Thanks, Visible!

[carter_s]

In light of some more negative feedback regarding the new plans and process of changing, I’d like to say this: the new plans are awesome! I hated the cloud technology backing the old system, and am glad to see my ping from from ~250ms to around 30ms, even on the lower end plan. I’ll happily pay $5/mo for such a massive upgrade. Speeds are about the same but because of the reduced latency, things feel much snappier now. 

Process to get the new plans could/should be improved, but so far I’m a satisfied customer. Cheers!

[StevenBrown]

The negative feedback has been with regard to the upgrade not working. Did you upgrade with a physical SIM?

[carter_s]

I used eSIM. As I mentioned, the process is a bit rough, even with the eSIM. Some people aren't able to get it to work, and it took several days for me to get things going. The process, again, could use some improvement. 

I was responding to the complaints about Party Pay going away, which are if not in the majority, certainly significant in number.

[phoneman2021]

so they did absolutely nothing with speeds?  So its the same terrible speeds?  5 to 12 mbps a second I will be referring no one to Visible.   It just proves they do not listen to what members want.  Again other companies don't do speed caps Visible is stuck in the 2010's and not current.

[StevenBrown]

The impression I got from what they say about speed is that there will be no de-prioritization for the first 50 GB of data. Deprioritization can reduce speed to a crawl, less than 1 mbps. 

[carter_s]

You get what you pay for. Consider what Visible's business model is, and how they price things. Paying $30/mo for unlimited data naturally won't be data at the same speed as you'd get paying $90+/mo at a postpaid carrier. It's not possible. Furthermore, deprioritization is not a cap. 5-12Mbps may be the best speed you can get in your area, because more valuable customers (we're not that valuable because we don't pay that much to Verizon) go first and there may be a large number of them there.

[SomeHelpPls]

You're lucky you get 5 to 12 Mbps.  The best I get is 2.5Mbps and a few dropped calls a week.

[phoneman2021]

As I stated in other places I'll state it again. They put everything else front and center but this. What are the minimum and maximum speeds you will get? After the 50 GB is used up what does it slow to? Again there shouldn't be a cap on speed. Other companies such as Cricket don't cap the customers on the top plans. It would appear Visible didn't listen to the members. I would love to be proven wrong however playing hide the ball and not putting the info front and center when everything else is put front and center is not the way to get people back. I had friends that left they are asking the same things I am. They don't think Visible has changed a bit because this info is not front and center yet everything else is.

[carter_s]

I'm not on the top plan. Further, Cricket does prioritize customers lower than those who pay AT&T full price. It's how the industry works. We pay less, so we get less — but in my head, it's still a good deal. I'd rather pay $30/mo for okay speeds than $90/mo for great speeds. So long as I can stay connected, I'm fine with it.

[marciano]

I checked.  Verizon's top plan asks for $55 plus tax and fees.  Suppose they are $5, the total comes to about $60.  That's $15 more than the $45 of the Visible Plus plan, but you get some unique perks that are not available at Visible.  Apple music, for instance.  I pay $10 a month to Apple for that.  So if the speed of the Plus plan doesn't pan out, I might jump ship and switch to Verizon!

Heck, since Visible is a subsidiary of Verizon, did I really jump ship? 🙂

[carter_s]

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@marciano wrote:

Heck, since Visible is a subsidiary of Verizon, did I really jump ship? 🙂

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That's certainly true! It's all Verizon in the end.

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@marciano wrote:

I checked.  Verizon's top plan asks for $55 plus tax and fees.  Suppose they are $5, the total comes to about $60.  That's $15 more than the $45 of the Visible Plus plan, but you get some unique perks that are not available at Visible.  Apple music, for instance.  I pay $10 a month to Apple for that.  So if the speed of the Plus plan doesn't pan out, I might jump ship and switch to Verizon!

---

 Now, I'd give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't mean to misrepresent Verizon's plans. Their top plan for a single line is $90/mo plus tax on postpaid service. This would be the 5G Get More plan. Sure, it includes some extra perks, but I frankly have no clue where you retrieved the $55/mo price. Their Welcome Unlimited plan is $65/mo plus tax and includes unlimited deprioritized data (though probably still higher priority than Visible's $30/mo plan). With their prepaid plans, the top plan is $75/mo (you can save up to $10 with tenure, it looks like) and includes 5G UWB access. No idea about the premium data there. 

