anyone had luck with these fly-by night cell carriers?

Yeah, they're fine. I use RedPocket for my daughters phone because it's like $120 for a whole year of phone service. They're often better than the 'pure' networks because they can fall back to AT&T when T-Mobile is down, etc. Often times they aren't only on a single network. Hell, Mint was doing so well that T-Mobile ended up buying them (probably to dissolve them, honestly)

I love Mint I get service for $180 a year
- How? How do these companies exist and stay running?
  
  They ride on T-Mobile's network, so they have lower priority. Also, support is terrible and almost non-existent. I use Mint myself and it's been ok. It's great until you run into an issue, and it can be hell to get it resolved. If it works though, you should be fine, that's why you should always use the trial sim first so you can test for 7 days if it works on your phone and if you have good reception in the places you're usually at.

Didn't t-mobile buy Mint?
- Maybe. Probably. Who can keep track?

I've been on Google Fi for 3 or 4 years and it's been pretty much flawless. I've traveled to Mexico and Spain with it, and there's a sort of calibration period of like 30 minutes before you have service in another country, but that's literally the only time I've been without service for any period of time. My wife and I are on it and use very little data, so covering both phones is typically about $60/month. We usually have 5G service around our home in northern VA.
Proof of bill cost:
- I've been using Google Fi since 2016. When I worked from home, my bill was $25-$35/mo. I work outside the home now and my bill has been higher, so thanks for the reminder I should probably look into switching.
  WFH bills:
  Working outside the home:
  
  Lol happy to help! Yeah, nowadays it's easy to hit a gig in data usage without even realizing you've used any at all. I wish the unlimited tier were cheaper. It feels like we have gotten to a point where we should be able to use GPS or do a Google search without considering a cost. Kinda feels like if anything, they should be paying us for allowing into our pocket this ever changing billboard that scrapes our metadata. But that's unrealistic to get anyone else onboard with, so I'll settle for free connectivity to knowledge in exchange for advertising and spying on me.

I've been on US Mobile for several years. You can choose between the Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T networks. I'm on the Verizon SIM. Yes, you are deprioritized. No, it's not an issue.
I've been very impressed with US Mobile's support, though I've only needed it a couple times.

I've had some experience with Mint Mobile, but couldn't get it to activate where I live. The sim worked fine visiting Vegas, but back in my home state, even though it runs on T-Mobile's network and T-Mobile was fine, the same sim with a phone number with an area code in my home state didn't work in my home state. So, maybe it works, but the one time I tried it wouldn't work and Mint couldn't get it working just kept saying everything is fine and it should be working.
Tried StraightTalk Wireless after that, 2 different sims so far, no issues, other than I had to get a new sim when the account was inactive for 6 to 8 months. But at least now their sim packs come with both Verizon and notVerizon compatible sims in the same pack now.
- What state are you in? I'm in VA and considering going from Google Fi to Mint mostly because we would go from minimal data usage to unlimited for about the same price. Definitely not making the switch if you're also in VA and can vouch that it doesn't work here.
  
  nowhere near VA, I'm in AZ, no experience with it there.

I'm super happy with jmp.chat
I was hesitant to try it, but once I ported my number over, it's the best service I've ever used.
It's $5/month, and your phone calls and texts are forwarded to an XMPP account. Voice mails are transcibed and sent as a text, with the included audiofile. It works over the internet, so you can have multiple phones with the number, and you can use your computer for the service as well.
For data, I use jmp.chats data only esim. It's $7/year + $5/gig but the data never expires.
- I've been a jmp user for years. Love their service.
- I'm assuming it only works over the internet, right? they're not a cell carrier
  
  They offer SIM cards, or you can use it with any other carrier. And for the record, I've used visible wireless, mint mobile, cricket, and boost and they all work great. They're just MVNO's that ride on the big 3 carriers networks. Whatever has good coverage in your area will be fine. I haven't used a major carrier in over 10 years.
  
  That is what the data Sim is for that I mentioned above.
- JMP is great! I ported over my number that I've had the longest to them probably 2 years ago when it was still beta. It's so convenient having sms on multiple devices and my computer. I have all calls from jmp forwarded to my phone with service tho. And I just switched that from AT&T prepaid to US mobile.
  Edit: I also like popping in to read their group chat. Lots of nerd talk in there. Also, I'm pretty sure if you ask their support you can still get a free XMPP server with JMP service via Snikket.

