Are you a Patriot? Patriot Mobile is a perfect cell phone service if you’d like to enjoy and promote our “God-given constitutional rights and freedoms”. The service is finally accessible in all the areas, as we shall see shortly. But when you go through the Patriot Mobile reviews on forums like Trustpilot and Google, there are many not-so-good opinions.
Nonetheless, this is not just a thing of Patriot Mobile- negative customer reviews, I mean. The truth is that a huge percentage still find the service great. And this is why I’ve thought it would be nice to cover what you can expect.
Patriot Mobile Reviews: A Summary of the Prepaid Cell Phone Service
| Feature | Patriot Mobile |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Carrier Network | Verizon, AT&T, &T-Mobile, |
| ESIM Support | YES |
| Lowest Phone Plan | $25 |
| Unlimited Minutes | YES |
| Unlimited data | YES (with high-speed cap) |
| Mobile Hotspot | YES |
| Family Discount | YES |
| Free Calls to Mexico/ Canada | Free |
| Video Streaming | YES |
| Device Financing Partner | Kinda |
First, you should know Patriot Mobile was known as Eos Mobile before 2016. It’s a mobile virtual network operator (or MVNO), meaning no cell towers of its own. Instead, the phone provider has partnered with a Major Carrier to run off its towers.
The Legacy Sprint (CDMA) was the Major Carrier Patriot Mobile had a network deal with. However, Sprint merged with T-Mobile in 2020, which saw the existing customers switch over to TGSM (T-Mobile GSM) towers.
As some of us may know, T-Mobile works best in the urban/ metropolises. In rural and remote areas, the signal is usually not so good. And this not only affect the consumers directly using T-Mobile service, but also those on its MVNOs.
Good News, Patriot Mobile has recently made a network deal with Verizon and AT&T. Thus, you can now enjoy the phone service from the MVNO on the network that works best in your area or fit your lifestyle.
Other pros and cons of Patriot Mobile you should know include:
Pros:
- It has a lovely referral program
- Includes free domestic roaming
- Supports digital eSIM activations
- Offers free Wi-Fi calling & texting
- Supports free calling to Canada/ Mexico
- You can finance phones in small installments
Cons:
- It gets deprioritized data
- Throttles data on all plans
- The service is pricier than competitors
Patriot Mobile Reviews: Features & Perks of the Prepaid Cell Phone
Below I’ve briefly reviewed the features and perks you can get or miss on Patriot Mobile. They should help determine if the prepaid service is the good one for you or not:
Easy to Get
As a prepaid service, Patriot Mobile is indeed easy to get. There are no expensive deposits or contracts to tie you to the company for years, as with the Major Carriers. The mobile provider also performs no credit check, meaning you can qualify even with poor or bad credit history.
Similar to most MVNOs, Patriot Mobile has no physical stores to go and shop or have your issues resolved. It operates as an online-only business. So, you’ll need to visit the company website https://patriotmobile.com/ to Get Started. Then wait for your order to arrive (Patriot gives a standard wait time of 4-6 days).
In the Simple Mobile review the other day, we saw the TracFone brand ships the SIM kit order relatively faster (overnight – 4 days). But again, Patriot Mobile supports eSIM/ digital SIM, where you can activate your service instantly.
Coverage’s Everywhere
After the big merger in 2020, Patriot Mobile switched all the existing customers that were still on the Sprint network to T-Mobile. The operator provided the T-Mobile-compatible SIM cards free of charge.
Unfortunately, the switch to T-Mobile affected many Patriot Mobile customers that were in areas the TGSM network has no coverage. And to avoid losing loyal customers to competitors, the MVNO decided to add network deals with AT&T and Verizon. (Remember, Patriot Mobile has been against AT&T and Verizon for years, claiming the two support abortion.
In any case, the deal with Verizon vs AT&T vs T-Mobile means you get to enjoy Patriot Mobile on the network that works best in your area. But unlike Google Fi which can automatically switch between Carrier Networks, here you can only use one at a time. Hence, the reason Patriot Mobile claims you will need to contact the customer care team to get switched to the right network coverage.
