What you need to know
- T-Mobile announced Wednesday that it had completed its purchase of Ka’ena Corporation, which owns Mint Mobile, Ultra Mobile, and Plum.
- The company made a commitment to keep Mint Mobile’s entry-level plan priced at $15.
- Mint and Ultra Mobile users will also get access to select T-Mobile features, like scam screening and free Canada roaming.
As of today, T-Mobile officially owns and operates Mint Mobile, the company announced in a press release Wednesday, May 1. T-Mobile closed a $1.35-billion deal to acquire Ka’ena Corporation that was originally announced in March 2023 but was held up due to regulatory concerns. Aside from Mint Mobile, the Ka’ena Corporation is also the parent company of Ultra Mobile and Plum, and all three brands will be folded under T-Mobile.
T-Mobile finally got approval from the Federal Communications Commission to move forward with the deal last week and swiftly completed the acquisition, which was more than a year in the making. Concerns that Mint Mobile’s budget-friendly offerings might be changed by joining T-Mobile appear to have been settled since T-Mobile is pledging to keep a $15 per month Mint Mobile plan available.
“We are excited to maintain the unique style and entrepreneurial spirit that make Mint and Ultra truly special, while also finding ways to supercharge their growth and leverage some of the secrets of that success into other areas of our business,” said Mike Katz, who is T-Mobile’s president of marketing, strategy, and products.
While the price of Mint Mobile’s $15 plan isn’t changing, it is gaining new features from T-Mobile. Mint Mobile users will now get access to the company’s call screening technology, which identifies calls associated with known scammers with a “Scam Likely” caller ID. Additionally, Mint Mobile customers can use unlimited talk, text, and up to 3GB of data while in Canada for free.
Ultra Mobile users will soon get an “enhanced data roaming option” while in Mexico on most plans, too. T-Mobile says that it will keep looking for more ways to add features to Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile plans over time.
A few prominent Mint Mobile figures will be joining T-Mobile, including celebrity and former partial Mint Mobile owner Ryan Reynolds. The company says Mint founders David Glickman and Rizwan Kassim will join T-Mobile, leading their respective teams previously under Ka’ena Corporation.
For T-Mobile, closing this deal marks the company’s biggest acquisition since it bought Sprint in 2020.