you will be fine in Columbia, don't expect that to be the same if you go anywhere rural on vacation. Mint uses the Tmobile network which I use and is completely fine 99% of the time, though I've been on vacation and just had zero cell service when people I'm with who have verizon have full coverage. To be fair though the places were the middle of no where on ski trips or in national parks. Both places I am not near often, but the chances of me needing a cell phone for an emergency there are quite high compared to being home.

Currently work in Columbia, also lived there for 2 years while with Mint. Never had issues.

I have been using Mint Mobile for several years now. Was on AT&T and T-Mobile before that. Currently using the $30 unlimited plan and have not noticed any difference or degradation in quality.

Was there ever a location that wasn't as rural that surprised you with how little cell reception you get?

It's been years since I've been back but I think Wisp in Deep Creek had bad cell reception even with Verizon. I'm thinking out loud since I'll be in that area next month.

Thank you for your input.

Mint mobile works great. It did lose signals in the countryside of eastern shore. I was told Verizon is the only thing that works there

Parts of deep creek I have had cell service with T-mobile and parts I have had absolutely nothing, same with my friends who had Verizon at the time. It has been three years since I've been.

As far as places I've been surprised where service sucked, no not at all, only been exceptional cases far from home.

But is the no coverage thing really mint mobiles fault or due to the fact the major network backbone provider they piggyback on (tmobile) had no coverage where you were? In other words, if wou were a "first class" regular Tmobile subscriber, would your service in that same location have been any better?

All these smaller mvno lower cost providers are piggybacking on either Verizon, Tmobile, or AT&T. I would expect that your service and coverage is going to be largely dictated by which one(s) of those guys they piggyback on more than anything else, am i right or wrong?

I use T-mobile, I guess I didn't convey that clearly enough. I just knew Mint uses T-mobile's network so I felt I could speak on the reliability of the network.

I love Mint. I’ve never had a problem. My partner has Verizon and I often have good service when he doesn’t have any.

It works great in Columbia. A couple of times a year my personal phone won’t be as good as my AT&T work phone, but at $15/month, I’m very happy with it.

I did couple of years ago and it sucked! If you want switch to Mint mobile, consider H2O wireless. I was with H2O for 8 years and it is surprisingly reliable in any region of this country. Now I am with Verizon just to get the unlimited data.