Visible Limitations

[TrailerManNJ]

I'm waiting for my sim card to arrive from Visible, since I've decided to give their service a shot. I know the whole story: they're owned by Verizon, are an MVNO, etc. I've done my research. All in all, for $25 per month (once I'm in a party plan) to have truly unlimited talk, text & web, in addition to unlimited hotspot data is tough to beat. However, 2 things are giving me pause...

First, their hotspot data is only rated at 5mbps. That is pretty dang slow. For comparison, most home hotspots and other carrier plans have speeds ranging from 15-30mbps. As the hotspot will be used for work purposes on the road - heavy daily email usage, web surfing, etc. (but little to no streaming or video consumption) - I'm wondering if others find this 5mbps speed enough to consistently get stuff done, or on the other hand, perhaps they notice that it doesn't cut the mustard, and is painfully sluggish?

Second, being an MVNO of Verizon, has anyone experienced any de-prioritization either in crowded urban, sparse rural, or any other areas, or maybe during certain times of the day?

P.S. - I know there are ways to bypass this 5mbps threshold (as well as the one device per hotspot limit) by utilizing a router. Curious if any of you have done this successfully, as I'm interested in a similar set-up. Feel free to PM me if you'd rather speak privately.

 

[Gypsyjoe#1]

I have had Visible going on 2 years now and have never had the speed be a problem. I stream prime video all the time plus use it for work and all the web stuff and as I said no problems.

 

[AmargosaWayne]

A router wouldn't affect the throughput of the hotspot, which is the limiting device.

 

[scottrod31]

Watching Hulu surfing the net and talking on the phone all at the same time not a problem. Using visible and a router.

 

[RVTravel]

Depending on where you are located, the speeds can drop dramatically, in my case down to 10 kbps when busy. (hotspot with laptop)

 

[Tom_M]

I've been a Visible customer since May 2019 and it is my only phone and internet provider. I presently have the XTE Blade 11 phone. I spend winters in Florida and it has worked well. I connect to a GL.iNet GL-MT1300 (Beryl) router for my hotspot. I have done the mod to the router that removes the 5 Mb/s speed cap. At home I routinely get 20 Mb/s.

Here's a link to a document that an iRV2 forum member posted that explains how to set up a Visible phone:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jKLcBfdChCghgdHYS7ieGGhlUBfj7qFtSwHvZKb913Q/edit

 

[Sofisintown]

I've had Visible for a couple of years and I use my phone for hotspot when I don't have regular internet. It IS unlimited. Last month being on the move I used 25 gigs of data. It was my only source of internet. $25 a month, in a group from this forum.

 

[peteg59]

Well worth the monthly $$ savings over other major carriers.
No issues on anything I use it for.
Don't use the hotspot though, so can't help on that...

 

[bebewanna]

Hi... I have US Mobile.. Verizon MNVO

I get 75gb before throttled and 2 lines, so 150Gb...$30 each

I am not paying for Hotspot but I have "FoxFi" android app and it works with no Hotspot on Verizon network on both of my Samsung Galaxy phones..
You might try that

And yes I don't know why but there have been times when it was slowed down I am guessing they are prioritizing.

 

[frater secessus]

I'm wondering if others find this 5mbps speed enough to consistently get stuff done, or on the other hand, perhaps they notice that it doesn't cut the mustard, and is painfully sluggish?

I only pay for a 5mbps plan and it's fine for my needs. Seems to be similar to yours: "heavy daily email usage, web surfing". Then again, I am mindful of bandwidth with adblockers and similar. When data is heavily deprioritized I use browse{r} plugins like Fast Image Blocker to turn off graphics; makes a huge diff.

To be fair, I started with a 300b acoustical modem (TI 99/4A), and ran a BBS on 2400 until 14.4 became reasonably stable. I remember when bonded ISDN (0.128mbps) was Holy Crap Insane for personal use, and my first T1 (1.54mbps?) with internet backhaul was $5000/mo.

