The "New" upgraded network

[Hilltownroots]

I got an email 14 Feb 2023 asking me to upgrade to "improve my service." As I read about the "upgrade" I see where hot spots will be limited to one device and speeds may be throttled. My current plan allows multiple connected devices which is handy (a saver, actually) when my home wireless internet is down. The improved service restricts connected devices to one. Is this true? I consider this a big downgrade. And I thought under my plan of the last three years, there was no throttling (I can't find the original T&Cs to confirm this). I'm inclined to ignore this "upgrade." What am I missing?

[Anonymous]

So far I am not limited to one device on the new plan. Not saying that down the road Visible may fix that issue or not remains to be seen.

Visible data has always been throttled or deprioritized since I have been a customer since July 2021. All MVNO carriers do this since they are using the major carriers networks and give their customers priority. During the daytime I saw speeds below 1Mbps a lot of the time and it didn't increase until late in the evening. Last October my speeds increased to the teens and even low 20's even though I remained on the old plan up until 2 weeks ago. I also have not saw any throttling since October. The other change I saw is that late night when I had higher speeds I checked my laptop that was on hotspot for speeds and don't recall being limited to 5Mbps but after I saw my speeds increase in October is when I saw the limit on my laptop using hotspot.

Since I upgraded 2 weeks ago I have saw another increase in my data speeds and ping time go from upwards of 140ms to around 40ms.

I was going to hold out until the very end if or when they get around to shutting down the old system. I decided to take the plunge and haw saw improvements. Since the new plans come out I have saw maybe two negative threads about upgrading. One was recent and I saw another one that had slower speeds after upgrading but was able to get customer service to fix it, I think it was a reprovision of of or to the SIM.

[Anonymous]

There's a difference between throttling and prioritization.

Visible throttles speeds for detected video streaming as well as detected hotspot data rates. The key word there being "detected". Other traffic is subject to prioritization at any time (excluding premium data on the Visible+). That's the way its always been to the best of my knowledge.

Whether the hotspot device connection limit is actually enforced by Visible depends on the phone and operating system level you're at. For more info see my reply here (click to open)

Since switching to the new plan back in September (I actually carried the old plan and new plan separately and simply dropped the old one after comparing the two first hand), I've found the discussion regarding speed and performance under the legal disclosures to be accurate in at least in my my case. That information can be found at:

https://www.visible.com/legal/legal-disclosures

I've seen both increased speeds and decreased latency (ping time). The decreased ping latency yields much better performance (responsiveness)  for chattier activities (e.g web surfing, possibly gaming but I'm not a gamer). Naturally, YMMV, since it will depend upon a number of factors including coverage area & utilization of the tower(s) you connect to.

Eventually, the old plan will be dropped (no timetable has been established for that) and you'll be forced to upgrade or go elsewhere. When that does occur I don't expect Visible will continue offering that discount for upgrading now.

My only complaint is those of us who were early adopters of the new plans and had to endure the hardships of the new plan rollout never got a billing break. Despite those hardships, the upgrade has been well worth the hassle endured in switching for me, but YMMV as it has for others.

You might want to browse through the more active Visible subreddit for a wider variety of opinions speculation and experiences:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Visible/

[Runz2Much]

I have a different experience. Across the board my data speeds are horrible. Regardless of the time of day and my location around our city. The network is so slow at times it won’t support loading a basic web page. Voice calling is even jittery. I’ve been on with support multiple times, reset and reinstalled eSIM’s so many times I’ve lost count. The best speed I can get now is around 5 Mbps and it drops down to less than 500 kbps often. I routinely had 5G coverage before and now rarely get more than 2 bars of LTE. In our area the ‘New Network’ is so poor I wished I had never even tried following their guidance to change. I’ve even asked to be switched back. However, that isn’t something they want to do. Beware - Your experience is just as likely to be bad than good.

[Hoss]

I have had a similar experience.  I "Upgraded" two phones and my data speeds went from 12 to 35 MBPS to .5 to 2 MBPS depending on the time of day.

Yes, I am disappointed.

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[JSinbad]

I also made the change recently and found that my speed and acces to 5g has been reduced.  Also, coverage area has been reduced.

[Hoss]

My data speeds are still poor on both phones.

We also have to take frequent trips to Abilene, Texas and we only have voice coverage  about 35 miles out of 165 miles.

I am switching one of the phones to a different carrier to see if there is any improvement.

[sia12655]

I agree 100%. This was not an unpopular grade. Visible incressed the priced and reduced network quality and throughout. In addition, it limited the number of devices that could connect to personal hotspot to only one at a given time which very inconvenient. This was a downgrade pretend to be an upgrade. Ince Visible had enough subscribers, it screwed and took advantage of its customers. Shameful.