Network Roaming is Free
If outside the native coverage areas, Patriot Mobile offers domestic roaming free of charge. You get the complete roaming package, including on calls, text, and data. However, the company is against abusing/ excessive roaming, and claims they could lock you out of the feature.
I’m still yet to figure out the carriers Patriot Mobile has partnered with for the domestic roaming feature. But with the Verizon-compatible SIM card, Verizon does allow its MVNOs to access the LTEIRA partners, including Pioneer Cellular, Strata Networks, Chariton Valley Communication Corporation, Appalachian Wireless, and seventeen others.
Tip: Patriot Mobile has international roaming in select countries (the company has not disclosed the applicable countries). You’ll have to call customer care at 1-877-367-7524 to have the feature activated.
Free Phone Deals
Patriot Mobile isn’t exactly one of the companies that give free phones when you join or add a line. Nevertheless, the company has a Member Loyalty Device Discount (MLDD) that offers 20% savings (maximum $150) on a single device purchase. It also has limited-time deals now and then, like during Black Friday, where you can save over a hundred bucks on high-end devices.
Surprisingly, the Patriot Mobile retail department doesn’t stock many devices. The operator also doesn’t offer device financing directly, rather uses a third-party buy now pay later company, Klarna.
Easy to Activate Service
Once you have a phone compatible with Patriot Mobile, it’s straightforward to activate your service. You just need to make sure your device is fully charged, then:
- Insert the SIM into the phone
- Switch on the phone and wait for it to fully start-up
- If using a new phone (or factory-reset phone), you’ll get the prompt to complete the initial setup
- Once done with the initial configuration, dial 877-367-7524. You’ll hear a complimentary message, followed by a prompt to “Press 1 to activate your phone”.
- After pressing 1, your Patriot Mobile phone will initiate the activation process. But you still need to dial ##873283# on your iPhone(or ##72786# on Android & Flip Phones) to complete the process.
Alternatively, you can visit the Patriot Mobile online activation portal with your phone number, IMEI, and SIM ICCID. Then follow the onscreen instructions until the end.
Service Pricing isn’t the Best
MVNOs are usually the trick if you’d like to save on your monthly phone bill. But, to be honest, Patriot Mobile isn’t cheap: not even when compared to TracFone brands, which are also slightly pricey.
| 1GB Plan | 3GB Plan | 10GB Plan | 22GB Plan | Unlimited Plan | ||
| Price per Single Line | $25/ mo. | $35/ mo. | $50/ mo. | $65/ mo. | $75/ mo. | |
| Price for 2 Lines | $22.50/ line | $31.50/ line | $45.00/ line | $58.50/ line | $67.50/ line | |
| Price for 3+ Lines | $21.25/ line | $29.75/ line | $42.50/ line | $55.25/ line | $63.75/ line | |
| Free eSIM Activation | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | |
| Talk Minutes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |
| Text Messages | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |
| High-Speed Data | 1GB (then 2G) | 3GB (then 2G) | 10GB (then 2G) | 22GB (then 2G) | Unlimited | |
| Premium Data | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 40GB (then 2G) | |
| Mobile Hotspot | No Cap | No Cap | No Cap | No Cap | 22GB | |
| Data Roaming | N/A | YES | YES | YES | YES | |
| Free Calls to Canada/ Mexico | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | |
If you happened to check Patriot Mobile in 2021, you’ll now notice there have been various changes. For instance, the mobile operator has dropped the extra names (Freedom and Liberty) that they would use to describe the phone plans. Then the pricing has gone a little higher, even though the allowances are still the same.
Regardless, Patriot Mobile cell phone plans do offer multi-line discounts. You can save $3 – $12 per month depending on the number of lines and the plan chosen.