 

[dhuff]

The whole family has been on Visible for over a year now and we're generally happy with it. As long as your phone can "see" a Verizon cell tower, you should have coverage - since Visible is a MVNO, wholly-owned by Verizon. The only speed issues I've had are in congested urban and suburban areas where traffic from certain Verizon customers with more costly plans is given precedence over that from Visible customers, due to Quality of Service (QoS) configurations by Verizon (this is typical for all low priced cell phone plans/operators).

BTW, if anyone wants to join our "family plan" and get a lower monthly bill than a single, stand-alone acct, let me know via direct msg here. Visible bills each acct separately and you don't have to be actual family to do this. The product is called "Party Pay" and you can get the details on their website at https://www.visible.com/. We have one "slot" left in our Party, so the next person brings the monthly cost down to $25/mo for each person. It doesn't go any lower after that...

 

[JeepLiving]

I cancelled my Visible service this week after a few years of satisfactory use. Since I've been on the road full time relying on the hotspot for so many activities, I've experienced too many instances of getting throttled. I use a booster as well.

So seeing 3 or 4 bars and not being able to upload edits to my website or use a remote desktop program to help a friend back home or to have people frequently complain of echo chambering on voice calls, I gave up. Now I'm on a regular Verizon plan. Not unlimited, but more than enough for my needs. (And by "unlimited", I mean in terms of full speed data, not no more service at all.)

 

[user 16179]

I cancelled my Visible service this week after a few years of satisfactory use. Since I've been on the road full time relying on the hotspot for so many activities, I've experienced too many instances of getting throttled. I use a booster as well.

So seeing 3 or 4 bars and not being able to upload edits to my website or use a remote desktop program to help a friend back home or to have people frequently complain of echo chambering on voice calls, I gave up. Now I'm on a regular Verizon plan. Not unlimited, but more than enough for my needs. (And by "unlimited", I mean in terms of full speed data, not no more service at all.)

My Verizon "Unlimited" plan is only unlimited to my phone. If I use mobile data to get internet to my laptop it is limited to 30 whatever (gb, mb ??) I only watch/stream videos on my phone and I have no problems with a month of my limited usage getting slowed down while "tethered".

 

[StarryNights]

fiI've been a Visible customer since May 2019 and it is my only phone and internet provider. I presently have the XTE Blade 11 phone. I spend winters in Florida and it has worked well. I connect to a GL.iNet GL-MT1300 (Beryl) router for my hotspot. I have done the mod to the router that removes the 5 Mb/s speed cap. At home I routinely get 20 Mb/s.

Here's a link to a document that an iRV2 forum member posted that explains how to set up a Visible phone:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jKLcBfdChCghgdHYS7ieGGhlUBfj7qFtSwHvZKb913Q/edit

A big thanks to Tom M for the excellent detailed writeup on how to get Visible setup for RV use. I'm a NH snowbird wintering in AZ with an AT&T phone on a family plan but needed much more data - so for last winter added a 2nd phone on Visible to use mainly as a hot spot. I bought a used LG-V40 on eBay (currently about $100) to use with Visible, an excellent high-end phone that has worked really well. Seems like a used flagship phone is a better choice than a new low-end phone. Really happy, a game changer, and was using up to 90GB/mo, but had tether limitation of one device.

This year, I added the GL-iNet Slate router so I could have multiple devices connected at same time. I tether the Visible phone to the router that supplies WiFi to a laptop, tablet and Amazon Echo that is on most of the time playing music or a radio station. When driving, the Visible phone displays navigation while the AT&T phone plays podcasts while blue-toothed to the radio - which gets bypassed if a phone call comes in so have hands-free calling.

I do have some drop-outs which may get handled by following some of the tips in Tom's write-up. Will do the hack to by-pass the 5Mbps limit, but current speed honestly is enough for nearly everything I do. I'm currently using about 5GB/day.

