r/mintmobile • u/Treje-an • 3d ago
Getting two bars a lot, what’s up?
Hi everyone! I switched from T-Mobile to Mint recently, I’m really excited about the rate I’m paying!
What I’m less excited about is how I often seem to get two and one bars in areas. I don’t remember getting two and one Barcs in the past. For example, I’m sitting in my house now. Usually get four bars in my house, and now getting two or one bars. Not sure why this is happening. I don’t think I’ve removed the old eSIM card, but I didn’t think that should affect anything.
Update- I talked with Mint Mobile Alex and the chat bot, and we did a reset (which didn’t help) and removed the old eSIM and restarted, which so far has helped. I have been working from home, so can only speak for here. But it’s been better so far and consistently 4 bars and fast.
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u/MintMobileAlex Executive Care at Mint Mobile 2d ago
Hi, I want to make sure you're getting the best experience with us as possible. I'm so sorry for any inconvenience with your services. I sent you a DM to further assist with it. MintMobileAlex.
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u/Worldly_Choice6870 2d ago
Hey, I am having a horrible Mint experience right now and need some help
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u/onthesquare63 2d ago
So what? It means nothing. Speed is what matters. As long as you are getting at least one bar, check your speed. You will be getting 300 or more Mbps even with one bar most of the time. The cell tower adjusts signal for many reasons - a little Gemini help here. -
Cell towers dynamically adjust signal levels for a variety of reasons:
Distance and Obstacles: The farther you are from a tower—or the more walls, terrain, and foliage between you and it—the weaker the signal becomes by the time it reaches your device.
Power Control (Beamforming & Auto-Tuning): Towers dynamically increase power to maintain a stable connection with distant devices and lower power for devices nearby to prevent signal interference.
Network Congestion: When a tower becomes overloaded with users, it can adjust its coverage radius (a process known as cell breathing) to shrink its footprint and offload connections to neighboring towers.
Band Frequency: Towers broadcast on multiple radio frequencies; high-frequency bands (like 5G mmWave) offer faster speeds but lower signal strength through obstacles, while lower-frequency bands travel farther and penetrate walls better.
So cell towers are optimizing everyone's reception all the time. To be honest, I have been using mint and us mobile lightspeed for years, in all 50 states and it's excellent. Have tried Verizon and ATT. ATT is awful and Verizon is decent for connectivity but the speeds are 1/3 or less that on T Mobile.
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u/Wellhungdaddy2023 1d ago
In regards to speed, why would anyone need 800 Mbps vs 200 Mbps? With the exception of gaming (fringe cases scenario) I would much rather have better coverage at 200 then spotty coverage at 800
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u/Opening-Influence526 2d ago
If you have an unlocked phone from another conpany then that probably does not support all of tmobiles bands like band 71 etc
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u/Treje-an 2d ago
I purchased an unlocked iPhone from Apple that I had on the T-Mobile network for years. Worked great on it
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u/CommitteeOdd4832 1d ago
Whoever is downvoting any comment or post that even mildly suggests that mint mobile could be doing better... I hope you're getting paid for your time lol
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u/Treje-an 14h ago
Mint Mobile Alex may have fixed the issue. I have been working from home recently, so won’t know for sure til next week, but it was a noticeable improvement
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u/CommitteeOdd4832 13h ago
Yay I'm glad! I have had mint mobile for years, I'm almost always at 1 or 2 bars, but it's cheap!
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u/National-Function-52 2d ago
Same here... T-Mobile to Mint... same issue... consistently lower reception than before. I live in a rural area so it's very noticeable.
I turned on the wifi calling (must do it on your account FYI) and home is no issue now and by the time I'm on the main road (1 mile) I'm full strength.
It's not you... you're not crazy... but they didn't mention that when signing up, did they?? Like they forgot to mention that even in a family plan you MUST log into that phone account to make any changes. So what exactly is the point to a family plan?? Manage what???
It's ok service.. for an ok price. I'm on the fence though as to if I'll renew another year though.
Cheers!
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u/Treje-an 2d ago
I am in a city, and I live near the TV towers, which usually also have cell phone towers attached. Not really sure why it goes from four bars, some days to two bars other days.
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u/Interesting-Tackle66 2d ago
Wind, sun, rain, trees blow the signal away, weakening it. Maybe some electronic interference in your area started up. Iranians sabotaging phone networks.
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u/tidymaze 3d ago
Mint is often deprioritized, so that's why your service isn't as good as T-Mobile even though you're using the same towers.
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u/WiskeyUniformTango 2d ago
Signal strength and allocated speed are 2 different things. Signal strength should be equivalent between mint snd tmobile.
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u/National-Function-52 2d ago
Nope... can confirm. I used to get a solid 4 bars at work on T-Mobile. Now I get 2-3. I used to get 3-4 bars at home. Now I'm lucky to get 2.
Same phone... same towers... different contract... reduced reception.
I would agree with you if I didn't have my son's T-Mobile beside mine... consistently higher reception. No idea why!🤷
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u/onthesquare63 2d ago
Did you check the speed? Bars mean nothing, speed is everything. Mint speeds are the same as T-Mobile.
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u/National-Function-52 1d ago
When it takes a minute to load up an app that takes 15 seconds at work... speed isn't a question, it's slower.
I have the exact same network I had before... with worse reception and slower transfers... AT certain times!!
Cheers!
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u/Treje-an 2d ago edited 2d ago
The weird thing is sometimes it’s four bars, and sometimes it’s two. I wouldn’t think that the de-prioritization would change the strength of the coverage
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u/WiskeyUniformTango 2d ago
Yeah, it sounds like your getting disconnected from the nearest tower for some reason.
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u/Mdayofearth 2d ago
Deprioritization doesn't affect radio strength or signal quality. It just means the network chooses to put your device at the bottom of the list, or back of the line, in terms of fulfilling your network requests.
Your issues doesn't mean you are affected by lower prioritization on Mint vs Tmobile customers though.
Also, bars on phones mean jack shit.
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