What Cellular Provider?

[BeerBrewer-MGRV]

I'm thinking changing my cellular provider (Verizon) and I was wondering what provider that you folks use. Vz's customer service is just terrible, they keep making errors on my account and they just raised my bill $83 per month! I was looking at some of the resellers like Consumer Cellular, but I uncertain how their coverage is. So what carrier or provider do you use and how do you find their coverage and service?

Your help is appreciated!

Bob

 

[DECelt]

I'm thinking changing my cellular provider (Verizon) and I was wondering what provider that you folks use. Vz's customer service is just terrible, they keep making errors on my account and they just raised my bill $83 per month! I was looking at some of the resellers like Consumer Cellular, but I uncertain how their coverage is. So what carrier or provider do you use and how do you find their coverage and service?

Your help is appreciated!

Bob

Visible wireless. They are owned by Verizon and operate on Verizon towers. $25.00 a month for unlimited talk, text and data....and the big one for me...unlimited mobile hotspot data...which means that you can stream as much Netflix etc as you want to your internet capable tv.

Been on the road now two months with it. Flawless.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Dick Noble]

AT&T -- it sucks.

 

[llr2800]

Visible wireless. They are owned by Verizon and operate on Verizon towers. $25.00 a month for unlimited talk, text and data....and the big one for me...unlimited mobile hotspot data...which means that you can stream as much Netflix etc as you want to your internet capable tv.

Been on the road now two months with it. Flawless.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

I also recommend Visible and have one with a portable router as a hotspot in the camper. My primary phone is a Verizon phone through work or I would be using the Visible as my phone. My wife has purtalk on AT&T as in a few locations it has better coverage.

 

[BeerBrewer-MGRV]

Visible wireless. They are owned by Verizon and operate on Verizon towers. $25.00 a month for unlimited talk, text and data....and the big one for me...unlimited mobile hotspot data...which means that you can stream as much Netflix etc as you want to your internet capable tv.

Been on the road now two months with it. Flawless.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

I had heard that about AT&T.

I had never heard of Visible! So I looked up some info. They give unlimited talk, text and data, however, they cap the 4G LTE speeds around 8-12Mbps and the 5G data at 200Mbps. Is this an issue? 8-12Mbps doesn't too bad, but I don't know.

 

[llr2800]

I have not had any streaming issues on Visible when Verizon has adequate bandwidth. In busy areas it can slow down a lot, when it does my Verizon work phone has the same issues.

I have not tried but I doubt if you will be able to stream to multiple TVs or 4K programs with Visible. We almost never do either of those at home and can live with that on the road.

 

[DECelt]

I had heard that about AT&T.

I had never heard of Visible! So I looked up some info. They give unlimited talk, text and data, however, they cap the 4G LTE speeds around 8-12Mbps and the 5G data at 200Mbps. Is this an issue? 8-12Mbps doesn't too bad, but I don't know.

That is old info. They no longer throttle speeds, except for wifi hotspot...and 5g...which is capped at 500 mbps.

Hot spot is unlimited at 5 mbps. Not 4g streaming, but quite acceptable compared to no streaming at all or a crazy bill. Pretty much standard dvd quality. You can be "deprioritized" in areas of heavy traffic...but I have not noticed any issues.

I routinely get 4g at 50+ mbps, and 5 g whenever I am in 5g territory. For me it's perfect...zero complaints.


Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Rudy35]

I'm in Maine and recently switched to Spectrum Mobile. I'm not sure if it is available everywhere, but it uses Verizon towers and I've had good signal so far in New England.

 

[attaboy]

That is old info. They no longer throttle speeds, except for wifi hotspot...and 5g...which is capped at 500 mbps.

Hot spot is unlimited at 5 mbps. Not 4g streaming, but quite acceptable compared to no streaming at all or a crazy bill. Pretty much standard dvd quality. You can be "deprioritized" in areas of heavy traffic...but I have not noticed any issues.

I routinely get 4g at 50+ mbps, and 5 g whenever I am in 5g territory. For me it's perfect...zero complaints.


Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Like the others we have used Visible for Travel internet for 1.5 years.
We stream a LOT of tv and have no complaints. Matter of fact
we switched our 2 personal phones from AT&T to Visible.
Bob A.

 

[BeerBrewer-MGRV]

That is old info. They no longer throttle speeds, except for wifi hotspot...and 5g...which is capped at 500 mbps.