Connectivity Problems: High season in crowded areas like Quartzsite (mid-December - January) can see periods of un-usable download speeds from about 7am to midnight. Frankly, even users on higher-end plans often experienced this too. My AT&T phone could usually be used if really needed something. Email, even with attachments, would eventually send/receive however. YouTube adjusts and is amazingly usable even with data speeds under 1Mbps with reduced video quality. Poor video with good sound is more acceptable than poor sound with good video is worse.

Booster: Don't have one, but last week I was in an area with poor Verizon and my drone refused to fly until I downloaded a 100+MB update. Guy next to me had a booster and told me to just get next to his rig. I was amazed at the speed and had the update downloaded in a flash. OK, I've added booster to wish list!

 

[flylo]

About 2 years & very pleased. Free phone & $25/month. You can get a router from Amazon & use as many devices as you want.

 

[hugemoth]

My Visible account is set to autopay from my credit card which has worked fine until today when I received an email that my account had been suspended for non-payment. I checked my account via the app and verified autopay is still turned on and my credit card and backup credit card are up to date and working correctly. I suspect a bug in Visible software.

 

[urbankid12]

I been a visible member for about 6 months now. I would never have visible mobile alone. It's $25 bucks a month and unlimited hotspot and for the most part it works OK. They do throttle it to a slower speed. 9/10 times it's acceptable. Today I couldn't even watch youtube video in 480p so Im using my backup Cricket Wiresless. Granted this area I get 1-2 bars but I'm in an urban apartment place.

I would pair Visible wireless with another phone service. Me specifically I have 3 phones. 1 Visible wireless $25 2. Cricket wireless $55 and 3. Mint $15 but I only get 2G per month. so for $95 bucks a month I get 3 phone services on all 3 networks! Which is far less than my Verizon plan that cost me 105 bucks a month after taxes.

I don't have home internet anymore, and I already moved ALOT of my favorite TV shows onto a micro SD card so I watch that as my offline TV most of the time. I want to get more TV shows on micro SD cards in the future, but I still do watch youtube and netflix a bit but I don't DEPEND on it. Having the ability to depend less online is important I think when you can.

I recently switched from AT&T to cricket 85 from AT&T to now just $55 for cricket. I would say Visible is a heck of a deal! but if you JUST want one phone service then pay more for a better carrier. Unless you can survive at slower speeds, there is a noticeable decrease in speed I notice the delays and slower speeds results in more waiting and lower resolution so I use the internet less as a result. That's how they keep their prices low.. duh...

It to good of a deal to be "real" but if the bulk of your usage is email then yea, it would be easy to be fine with Visible wireless.

If I could find a cheaper unlimited AT&T wireless option I would be oh so happy.. but for now I'm content with what I got. My cricket wireless only has a 15G hotspot so it is much limited but as long as Visible talks the bulk of my hotspot needs then it doesn't effect me much at all.. Plus I still have my Mint mobile as an emergency.

I know it's a bit excessive.. but living in a place where I need access to goggle maps and need the ability to make phone calls it's security and safety for me.. I wouldn't depend on Visible alone and would NEVER recommend anyone to JUST have visible wireless. Even if you JUST have a Mint mobile phone and pay 15 bucks a month for 2G having a backup option is important. and with a rate of 25 bucks a month Visible wireless makes it realistic.

 

[dhuff]

The Wirecutter has recently updated their recommendations for mobile phone plans. See https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-wireless-carrier/ For less expensive plans, here are carriers the MVNOs re-sell:

• Visible, TracFone, StraightTalk --> Verizon
• Mint, Metro --> T-Mobile
• Cricket --> AT&T
• Consumer Cellular --> AT&T and T-Mobile

All the carriers offer faster service directly that isn't subject to speed reductions via Quality of Service (QoS) configurations on their side, but for a price (i.e. more expensive).

 

[PhilD1954]

excuse me , but what does mvno stand for?

 

[AmargosaWayne]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operator