I'd love to know where you got the numbers from. One thing I'd point out is that Verizon's site by default gives you pricing for multiple lines rather than a single line, and for families a postpaid option may make more sense than something like Visible. I really don't understand the logic though: the pricing is great with Visible, which is why I'm here, but I don't expect the company to give me much in the way of perks beyond what I'm already getting at the $30/mo price point. I don't pay for the premium data as I don't really need faster speeds. I can generally get around 20Mbps in my city, which is good enough for me to do what I need. Visible isn't a perfect solution for everyone and I didn't mean to imply that in my original post. I simply wanted to send some thanks their way because it works for me.

EDIT:

I see where you're getting it from now, on their site. They're showing you the per-line price for four lines by default, and it's $55/line (for a total of $220/mo — you can't take the per-line price and use it for a single line, they raise it for more than one). I noticed that when I was shopping around for a carrier before switching to Visible a few months ago.

[marciano]

Yup, from their website, I got the figure.

[carter_s]

I’m sure they do that to catch the eye. Pretty sneaky, but then their competitors do the same thing.

[TheCellTower]

After 50 GB of prioritize data they slow you down to the $30 plan

[phoneman2021]

What are the speeds when you have the 50 gb of premium data? What are the speeds on the $30 plan? This isn't stated yet everything else is clearly stated. This is my issue. What really changed? It would appear those that say nothing may have a point. If you gave faster speeds why wouldn't you put that front center like they did all the countries you can call and text?

[TheCellTower]

Officially prioritize data means that you get the fastest possible with no traffic but I don't know what it means with visible and I don't know if I could rely on visible prioritize data I don't know if you will get really the full speed thats possible

[carter_s]

I don't work for Visible, so I can't exactly answer the question. However, I can say this: the $30/mo plan will give you what's left over as far as bandwidth (speed) goes. When all the premium customers (Verizon postpaid/prepaid, Visible+ users) have gone and drawn from that well, you and I (because I use that lower plan) get what's left. That's how it works. It can fluctuate. I usually see around 20 Mbps speeds in my city but yours and the traffic in your city will differ. Sometimes I see 100 Mbps. Sometimes I see 2 Mbps. It just depends on the time of day and the number of people on the tower you're using. 

For the $45 Visible+ plan, you get to be a part of that premium crowd and get priority access. So your speeds are better. You get the best of whatever's available. Could be 400 Mbps. Could be 2000Mbps. It really depends on what your tower is capable of, but you get the best out there. After 50GB per month (which is a lot considering the plan is only $45!), it goes back to the $30/mo Visible plan's deprioritized level until the month resets. It's not a throttle. Not a cap. Just a priority level. Carriers do this stuff all the time. Look at Verizon's postpaid plans. T-Mobile's for that matter. They all have varying levels of priority access. 50GB of premium data is going to run you around $70/mo with a postpaid carrier. I'm fairly impressed with the new plans, myself, though I'll likely just stay at $30/mo and save the money.

[TheCellTower]

US Mobile also has prioritize data I have one line with them and usually I get like 400 Mbps and sometimes it goes up to 1,000

[marciano]

I’m not as much interested in the speed on the phone as on the hot-spotted/tethered device.  I browse the web on my laptop, not on my phone.  Does the $45 plan offer faster hot spot speed than the $30 plan?  If no, I’ll go with the $30 plan.  Browsing on the lappy is all I do.

Since we are on subject, is the hot spot speed of the new $30 plan faster than the old network?

[carter_s]

It looks like it's the same on both plans, from what I can see. There's some odd line about prioritization on the $45/mo plan, but it's still capped to 5Mbps. My latency dropped significantly though, which made it feel much snappier.

[marciano]

Great info!  Ty!  I’ll pick the $30/mo plan.

[SomeHelpPls]

I was getting 2.5 Mbps maximum with T-mobile Magenta (unliimited) - (supposedly 5G) on my Samsung S-20.  With Visible, it now hovers around 2 Mbps, when it works.  I discovered that part of the problem is peculiar to where I mainly use my phone, an area near major highways & bridges.  During peak drive times, the throughput gets throttled down to the Kbps range - both with T-Mobile and Visible.  In midtown Manhattan, throughput is much better even during mid-day.  I have also tried tests with my 5 year old LG Aristo and found it to have much better signal strength which yielded up to 48Mbps on T-Mobile's network (4G-LTE) (in the middle of the night during periods of low traffic in the area).  I suspect the towers in my area are in need of an upgrade.