Hot spot is unlimited at 5 mbps. Not 4g streaming, but quite acceptable compared to no streaming at all or a crazy bill. Pretty much standard dvd quality. You can be "deprioritized" in areas of heavy traffic...but I have not noticed any issues.

I routinely get 4g at 50+ mbps, and 5 g whenever I am in 5g territory. For me it's perfect...zero complaints.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

I don't think that this is old info, I its from a review called "Visible Review: 5 Things To Know Before You Sign Up" dated February 7, 2022 (https://clark.com/cell-phones/visible-review/). To verify this info I started a chat session this morning with Visible and this is what they said when I asked if "Does Visible chokes or throttle data traffic"

[FONT=&quot]does Visible choke of throttle data traffic?
​

​

<label class="sc-jqsdoX iBAWHF" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation; display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; width: calc(100% - 10px); margin-left: inherit; text-align: right; padding-right: 15px;">[h=4]Robert[/h]</label>
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Nice to see you Robert! I'm Connai, Visible's Digital Assistant.​

[FONT=&quot]We’re built for life on the go &#55357;&#57059;
You'll typically experience 4G network speeds of 5-12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2-5 Mbps. Also, on specific devices and in certain locations, you'll experience 5G network speeds capped at 200 Mbps.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Video &#55356;&#57253; typically streams at a resolution of 480p - nice and crisp on your phone.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Heads up: when the network gets congested, your data could be slower than other traffic.[/FONT]
​

[/FONT]​

4G download speeds can be as high as 100Mbps, but I typically see form 25 Mbps to 50 Mbps in my area. So Visible is definitely choking the 4G data traffic at least that is what they are telling me. My wife and I both have fairly new phones and unfortunately they aren't 5G capable. We are satisfied with the 25 to 50 Mbps that we've been seeing, but 5 to 12 Mbps is just too slow.

 

[DECelt]

I don't think that this is old info, I its from a review called "Visible Review: 5 Things To Know Before You Sign Up" dated February 7, 2022 (https://clark.com/cell-phones/visible-review/). To verify this info I started a chat session this morning with Visible and this is what they said when I asked if "Does Visible chokes or throttle data traffic"

[FONT=&quot]does Visible choke of throttle data traffic?
​

​

[h=4]Robert[/h]
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Nice to see you Robert! I'm Connai, Visible's Digital Assistant.​

[FONT=&quot]We’re built for life on the go
You'll typically experience 4G network speeds of 5-12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2-5 Mbps. Also, on specific devices and in certain locations, you'll experience 5G network speeds capped at 200 Mbps.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Video typically streams at a resolution of 480p - nice and crisp on your phone.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Heads up: when the network gets congested, your data could be slower than other traffic.[/FONT]
​

[/FONT]​

4G download speeds can be as high as 100Mbps, but I typically see form 25 Mbps to 50 Mbps in my area. So Visible is definitely choking the 4G data traffic at least that is what they are telling me. My wife and I both have fairly new phones and unfortunately they aren't 5G capable. We are satisfied with the 25 to 50 Mbps that we've been seeing, but 5 to 12 Mbps is just too slow.

Well, that has not been my experience...but if its streaming tv you are interested in, perhaps its worth an old phone and a single visible account. I found Visible to be the only reasonable cost provider to provide unlimited hotspot streaming, so if thats your primary focus you'll have trouble finding another service that is better on Verizon towers. So many variables and all of our needs differ. If my home was in T-Mobile country I would think about their network...but Verizon is the only network that is viable for us. Good luck....and let us know if you find a better option.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

[llr2800]

I'm in Maine and recently switched to Spectrum Mobile. I'm not sure if it is available everywhere, but it uses Verizon towers and I've had good signal so far in New England.

At least around here the Spectrum mobile high speed data is pretty limited. It sounds ok if you don't stream or work mobile.

 

[JM0397]

Visible wireless. They are owned by Verizon and operate on Verizon towers. $25.00 a month for unlimited talk, text and data....and the big one for me...unlimited mobile hotspot data...which means that you can stream as much Netflix etc as you want to your internet capable tv.

Been on the road now two months with it. Flawless.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

FYI, I'm chatting with a Visible rep right now, regarding "unlimited", it's not truly unlimited but hopefully better than Verizon throttling at 40gb, which is about 1.5 weeks of fulltime work & streaming for us, so no bueno for any trips more than 10 days on the road!

