Question: Will my data be noticeably slower on Mint, Visible or another cheap carrier?
A
Answer: For most people, most of the time, no. Deprioritization only kicks in when the cell tower you're on is congested. Mint Mobile's network policy, which describes the T-Mobile network it runs on, says that on a lightly loaded network lower priority has "little, if any" effect, and that this is the case "in the vast majority of times and locations." It matters if you regularly use data in crowded spots: stadiums, concerts, packed downtowns at rush hour, or a neighborhood tower that's overloaded every evening. There, a cheap plan can slow to a crawl while the person next to you on a premium plan streams fine.