TL;DR - better speeds and performance.
There are some important technical differences between the old $40 plan and the newer plans in terms of speed and performance. The newer plans as stated are on the Verizon core network. I've found that those differences are fairly represented in the legal disclosures which are required by the FCC and found at:
https://www.visible.com/legal/legal-disclosures
Under the Important Information about Visibleโs Plans and Broadband Internet Access Services drop-down at that link see the discussion starting at:
What speeds and performance can a Visible Broadband Internet Access Services customer expect, and where are these speeds available?
Keep in mind that the old $40 plan is referred to as Visible Unlimited, whereas the new $30 and $45 plans are referred to as Visible and Visible+ in that discussion.
While in my case I've found the differences to be accurate and the better speed and performance claim to be accurate, YMMV based on your physical location and network utilization (congestion). For example, in my case at home I only have access to the 4G; however it's coming off of a lightly utilized Verizon tower where congestion and therefore de-prioritization are rare. My speeds tend to be on the higher range and latency is on the lower end of the spectrum. Lower latency translates to a more responsive experience for some of the more chatty activities (e.g web surfing which needs to satisfy multiple requests, sometimes hundreds or even more - simply displaying this discussion alone required some 160 network requests so the importance of lower latency should not be underestimated )
That's the technical answer...