"That's correct. We do offer unlimited talk/text/ and data this includes hotspot. You may seem some issues with data speeds when the usage of data gets higher as well."
BUT
They don't throttle until the 200-300gb range, so that should be no problem for us, so much more unlimited, but they do throttle it, more or less, to ensure this is individual usage.

ALSO - One thing to note with Visible - each phone can only connect to ONE device at a time. No problem for me and DW, as we can run each laptop on each of our phones. They do not currently have any mifi devices, so you'll need to use a phone for hotspotting, and can't run, for example, your TV and PC at the same time.

 

[llr2800]

ALSO - One thing to note with Visible - each phone can only connect to ONE device at a time. No problem for me and DW, as we can run each laptop on each of our phones. They do not currently have any mifi devices, so you'll need to use a phone for hotspotting, and can't run, for example, your TV and PC at the same time.

I bought a portable router TP-Link TL-WR802N to overcome the one device limit. The router is the one connection to the phone, all other connections are to the router

 

[Rudy35]

At least around here the Spectrum mobile high speed data is pretty limited. It sounds ok if you don't stream or work mobile.

$30 per line here, taxes and fees included, unlimited data. I've seen 5g already in some places. Good option here for me.

 

[krsmitty]

Visible wireless. They are owned by Verizon and operate on Verizon towers. $25.00 a month for unlimited talk, text and data....and the big one for me...unlimited mobile hotspot data...which means that you can stream as much Netflix etc as you want to your internet capable tv.

Been on the road now two months with it. Flawless.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

X2 - Switched from Cricket to Visible.

 

[RickLight]

There are some very well researched guides over at http://rvmobileinternet.com

 

[cvretis]

I have been using FMCA's Sprint/T-Mobile for years now. It is what we use at home and on the road. Not happy with the service lately. I just checked my speed and it was 1.94 down and 5.50 up. This is good compared to some days. Insanely poor and they don't care. Now you have to contact FMCA for help, you can no longer contact T-mobile directly.

We will probably go with the Visible in the near future. Do you know if it works in Canada also?

On our last vacation, we mainly used the AT&T hotspot from my new F150 Powerboost with the 7.3 Kw generator. Great truck, we love it.

 

[uwskier]

FYI, I'm chatting with a Visible rep right now, regarding "unlimited", it's not truly unlimited but hopefully better than Verizon throttling at 40gb, which is about 1.5 weeks of fulltime work & streaming for us, so no bueno for any trips more than 10 days on the road!

"That's correct. We do offer unlimited talk/text/ and data this includes hotspot. You may seem some issues with data speeds when the usage of data gets higher as well."
BUT
They don't throttle until the 200-300gb range, so that should be no problem for us, so much more unlimited, but they do throttle it, more or less, to ensure this is individual usage.

ALSO - One thing to note with Visible - each phone can only connect to ONE device at a time. No problem for me and DW, as we can run each laptop on each of our phones. They do not currently have any mifi devices, so you'll need to use a phone for hotspotting, and can't run, for example, your TV and PC at the same time.

If you have a modern Android phone, you can turn on wifi connection sharing to get around the one device limit. Turn on the hotspot on your Visible phone, then connect to it with your regular phone. Then turn off that phone's mobile data and turn on its hotspot. Connect as many devices to that as you wish. Works great as long as you don't need to take that phone on a hike or something while others stay behind wanting internet access.

 

[Lc1496]

I'm thinking changing my cellular provider (Verizon) and I was wondering what provider that you folks use. Vz's customer service is just terrible, they keep making errors on my account and they just raised my bill $83 per month! I was looking at some of the resellers like Consumer Cellular, but I uncertain how their coverage is. So what carrier or provider do you use and how do you find their coverage and service?

Your help is appreciated!

Bob

Hey all, let me say first that I just got this a month ago so it’s still new and the 1st week was a bunch of trouble getting mifi setup, BUT now that it is up it seems to work. Totally cellular, it goes anywhere and we use it at home as our only internet service. It is $80 a month (a little high) but supports 5 devices with no limits or throttling. On the road, we averaged about 35M, even when actually travelling at 60 mph. At home, cell service is poor, so we are lucky to average 25M. Any who it is perfect but does well, checking off all our important boxes. It is called Rim Internet, Steve runs it, and he is on top of customer service. I probably messed this message up, the wife is yelling at me for being the screw up I usually am.

Edit: I forgot to mention you can pick which carrier you want to use, not sure about visible tho.. att, sprint, Verizon, etc. I said it is perfect up above when I meant NOT perfect.