Verizon vs Visible

[Kayleegirl]

I started your Visible + plan about a month ago. My wife and I are now in a RV park. She has a standard Verizon plan and I'm on Visible. She has a strong signal and I have almost no signal. How could that be?

[Moxie]

Do you have the same model phones and cases? 

[Kayleegirl]

Yes we do. Both are Samsung S22, both with the same case. I thought I'd try Visible for the lower cost and still on Verizon's network. So far not impressed. 

[Moxie]

Regardless of the provider you are going to have weak spots. I know Visible is a deprioritized/budget service and mileage definitely varies. I have been on Visible for 2.5 years and I live & work in a rural- metropolitan area and have had great service (for the price) calls and text quality seem to be identical to a standard Verizon customer.  If it's not going to work for you, no biggie.

Best! 

[EarlDaniels]

Different phones have different receivers, especially if her phone has  5g capabilities or is otherwise a later or higher-end model. 

Try swapping your SIM cards between the phones and see if anything changes (probably won't) - if you then get good service on your phone and she gets bad service, then Visible is providing less coverage. I think you'll find that it's the phone, not the service. 

[Anonymous]

This is interesting. If you didn't know Verizon owns Visible. I would never have thought it would make a difference in signal since Visible used the Verizon network. I know when I was at my brothers hunting land they are on Verizon and me being on Visible the signal is the same but that area has a weak signal to begin with.

I am curious if other members have the same experience.

[GreenSub]

Do both phones display the same signal type, ie 5Guw vs 5G vs 4G

Have you compared the APN settings between the two S22’s?

[Mpdcnva]

Last week I was in my Safeway. The exact same spot looking at meat. My Verizon service worked great. This week, my visible service disconnected. I cycled the airplane mode and service came to one bar, but it was pretty much no service. The phone service was not working. Visible is a sub standard version of the Verizon network. If they had been honest in their advertising, I likely would not have left Verizon. It is false advertising. The commercial should have said visible runs on a deprioritized version of the Verizon network. 

[Anonymous]

Did you happen to buy a new phone when you switched to Visible? If you bought a new phone it is possible it has a weaker antenna and doesn't pick up the signal as good as your old phone does. 

Signal is weak in my area and being inside a building or house makes it worse. I have one to two bars in my house but if I go 6 blocks or so to the café, which is a few blocks closer to the tower which is about to 13 miles away, I lose my signal all together. My brothers are on Verizon and when one calls me when he driving by on the highway through this small town his will lose signal sometimes. With todays technology it is possible that they could have something programmed into the SIM card but that would be odd if they did that. If you were on 5G before and your phone is only grabbing 4G LTE then the signal could be a different strength since they are different signal bands. 

When I was doing research last year finding a cell phone carrier, my first cell phone to be exact, one carrier had a list of specific phones that would only work in the small rural town I live in. Can't remember which carrier though, I think it was T-Mobile.

Just an FYI, your connection speed is deprioritized when there is high usage, this should not affect your signal. 

It is still interesting that 2 identical phones have different signal strength and wonder if it has to do with settings in the phone. The towers signal output is the same for everyone that is picking up that same channel from the tower.