using the OUI DB for a vendor translation and of course checking blacklisting of the phone itself. However, if someone loses their phone there's a good chance they don't have both IMEI's recorded somewhere and it's not 100% the provider actually has them either even if they sold the handset and it's not a secondhand.

I'll know more when I actually activate it later though. Should show up fairly quickly in the online / app shortly after activation whether it's a prorate situation or not. If they want to be idiots about it then I'll just fill out the refund form and move over to Tello and call it a day. There's a reason I don't tie my # to a sim anymore. I trust these companies to actually work by using the plan for the worst and hope for the best method. Figuring they can't mess it up too badly if it's a new line rather than portng. Tello makes you sign up for a new line and then port which tends to work better. At least if there's an issue you still have service while they work it out. Portin to Tello was actually pretty quick last time I did it. It happened faster than a reboot of the phone.

Mint basically wants to ensure they're getting new customers and preferably not ones from t-mobile (a lot of their referral bonuses give extra for bringing someone from Verizon or AT&T). I've gotten $100 per referral several times for people coming from those two. I paid for my first year of service, something like $195 with the fees, and have gotten the next 3 years free from referrals (no taxes charged when you use credits to renew too). My company gives me $40 per month for phone so its a money maker for me

Have been very happy with their service, there are two areas around here that have data congestion, both shopping areas that are always packed, but I had the same issue in the same areas when on AT&T and real T-Mobile. So I may be suffering a bit more in those areas from de-prioritization but it was so slow before it is kind of moot. There are open wifi networks available and I just fire up VPN if I need to use it. Actually sometimes manually switching to 4G actually gives me fast, usable data in those areas. At home (they haven't even rolled out the new UW bands on my tower yet) it is about 200 megs throughput on PCS band 2/1900mhz, more than enough (of course I'm usually on wifi anyway but nice to have a backup in case my internet goes down).

Of course their support is kind of lousy, even if you know what you're doing and tell them exactly what they need to do, a lot of them are clueless. So that's the tradeoff. Hasn't been an issue for me, the couple times I've needed it I've been able to get to someone (usually the Alex account on their reddit) that can take care of it.

 

[Tech Junky]

@drinkingbird

It's always a toss up for support no matter the company. That's a moot point to debate.

I'm usually o n41 for 5G and can get out 600/100 typically. Now on the TMHI side it's not as quick where I have it placed or really anywhere because I'm directly under the site antennas and the GW is kind of dumb at triangulating the best signal approach for optimum speed. Phone on the other hand works great.

There's some news though in Aug/Oct they're releasing new GW's with different modems that could boost bandwidth with CA to 220MHZ of spectrum using a dual connection.

Report: T-Mobile Will Be Offering Two New Gateway Devices Soon

T-Mobile’s Home Internet service seems to be something that the Un-carrier plans to offer permanently. Although there are still some issues, T-Mobile is working on these to make its customers pleased with the experience. Ever since the service launched, there have only been a handful of internet...

www.tmonews.com

Checking right now between LTE/5G I've got 105MHZ to play with.

Of course while writing this Mint expired and sent an SMS to say so. Portal shows it expired as well. This is a pet peeve though as it should be valid util midnight rather than expiring in the middle of the day. Yet another reason to wait until later in the day to activate the new plan period.

 

[drinkingbird]

@drinkingbird

It's always a toss up for support no matter the company. That's a moot point to debate.

I'm usually o n41 for 5G and can get out 600/100 typically. Now on the TMHI side it's not as quick where I have it placed or really anywhere because I'm directly under the site antennas and the GW is kind of dumb at triangulating the best signal approach for optimum speed. Phone on the other hand works great.

There's some news though in Aug/Oct they're releasing new GW's with different modems that could boost bandwidth with CA to 220MHZ of spectrum using a dual connection.

Report: T-Mobile Will Be Offering Two New Gateway Devices Soon

T-Mobile’s Home Internet service seems to be something that the Un-carrier plans to offer permanently. Although there are still some issues, T-Mobile is working on these to make its customers pleased with the experience. Ever since the service launched, there have only been a handful of internet...

www.tmonews.com

Checking right now between LTE/5G I've got 105MHZ to play with.