One thing I’ve noticed while trying to purchase the service is that Patriot Mobile charges $0.88 to $3.00 for taxes. The actual tax charges vary with the plan you have and your current location (State). For example, here in California, the extra fees are $0.88 for 1GB, $1.23 for 3GB, and $2.63 if on the Unlimited plan.
Tip: Patriot Mobile has an interesting referral program, where you get $10 credits/ month for a whole year (12 months) per new member referred. However, the referral reward is limited to $50 credits (for five referrals). Then, you can only use these credits to pay for service (not device purchase).
Data Throttling & Depriotitization
Despite the high cost, Patriot Mobile still has heavy limitations on its service. For example, the deal the MVNO has with its Carrier Networks (T-Mobile, AT&T, & Verizon) includes deprioritized data. Thus, your mobile data speed will always be slower than other customers when the cell towers are too busy.
Secondly, Patriot Mobile throttles data (decrease data speed based on usage) on all the service plans. What this means is that when browsing, your service will start with high-speed data before dropping to lower (2G) speeds. Even on the unlimited Plan, your browsing will drop from 5G/ LTE data speed to 2G speed after hitting 40GB,
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is Patriot Mobile Any Good?
In a nutshell, Patriot Mobile is a good phone service if you’d like to enjoy and also help others enjoy God-given constitutional rights and freedoms. The service, yes, is more expensive than competing MVNOs. But the company claims the high fees are to help support its philanthropic causes.
Performance-wise, Patriot Mobile is also good as you can get:
Quality VOLTE calling
Decent LTE & 5G speeds
Free WiFi calling & texting
Allows activating eSIM service
Call Canada/ Mexico free of charge
Nationwide coverage on all networks
You also have free domestic roaming
What network does Patriot Mobile use?
Sprint Legacy (CDMA) was the network Patriot Mobile used to use to connect its users across the country. But now the small carrier uses the remaining top Three Major Carrier networks, T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T. It’s nice as you get to enjoy the service on the network that works best in your area or suits your needs better.
What are the APN settings for Patriot Mobile?
When you activate Patriot Mobile but notice the data services aren’t working, the APN settings could be having incorrect configuration. The APN settings of Patriot Mobile on Android phones at the moment are:
Name: Patriot Mobile (or whichever you prefer)
APN: wholesale
Username: (leave it blank)
Password: (leave it blank)
Proxy: (none or not set)
Port: (none or not set)
Server: (none or not set)
MMSC: http://wholesale.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc
MMS Proxy: (none or not set)
MMS Port: 80
MCC: 470 (or leave as default)
MNC: 02 (orleave as default)
Authentication type: (none or not set)
APN type: default,mms,supl
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN protocol: IPv4
Bearer: Unspecified
If you have an iPhone, you won’t need to update the APN settings of Patriot Mobile manually. When you insert the SIM card, you’ll get a pop-up prompt to update the Carrier settings bundle, and all needed is to tap on the “Update” button.
Can I Use my Patriot Mobile Phone abroad?
Yes, you can use Patriot Mobile phone abroad, albeit in only select countries. You only need to call customer service at 1-877-367-7524 while still here in the US to activate the feature. Alternatively, you can activate Patriot Mobile on eSIM, then leave the physical SIM slot to use with the local service of your destination.
Patriot Mobile Reviews: You Can Stream Movies, But Don’t
If you’d love to help Patriot Mobile in mobilizing freedom, these are the main features and perks you should know about its service. The recent addition of AT&T and Verizon network coverage has improved a lot, compared to the days of Sprint-only and T-Mobile-only coverage. You’ll now get to use the service on the network with the signal best in your area or that suits your lifestyle.
Even so, the data allowance Patriot Mobile offers per month is still disappointing. You only have the option of 1GB, 3GB, 10GB, 22GB, or 40GB high-speed data. And for a heavy data user, this is not ideal for you.
For instance, Patriot Mobile allows streaming videos with your mobile device. But if you plan on streaming in high-definition quality, you may end up depleting your monthly data allotment even before the first week ends.
