{"id":1117845,"date":"2023-03-15T12:45:46","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T16:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1117845"},"modified":"2023-03-15T12:45:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T16:45:46","slug":"hilariously-sad-my-great-mobile-provider-mint-will-sell-to-t-mobile-for-1-35b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1117845","title":{"rendered":"Hilariously sad: My great mobile provider, Mint, will sell to T-Mobile for $1.35B"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"rss-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tmob-and-mint-800x430-1.jpg\" alt=\"T-Mobile and Mint Mobile hugging\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"font-size:0.8em\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tmob-and-mint-scaled.jpg\" class=\"enlarge-link\" data-height=\"1377\" data-width=\"2560\">Enlarge<\/a> <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Hug it out, boys. <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div><a name=\"page-1\" \/><\/div>\n<p>As every Roman historian and Shakespeare fan knows, a soothsayer once told Caesar to beware the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ides_of_March\">Ides of March<\/a>, for on that day, dark and terrible things would happen. I like to think the message was intended for me, too, because today, my beloved low-cost wireless carrier, Mint Mobile, packed up its ironic communications style, its celebrity ownership, and its $15\/month plans&#8230; and agreed to sell them all to T-Mobile for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2023-03-15\/t-mobile-buys-mint-mobile-for-1-35-billion-keeping-ryan-reynolds-spokesman?leadSource=uverify%20wall\">$1.35 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Good for actor Ryan Reynolds, part-owner of Mint Mobile. As Reynolds <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/ryan-reynolds-backed-mint-mobile-143815373.html%20\">said in a statement<\/a>, &#8220;We are so happy T-Mobile beat out an aggressive last-minute bid from my mom Tammy Reynolds as we believe the excellence of their 5G network will provide a better strategic fit than my mom\u2019s slightly-above-average mahjong skills.&#8221; (Ha-ha!) Reynolds also released the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3i5-sGiWr-M\">funniest acquisition video<\/a> I have ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the news is depressing. Mint felt fresh; it was a wireless carrier with a slick website and app that worked (at least for me) simply and seamlessly, an irreverent and straight-talking style (Reynolds sent out <a href=\"https:\/\/comicbook.com\/irl\/news\/ryan-reynolds-mint-mobile-sending-subscribers-christmas-cards-surprise\/\">temp tattoos of his face<\/a> to subscribers for Christmas; they said, &#8220;No Ragrets&#8221;), and great prices. It all Just Worked<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/2122.png\" alt=\"&#x2122;\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em;max-height: 1em\" \/>. Now, I love a good value, but not at the cost of janky service, constant hiccups, and 2000-era websites like I saw at other cheap mobile providers. And it wasn&#8217;t just me; Mint racked up many recommendations, including the &#8220;best budget&#8221; wireless option from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/wirecutter\/reviews\/best-wireless-carrier\/\">Wirecutter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1924196#p3\">Read 4 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1924196&amp;comments=1\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource: Ars Technica &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1924196\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hilariously sad: My great mobile provider, Mint, will sell to T-Mobile for .35B<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enlarge \/ Hug it out, boys. As every Roman historian and Shakespeare fan knows, a soothsayer once told Caesar to beware the Ides of March, for on that day, dark and terrible things would happen. I like to think the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1117845\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1117846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1117845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1117845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1117846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1117845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1117845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1117845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}