Of course while writing this Mint expired and sent an SMS to say so. Portal shows it expired as well. This is a pet peeve though as it should be valid util midnight rather than expiring in the middle of the day. Yet another reason to wait until later in the day to activate the new plan period.

Yeah its a bit odd in my area. If I go into diagnostics, right after connecting I can see dual band 2 and 41, but 41 never gets a connection then disappears. My guess is it is the old 41 band and just hasn't been updated to 5G n41 yet, but the phone doesn't know that so attempts to connect. But I'm not worried, 200 is plenty for if/when I need to use it.

Yeah my plan "refills" each month right around the time of day I signed up. So they literally give you exactly a year (or whatever term you sign for) to the minute it looks like.

 

[Tech Junky]

hasn't been updated to 5G n41 yet,

I suppose that's a possibility since both LTE/5G use the same frequencies per band / channel. The handshake determines which speed / setup you get to use. If it can't complete the handshake then it makes sense it would drop it. Getting 200mbps out of b41 though is pretty decent.

b/n71 the 600mhz kind of sucks even though it gives better penetration the spectrum isn't there for speed.

I noticed something though in the presser above regarding n77 / C band which has been all of the fuss from the last FCC spectrum auction. Doesn't help most though if they're not sitting on top of a site @ 3.5ghz.

Always evolving and beating ATT/VZW in the process by buying Sprint for pure spectrum purposes and nothing else. Not sad to see that PCS junk gone finally. Now the other two just need to get their S together and compete. All 3 though really need to consider dropping their monthly fees or offer a truly stripped down plan w/o all of the gimmicks to inflate the price. Dish might pull a rabbit out of the hat going pure 5G and skipping the other BS that has dragged on since the 90's. Could get interesting if they have the capital to provide current site equipment out of the gate. Haven't really been paying attn to them though since they've always been that gnat buzzing around but not doing much.

 

[drinkingbird]

I suppose that's a possibility since both LTE/5G use the same frequencies per band / channel. The handshake determines which speed / setup you get to use. If it can't complete the handshake then it makes sense it would drop it. Getting 200mbps out of b41 though is pretty decent.

b/n71 the 600mhz kind of sucks even though it gives better penetration the spectrum isn't there for speed.

I noticed something though in the presser above regarding n77 / C band which has been all of the fuss from the last FCC spectrum auction. Doesn't help most though if they're not sitting on top of a site @ 3.5ghz.

Always evolving and beating ATT/VZW in the process by buying Sprint for pure spectrum purposes and nothing else. Not sad to see that PCS junk gone finally. Now the other two just need to get their S together and compete. All 3 though really need to consider dropping their monthly fees or offer a truly stripped down plan w/o all of the gimmicks to inflate the price. Dish might pull a rabbit out of the hat going pure 5G and skipping the other BS that has dragged on since the 90's. Could get interesting if they have the capital to provide current site equipment out of the gate. Haven't really been paying attn to them though since they've always been that gnat buzzing around but not doing much.

Actually I'm on band 2, it appears that it sees the 41, tries to use it as the second band for UC as n41 (T-Mobile is using NSA in most areas, LTE band primary and NR for secondary/high speed data) but then fails to connect to that one as it is probably still b41 in my area. Either that or my tower simply isn't letting MVNOs use band n41. I've toyed with APN settings and gotten new SIMs etc to no avail, but that was mostly just for learning purposes, I'm not looking to exceed the speed I already get.

What is a bit confusing to me is that my phone shows 5G and 200 meg should only be possible with n2, so I guess it is first attempting b2+n41 (common combo for t-mobile) and then failing back to n2 non-UC (not even sure if that is possible with t-mobile in NSA mode, maybe they support SA for non-UC areas). Without rooting my phone (I can't since my company apps will detect and not let me connect) I can't see a lot of details so have to do a bit of guesswork.

