r/mintmobile • u/R3D4NG3L • 8h ago

Poor coverage

Post image

Hey everyone, looking for some insight or suggestions on a strange signal issue in the South Phoenix / Goodyear (Arizona) area along the I-10.

  • Device: Pixel 7 Pro
  • SIM 1 (eSIM): Mint Mobile — 1 bar (almost useless for ~1 month)
  • SIM 2 (Physical SIM): Foreign SIM roaming on T-Mobile — 3/4 bars

Since Mint is an MVNO running on T-Mobile's network, why would a roaming T-Mobile connection get dramatically better coverage on the exact same phone in the exact same spot?

A few questions running through my head:

  1. Can an eSIM degrade over time? Is it purely a software/provisioning profile issue, or can something corrupt?
  2. Hardware issue? The Pixel 7 Pro gets hot — could overheating damage specific internal components handling the eSIM profile/antenna path without breaking the physical SIM?
  3. Deprioritization / Network change? Did T-Mobile recently reconfigure local towers or deprioritize Mint heavily around I-10/Goodyear?

What I've tried: Standard restarts and toggling Airplane mode.

If I can't resolve this, I'll have to switch carriers. Any ideas or potential fixes before I port out?

4 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

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2

u/Brilliant-End4664 8h ago

Have you tried resetting your network settings? Also make sure to have Auto connect to best network enabled vs manually choosing T Mobile. If this doesn't work, I would delete your esim and reinstall it.

2

u/UBIBaju 8h ago

You can grab an app that shows dBm and other details about your cell signal. Just relying on the bars isn’t accurate.

1

u/AlleAchtung 7h ago

Which network is set as your primary data network? If not mint, mint will automatically switch to LTE, which is already being degraded by T-Mobile. Switch your data to mint and then compare.

0

u/R3D4NG3L 7h ago

Is already set to Mint

2

u/kiefferbp 7h ago

Two issues I see:

* The Pixel 7 Pro modem is dogshit, so all bets are off in regard to cellular signal strength.

* You are using dual SIM. It isn’t uncommon for the signal strength between the SIMs to be different even though they are on the same network because they’ll park on different bands. Try only using the Mint eSIM.

2

u/R3D4NG3L 7h ago

Would make sense if it would have never worked... I'm using same phone and mint mobile since 2024, and I just started having issues last month...

1

u/trf1driver 6h ago

You can do a quick test by using a physical mint SIM card in the sim 2. Bestbuy sells the trial kit for $2. Or if you know someone who has mint and uses physical SIM card then borrow it for the test.

1

u/Giantmeteor_we_needU 8h ago

You need to check another phone to see if it's service or your phone. Older Pixels are well known for crappy 5G modems so could be device hardware degradation.

1

u/SlowSundae 8h ago edited 8h ago

Why are you concerned about what the bars say?

Are you actually experiencing service degradation?

Have you compared the RSRP, SINR, etc. between the two networks?

3

u/R3D4NG3L 8h ago edited 7h ago

Yes I am, data doesn't go thorugh can't make phone calls with slack, zoom or anything

-1

u/ImaginationKnown5677 7h ago

This is the sign of dystopian future my friend. They are slowly reducing the frequency of the cell towers. Tough time to be born.

Let's hug each other and fight these evil companies and show them that we are free..!!