Hotspot Connections

[Courtconnell]

Why is it that only one device at a time can connect to my hotspot?

[Anonymous]

Click on the information icons appearing next to the unlimited mobile hotspot bullet for the plans at:

https://www.visible.com/plans/

For the $30 plan, Visible includes mobile hotspot with unlimited data at speeds up to 5Mbps, limited to one device. When the network is experiencing heavy traffic, your data may be temporarily slowed.

For the  $45 plan, Visible+ includes mobile hotspot with unlimited data at speeds up to 5Mbps, limited to one device. After 50GB, when the network is experiencing heavy traffic, your data may be temporarily slowed.

What device do you have? Some devices can be set to actually enforce that limitation. Specifically,  iPhones (as well as cellular iPads) can download carrier profiles over-the-air and tell your phone how to connect to the cellular network and what restrictions exist for carrier control.

Regardless, it's not really practical to have multiple devices connect at a time with a shared 5 Mbps limit.

FWIW like all carriers these days Visible's use of the term "unlimited" applies only yo the amount of data that can be used subject to other "limitations". Like so many things, those limitations are often buried in the fine print.

[Anonymous]

I would assume the SIM is somehow programmed to only allow one device on the hotspot. I am still using the old plan on the old SIM and can still connect to more than one but expect that to change to one when they make us get a SIM for one of the new plans.

Two device on 5mbps should have no problem unless both are trying to stream video but even then two devices shouldn't have a problem stream standard definition at 480p. My home internet is still on DSL at 1.5mbps and it streams my TV but of course in that situation you can't surf the internet on a second device.

Edit: Have you tried checking your settings. On an Android phone go to settings, hotspot and tethering, touch wi-fi hot spot, scroll down to manage device then touch on device limit and see if you can change the deice limit.

[Anonymous]

Practicality is in the eye of the beholder, I'm on a new SIM with a new plan  (Android) and yet can connected with more than one device to the hotspot unintentionally and the bandwidth is insufficient to support them both optimally.  Location, location, location...The Android hotspots and tethering used to have a feature whereby you could limit the number of simultaneous connections via hotspot or tethering. That's probably evolving to carrier control As carriers and phones evolve, devices and operating sytems have more ability for the carriers to control their network usage (yes part is SIM related info). Visible will similarly evolve over it's supported devices. The only way the Visible unlimited philosophy can remain viable is if they can control network access and the plan limits. Support for that is probably factoring into device compatibility. The unlimited party can't go on forever at this price point, enjoy it while it lasts.

In point of fact, there are workarounds to the hotspot limit (both connections and speed). Carriers currently rely on some weak mechanisms to enforce the limits (including video throttling) - once the coordinate with the device manufacturers, the party's over.

Even now with the latest Android updates on my Samsung devices, features that once were available to me are no longer accessible on Visible (editing APN, disabling 5G, even band selection but that's for all Samsung devices with the latest updates). They're cooperating with the carriers in controlling their networks.

[Anonymous]

I can go into settings on my phone and limit the number of devices that can connect but thought maybe it was programmed into the new SIM card. It is beyond my knowledge what can be done by SIM and what can't. Up until maybe 2 months or so ago my hotspot was not limited to 5mbps and had higher speeds before that but only in the late evening early morning hours. When I noticed that change I also noticed higher data speeds during the afternoon and early evening hours so Visible has improved data speeds when I was struggling even streaming or surfing before that. 

I wonder how much longer I can enjoy the party plan, last I read it was supposed to end this month. It still the discount on my last bill.

[Anonymous]

Limitations that are enforced are likely a combination of SIM and operating system update levels. Some of my features disappeared way back after a May Android update.

You're locked into your party plan rate as long as the old plan remains. No end date has been specified yet (just some of rumors over on Reddit that gained traction). I would suspect that as more folks move off of the old plan, remaining users might see better performance overall as the virtual server becomes less loaded. Eventually however I suspect it won't be profitable to continue supporting it.

[Anonymous]

I thought maybe the speeds improving had something to do with improvement to the system Visible has been doing. I know tower congestion is another factor and being in a rural area towers are spread out and I am about 13 miles from a tower. I did buy a signal booster for the house because I thought my poor speeds had to do with a weak signal because I parked next to the tower and had fast speeds but that wasn't the case. Two to three weeks after I got the booster is when the speeds improved. I surely hope upgrading to the new plan doesn't slow my speeds down, that would be a disappointment.

When I chatted with CS two months ago they had no time frame as to when we had to change. Only that we would be contacted by email and through the app. 

[Anonymous]

Upgrading to the new plan has been nothing but a positive experience for me discounting the effort/hassle that I experienced in getting and activating a new SIM. Speeds are marginally better but more importantly the greatly improved latency has yielded much better experience for some web activities particularly web surfing in my case.

For me it was a worthwhile upgrade well worth pain in activating and the extra $5 per month but everyone's mileage will vary.

[yogeshkhetani]

I remember on Android phones that you can actually set how many connections you can allow accessing the hotspot. On the hotspot device, same as where you get hotspot settings, you will have the option of 'Maximum Connections'.