Regardless though 200M on band 2 even in NR mode is pretty good. The antenna is a couple hundred feet away hidden under a steeple on top of an old school and my area is suburban with not many "power users". Given that we have both Comcast and FIOS offering good internet deals, don't think anyone is using TMHI here (and even if they were, it gets lower priority than even my MVNO phone). So they must own a pretty good chunk of contiguous 1900mhz spectrum here.

Yeah I'm not really concerned with n71, it's good that it will be used in areas with poor signal today so at least the coverage will be better, but I wouldn't want to be using it for data regularly.

At least we're at the point where PCS, CDMA, GSM, etc are all gone for the most part finally and everyone is on the same standard (well, other than the NSA vs SA but that's still the same frequencies and technologies essentially).

 

[Tech Junky]

Nothing wrong with 71 but, for speeds it's iirc 50mbps where 41 gets me 200mbps unless I take it outside and then it goes up to 600. I've seen some other regions hitting closer to 2gbps though and get a little envy seeing those numbers. Knowing there's a new modem coming in a few months makes me hopeful to unlock more bandwidth. Just have to be patient and see if they'll open the door for swapping it out. I'd have to put it back to look like I didn't deconstruct it for external antenna testing to send it back. Maybe go through mpcs and buy the new unit since it's all the same other than being loaned while using the service. I think mpcs sells the kvd21 for $100 or around there but TMO wants it back or pay $350 for it.

 

[Tech Junky]

esim activation w/ new number worked flawlessly.

Went from the email receipt to the prompts to setup or port a number and clicked through them and DL the sim to the phone. Since the pSIM was deactivated I was on wifi for the activation but, even w/ a deactivated pSIM it was still whitelisted to connect to Mint to make a payment / reactivate the prior #.

Now to see if the plan sticks even with the prior account with the "new customer" caveat attached.

 

[sfx2000]

Now to see if the plan sticks even with the prior account with the "new customer" caveat attached.

If you got this far, it should stick - normally checks like this are in the billing system during activation...

 

[sfx2000]

Always evolving and beating ATT/VZW in the process by buying Sprint for pure spectrum purposes and nothing else. Not sad to see that PCS junk gone finally. Now the other two just need to get their S together and compete. All 3 though really need to consider dropping their monthly fees or offer a truly stripped down plan w/o all of the gimmicks to inflate the price. Dish might pull a rabbit out of the hat going pure 5G and skipping the other BS that has dragged on since the 90's. Could get interesting if they have the capital to provide current site equipment out of the gate. Haven't really been paying attn to them though since they've always been that gnat buzzing around but not doing much.

ATT-Cricket
VZW - Visibile
TMO - MetroPCS (and now Mint) - that should be interesting how that sorts out as it was Metro influence inside the company that got them (TMO) down the path of being the "uncarrier" in the first place...

DISH - they're a bit of a hot-mess at the moment - mostly because their cash-cow is dying, the satellite TV business, yes, they have SlingTV as an OTT option, but that's an incredibly competitive business there, and their 5G build out is capital intense to say the least...

That being said, DISH is a well managed business, and they know the road ahead is rough to say the least - I certainly hope they are successful on the 5G buildout, as this will keep prices reasonable for mobile service - otherwise we'll see a replay of Canada where mobile pricing is very high...

 

[Tech Junky]

If you got this far, it should stick - normally checks like this are in the billing system during activation...

Yeah, I would think so too but, there's the always the chance of it changing.

Metro was agile when it came to innovation and TMO is a bit of a bureaucracy when it comes to execution. From the engineering standpoint metro managed a small team of 6-8 engineers on the ops side and maybe 10 more on the design side. TMO has several small groups though depending on the gear being touched. But when I say small it's 20/team. Different animals in terms of budget and revenue but if things scaled based on headcount TMO should be handling north America and not just the US. Not to mention TMO having several regional Noc locations and call centers. Recent news though shows them cutting back to only 5 locations now that the cuffs from the sprint deal are off.

VZW on the other hand is just as massive and cluttered with processes to get things done. I do like how they scale though with regional network hubs in being able to segment things more.

Never had to deal with att though from an internal standpoint. But dealt with them on the end user side enough to know they need a massive overhaul.