5G Ultra Wideband stopped working; iPhone 13

[jessicaferraro]

I woke up today to find that the 5G UW symbol had disappeared. Had been working beautifully. Did ALLLLL the things the bot demanded to solve the issue, updates, resets, etc. to no avail. Was finally told I would be connected to an agent, but instead I keep being looped back to the beginning. iPhone 13 (mini).

Anyone else have this issue? Why am I paying for something I can't get? Why can't I get to an agent? How do I get to an agent for help? I'm suuuuuper frustrated.

[DeanKevin64]

I am on Visible's Reddit page issues like this have been reported and read a number of posts that people have lost 5G altogether because Verizon has been turning off low band DSS 5G, not a tech savvy person so you might want to Google that. 

To get a live person on chat type agent or live agent, maybe need to do this more than once and that should get you a live person. You can also  contact them through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and on the Visible support page on Reddit by messaging them.

[jessicaferraro]

Thank you for that input; it's helpful

Yesterday I spent literally SIX hours before giving up at midnight dealing with the total incompetence that is Visible service: the bot, Twitter and then back to the bot. One guy shut off my service without warning then added three different SIMs before telling me to hard reset my phone. Seriously. The next person at least got me SOS service before ghosting me. I had to dig myself out of a snowstorm to get to wifi this morning and the saga continues. I got a SIM installed, but, as you mentioned, now I don't even have 5G. Should I be grateful for service at all-?? This is SUCH a disaster.

[DeanKevin64 · Accepted solution]

Personally I am grateful for what Visible offers and for the price it can't be beat, especially since it's a truly unlimited data plan. The plus plan a lot of people on Visible's Reddit page opt for it because of the 50Gb of premium data besides being able to get the UW band. For me the base plan is fine and my speeds are not the fastest at 25Mbps average but it is fast enough for what I need. To top it off I am in a 4G LTE area only.

The biggest drawback of Visible is customer service so it isn't for everyone. I make it work because there isn't much of a selection of MVNO's in my area when I did my research 2 1/2 years ago to get a cell phone and Verizon seems to have the better signal. I just couldn't justify paying $100 a month for Verizon post paid plan and again none offer truly unlimited data, they all have caps before throttle your data. At least with Visible the base plan is only deprioritized.

I hope you get it fixed.

[jessicaferraro]

It was throttled! Interesting that it took them over SEVEN hours to figure this out. Like, data usage should be the first thing they look at. 

I’m still confused because the plan indicates 50gb of data on non-UW bandwidths. It doesn’t say you don’t get UW after 50 gb. So I’m still not sure what is going on. If it doesn’t return when my new month starts, I’ll be finding another plan. I’m paying for that network and should get it. 

My phone settings are still completely out of whack, but I just can’t stomach another minute of their “service.” 

[DeanKevin64]

From my understanding the UW does not count against the 50GB, only 4G LTE and 5G. 5GUW doesn't disappear after the 50GB. The other thing I read about the UW is that it is a line of site to the tower and any obstacles such as buildings and being inside buildings can wreak havoc on the the UW signal. I don't know much about it, only what I have read.

If they didn't have you do a network/wi-fi/Bluetooth reset on your phone you could try that. Last thing would be is back everything up from your phone and do a factory reset as a last ditch effort. I have done one on my phone and I am not certain I would want to do it again with all the time it takes to download and upgrade everything again but then I have nothing but time on my hands these days.

[jessicaferraro]

Really helpful information. Thank you. I’ll try the resets (though I’ll have to figure out how) and maybe find the time and stomach to reach out to them again 

[KenR]

I upgraded to the premium plan and Visible lies.  It does not improve the service.  My service is worse because when I upgraded, they said they had to reprovision my SIM.  After they did that, my phone does not connect to 5G UW or LTE and only connects to 5G unless the tower is LTE only.  My phone connects to a tower 5 miles away when I have a Verizon tower 1/4 mile from my house.  Verizon does not give Visible customers the same access to towers with premium service.  They only have certain towers provisioned for Visible.  My 5G speed is 1.2Mbps.  If I go to a place where only LTE is available my download speeds are 25Mbps+.  There is no way on the phone now to hard set to connection to LTE.  Visible locks that feature from the phones.  I talked to Samsung and it should be in settings, but they told me carriers can disable that setting.  Visible has been by far the worse service and reception of any carrier and I have had them all.  I am in Hampton Roads VA, a major metropolitan area with 6 cities and about 40% of the area is not covered by Visible.  To prove Visible does not use all Verizon towers, my neighbor has Verizon plan and his phone connects to the tower close to us and he gets full bars, I get 1 bar signal.