Mint Mobile’s prepaid home internet plan is really cheap under very specific circumstances

Mint Mobile is trying something a bit less “mobile” with its new prepaid 5G home internet plan that goes for as little as $30 a month. To get that price, you will need to also have a Mint phone plan and pay for at least three months up front. But it’s still one of the cheapest 5G at home plans out there even if you can’t lock in the lowest price. 

5G Home Minternet (yes, that is what they’re calling it) delivers the same speeds — typically between 133-415 Mbps down — and unlimited data as T-Mobile’s 5G home internet, which is unsurprising seeing as how they run on the same network. The difference is that throttling during periods of network congestion kicks in after 1 TB of data on Mint, but after 1.2 TB on T-Mobile. You’ll also miss out on some perks like advanced security features or bundled streaming services that are included in the more expensive T-Mobile plans, but that’s about it.

Unfortunately the pricing structure is a bit of a mess. If you have a Mint phone plan and pay for three months of service, it will cost you $30 a month. But that price is only for new customers, and renewing for three more will cost you $40 a month. If you opt for a six month plan, it will set you back $35 a month. You’ll have to pay for 12 months up front to maintain the $30 per month pricing.

The service costs $10 more per month if you’re skipping a phone plan and only getting home internet. Which means this supposedly $30 a month 5G home internet could actually end up costing you $50 per month depending on how you sign up. Still, with no contracts and no need to have a technician come and drill holes in your walls, it might be a decent optiondepending on where you live.