Visible or Visible+

[InquisitiveOne]

Using the Midnight 4G ONLY capable phone, are there any Real "Premium Network Experience" benefits with the PLUS plan over the regular plan? 

Would there be any NOTICABLE Priority or Data Speeds Benefits with the upgraded Plus plan on this 4G phone? 

Thank You Community in advance!

[Anonymous]

First off what carrier are you with now? If it is Verizon than any of their plans would similar to the plus plan. The Plus plan offers premium data which is not de-prioritized when the towers are congested but even then it could be slow, it would depend on how many Verizon users are on the tower you get you signal from. There are other things the premium plan gets over the basic plan such as roaming in Canada and Mexico and international calling to I think 20 countries and texting to I think 200 countries. Check the plans and click the tiny little dots with the i's in them.

I am on the basic plan, I am in a rural area and only get 4G LTE with no 5G within 150 miles of me. For the basic plan is plenty speeds are not great because of the distance I am between towers(13 miles in opposite directions) but still get 30 to 50Mbps speed down and any where from less than 1 to 10Mbps up. One thing to note is that when you hotspot a device you are limited to 5Mbps and per policy only one device can hotspot at a time, but some android devices can still hotspot more. 

If you are not on Verizon currently check with some of your friends in your area to see if they are and ask how well their signal is, ask what kind of speeds they get to give you an idea of either plan is even a good choice for you.

An FYI, the reason why I refer to Verizon is because Visible uses Verizon's cell network. Visible is owned and actually started by Verizon in 2018 I believe. Last thing to point out is customer service does not have phone support, they can only be contacted by chat, Facebook Messenger or by Twitter DM. They do have a presence on Visible's reddit page. 

Hope this helps.

[InquisitiveOne]

Thank You Superuser! I am currently on the T-Mobile network. Your rural experience will be very helpful information for me when camping/fishing.  

I am still on the fence as to which plan is for me using a 4G phone in an urban area and is it worth the extra cost. Would you say that the "Premium Network Experience" upload and download data speeds with a 4G phone in an urban area during congested tower times with the Plus Plan would be "Significantly Noticeable" ? 

You also mentioned that Hotspot data is throttled back to 5Mbps. Does that apply to both Standard and Plus plans as well?

Once again, Thank You for your wisdom and experience!

[Anonymous]

The premium data on the plus plan speeds would still depend on tower congestion of regular Verizon users. You just wouldn't be deprioritized to the level of the MNVO carriers using Verizon's network.

Hotspot is limited to 5Mbps on both plans. Hotspot is also limited to one device. But certain android phones can still hotspot more than one device. I think it has been enforced on iPhone's.

Since you are a T-Mobile user you might want to see if anyone you know in your area is on Verizon to find out how good the signal is. You could also check Verizon's coverage map and see what coverage is in your area. 

I am doing this cell phone thing on a budget and I have no need for the premium data as my speeds are fast enough for what I need and with the hotspot limited to 5Mbps it's fast enough.

[InquisitiveOne]

Thank You Superuser!  I too am working within a tight budget at this time also, so I have to make wise choices as well.  Through some research of my own, I read that all Visible transmissions are sent to a server in New Jersey before being routed to their destination. Seems like that alone would really slow down transmission. What is your take on that?

[Anonymous]

I am not that knowledgeable about the tech involved but I believe that is the system the old plan ran on which was cloud based servers which were in a few locations across the country(this is what I read so can't explain it beyond that). Visible is using Verizon's core system now so it operates like Verizon does or a Verizon plan. The old system is still operational for existing customers as they so far are having them move at their free will but that system will be shut down sometime this year. Since last September any new customer to Visible was put on the new system. For me the old system ping times were 120ms or more but since I moved to the new system in February I saw slightly faster data speeds and ping time less than 50ms so I have saw faster load times on web pages. 

Personally I would recommend the basic plan if you are on a budget. To me the only real benefits to the plus plan are if you travel to Canada or Mexico frequently you have roaming while their and other benefit is if you had 5G UW in your area. Even the basic gets 5G nationwide signal but takes a 5G phone, to get 5G UW band that takes a phone that can get the UW bands or MM wave I believe it is referred to. It is prepaid so you are in for a month and if you don't like it you can always port out again.

The only drawback to the cheap plans is that there is no phone number to call and chat wait times can be as much as an hour to get a live agent. I use Facebook messenger myself and then I don't have to wait and can respond at my convenience. Hope all this helps.