As a primary internet source I could not recommend Visible. The de-prioritization was very noticeable and the coverage wasn’t great. (Even Verizon is piggybacking on some carriers in some areas - and in those areas Visible isn’t supported.)
I kept it around for a while for large file downloads - it was slow but I didn’t have to worry about data caps. Eventually I dropped it when I got a Starlink.

I'm currently using Mint Mobile for internet on my laptop, No issues related to the carrier. Their customer site doesn't seem to like Firefox much though.
One heads up for anyone looking to use a Mint Mobile sim in their laptop, you will need a modem and software that can send/receive sms. Mint really likes using sms for verification.

The connection to the network is fungible.
If the phone number you give everybody is a voip number, like Google voice...
Then it doesn't matter who your cell phone carrier is. Buy the cheapest one, month to month.
Visible is a good option. Just don't move your phone number. Leave your phone number on VoIP. Don't give anybody the phone number of your phone.
A couple reasons, first it's the easiest to move your phone around if you don't have to move the number, second nobody can track your location by looking up your phone number if they don't have your physical phone number. VoIP does not map to your phone
- yeah I've been doing that, only my alarm company and my bank have my real phone number and that's only because they won't accept voip. I got spooked about sim-swapping a while ago
  
  You can use Google fi as a non-voip voip number. It just costs $20 a month.
  It's not frugal, but it's the most secure way to do it

Visible is wholly owned by VZW, and runs a whole $30/mo inclusive of tax and such.
Best compromise I’ve found between network and not getting screwed or being surprised with outages.

I use us mobile with two phones and like 30gb each and it’s about $50 total. I’ve had no problems with them and I’ve driven cross country. They are an mvno that runs off Verizon. I def recommend them.
Edit: I still recommend using a provider for home internet. Just cancel everything else besides internet (no home phone or cable tv) and try to find the best deals. I know that’s not easy for a lot of areas though.

I've had Mint Mobile for 3 years. Have had no issues, same for wife and roommate. Thought a friend that live 30 min away can't get it to work for them. Even though T-Mobile (the network Mint uses) works fine for them.

I stopped my xfinity mobile because the service was absolutely dreadful. id have either full bars or none and id always have my friends ragging on my connection to Discord. The conspiracy i had in my head was that i was never using cell service but rather the xfinity service would bounce you around their local wifi spots to provide you service whether you had wifi services on or not. probably not true but it surely felt like it.
Tried Mint and it worked just ok. it was nice because at the time i was using an android soap phone and didn’t need much data.
Recently switched my wife and I to Visible plans. even though it is the same coverage as xfinity mobile and uses the Verizon network, it is a night and day difference in connection quality. at 25 a line, i’m happy with visible. i recall my xfinity lines were 30 each after any ‘deals’.

Have used various MVNOs for years with no real issues. US Mobile has been pretty good and can use TMobile or Verizon and soon AT&T.

I've been on MetroPCS for most of a decade and have no complaints. Two lines, unlimited everything, $50/month.

I'm using Visible unlimited for $30 a month. As soon as I signed up Verizon bought them, but it's been fun for a couple years now.

Just switched to US Mobile after doing the 30 day trial.
Bill from AT&T prepaid was $65 before tax.
Now I'm $29 total. On their GSM(T-Mobile) network I was pulling 250 down.
- how does the trial work? is it legitimately free? do you have to use your own phone?
  
  I happened to have a spare number that I wasn't using with JMP.chat. So I ported it over to US Mobile.
  They offered a 30 day trial if you port a number over. They probably still offer the trial. I still have a week left and I liked the service so much I already ported my real number over. The trial was completely free.
  I ended up having to order their sim starter kit because for some reason my Pixel 4a 5g wasn't compatible with their eSim on their Warp 5g(Verizon), which I wanted to try. When I portrs my real number over I did it on their GSM(tmobo) network with eSim and it worked fine. You can get the sim starter kit for free with some promo code they have listed on their site somewhere.

Visible works well for me

I use the T-Mobile Connect prepaid plan now, but I've heard very good things about Mint Mobile and for a long time I used Ting Mobile before it was bought by Dish Network.
Edit: btw i run a community !t_mobile@lemmy.ml If anyone has any interesting topics.