MVNOs are a dime a dozen nowadays, with each one vying for a small piece of your wallet. From big box retailers to gas station endcaps, you can find just about any flavor of SIM card attempting to lure you away from your existing plan.
The strategy to reel you in is usually a low price, with smaller companies enticing you with comparable coverage at a fraction of the cost. Some are even going as far as paying you to play games on your phone.
Mobi, a Hawai’i-based MVNO, came about for a different reason. In 2006, Mobi’s first towers went live in Oahu. This was the first time Hawai’i residents had access to a no contract, no credit check option for wireless.
The initial towers were backed by MetroPCS (now known as Metro by T-Mobile). Mobi continued to develop their wireless network across the islands of Hawai’i, having towers on Maui, Kauai, Molokai, and Big Island by 2008. Today, they have continued retail expansion and collaborations with larger carriers to continue building their network and customer base. Now, they’re beginning to expand stateside, and you can try out their network for just $50 per year.
Mobi Offers 5GB Of Monthly 5G Data For Just $50 A Year
In a Reddit post, user /u/mo-brad discussed the ins-and-outs of a “Cyber Monday Beta Deal”. For $50 per year, customers can get a data-only eSIM that offers 5GB of high-speed data per month. After that, speeds are reduced to 1.5Mbps for seemingly an unlimited amount of data.
Coverage includes Hawai’i, of course, along with mainland US, Puerto Rico, and Canada. For the beta, they are also waiving international charges in the U.K., Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, and India. For light international use, this plan might be a great way to keep your data speeds in check while traveling.
The purpose of this plan is to test the nature of the network stateside, and offer early adopters a sweet rate to lock into. Once voice and text services are supported in sharing the data pool, you can then port in your phone number to go all-in.
So what are the catches? Well, not much. As Brad put it on the Reddit post, the plan is ideal for those with unlocked devices on AT&T and Verizon. Those customers can add this data-only eSIM and get T-Mobile coverage via Mobi for a year for just $50. Not too bad. Just know you won’t be able to call or text using that line (unless you add voice and text support early next year via an add-on fee).
Oh, and we’re a bit late to the party on this one (sorry!), so you’ll need to sign up ASAP, because the deal is only good through the end of the year.
In the future, Mobi hopes to add tablet sharing for the data plan for $1.99 per month, wearables for $0.99 per month, or standalone tablet/watch plans for $2.99 per month. They even want to let smartphones share this 5GB data as a pool, adding standalone lines for $3.99 per month.
Mobi CEO Justen Burdette appears to be a Reddit user in the same /r/Mobi subreddit, and had this to add to the post.
I know I haven’t been as active over the past couple of months here, things have been crazy busy on more than a few fronts. But I appreciate everyone that has continued to share feedback on the beta (and even step in to answer questions when I didn’t get to them right away), even if I don’t get a chance to say so as often as I’d like.
Mobi CEO Justen Burdette, in a Reddit reply
But Brad (u/mo-brad, longtime mostly-lurker here, and also a former Ting guy) and I, and everyone on the team, are pretty excited to begin gradually opening up the new core to more folks.
For everyone that has been testing so far, we’ll convert your lines to this annual beta plan, as well. (That will mean your lines will continue to be active until at least November 30, 2025, but for $0, rather than $50 — we have really appreciated your feedback and testing through the alpha and early beta phases!)
The only other thought I wanted to add is that we aren’t expecting a million folks to sign-up today, and handling things annually for this deal is intended to be a bit of a gate versus monthly options that we will also launch early next year. We’re mostly looking for folks that will hopefully be open to being engaged here, share feedback as they go, and that hopefully will find value in getting a decent deal out of it. We do expect to enable additional capabilities on the new core pretty regularly now, and like with the alpha and early beta folks here, we plan to retroactively “grandfather” things into this plan as we go, as well, wherever possible.
It is important to note that the post specifically calls out AT&T and Verizon. It wouldn’t be a surprise that this is using expanded coverage from T-Mobile. This checks out, as they signed an MVNO agreement with big magenta in 2023. Also, be cautioned that Android APN settings for Mobi have been a bit of a ‘minefield’ as Justen Burdette says, as detailed in this reddit post.
Interested? You can sign up for the beta here.
A Promising Future For Mobi
What if you wanted regular service with Mobi? Current regular plans are oddly not competitive in the usual MVNO faire. For $9.99 per month, you can get unlimited talk and text and 1GB of data. Extra data can be purchased a la carte for $3.99/GB. A simple fixed rate is nice, but when compared to other MVNOs, it is less value. Mint offers 5GB of data for the same price for new customers right now. Tello gives double the data.
The rates might have competed in 2020 when the plan launched, but competition in the market has been aggressive with value in just four years. This new pooled annual data plan appears to be Mobi getting with the times. Making the leap as soon as they can will help cement their competitive edge.
For comparison, one year of the existing Mobi plan would be $120 for unlimited talk and text, and 1GB of data. This new beta plan would be $50 for the 5GB pool, then an additional monthly fee for talk and text.
Assuming the talk and text fee works out to roughly $5 per month, that would mean a talk, text, and 5GB data plan would be under $10 per month. Now we’re talking.
If you find yourself needing a data backup plan, or find the entire Mobi project interesting, you can sign up for the beta to give Mobi a shot. If you do, let us know your experience below. Just act fast, because at the time of this article going live there’s only about a day and a half left to sign up!
