A Visible Apology

[MarkintoshToo]

There's been discussion over the years about cell service providers. Lately, whenever anyone has suggested Visible, I chimed in with a pitch for US Mobile. Today I switched to Visible+. So apologies are in order.

US Mobile is still a good carrier and a good value in that they offer access to Verizon, ATT and T Mobile. You can switch from one carrier to the other. It's relatively cheap to add a second or third line on another carrier for backup.

But we were using none of that and sticking to just Verizon service. The Visible+ service is not deprioritized like standard Visible service. So we just switched to annual plans, which works out to 31.50 a month, about a dollar cheaper than USM. It also includes 12 travel pass days for the year.

We have an upcoming trip across the pond and although USM advertises they cover some international roaming, the Reddit soundboards are full of complaints where it does not "just work". The Verizon/Visible Travel Passes worked flawlessly on our previous trips. So there's the big impetus for change.

Please accept my apologies.

[AllGold]

No apology necessary. If it hadn't been for you, I probably wouldn't have known about US Mobile (which I'm probably going to put my mom on).

[clay]

No apology necessary x2 

I moved my service and 2 others to USM in the past 5 months on recommendations from you and others here. No issues. If we do run into any issues, it's easy enough to switch to somewhere else. I am now on monthly billing, so there's no being stuck feeling like I'm wasting money if I need to switch. 

The best any of us can do is to make our best recommendations based on the information we have at the time. Companies change, situations change, our opinions change, etc. We can't vouch for everything in a personal way that covers all edge cases or situations in all times.

[rgG-New]

I have Visible + and I probably should switch to the annual plan.
Thanks for the reminder.

[AllGold]

I have Visible+ and I only pay $30/month.

I had the regular plan for a long time, but when I was at any event with a lot of people it was pretty much useless because I couldn't get any data bandwidth. Visible kept sending me offers to upgrade to + for $10 more, but I kept ignoring them. Finally, when I got an offer for only $5/month more ($30) I upgraded.

With the + plan, I was shocked because my phone actually worked during a big event. 

[rgG-New]

I have Visible+ and I only pay $30/month.

I had the regular plan for a long time, but when I was at any event with a lot of people it was pretty much useless because I couldn't get any data bandwidth. Visible kept sending me offers to upgrade to + for $10 more, but I kept ignoring them. Finally, when I got an offer for only $5/month more ($30) I upgraded.

With the + plan, I was shocked because my phone actually worked during a big event. 

I pay the $35 month for Visible+. I needed to upgrade when I was having to spend a fair amount of time at my mom’s house, before and after she died, and was getting much slower speeds than my daughter, so I had to do the $10 upgrade. 
I need to see how much the yearly plan is now. 
It was nice to see the immediate improvement in speed and I could check it against my daughter who is on Verizon post paid.

[RAMd®d]

I went with MINT because I had the free T-Mobile SIM that was offered years ago.

In an iPad, the SIM showed a much improved signal at home and a couple of other places, a decrease in signal in others.

Now I'm not sure I understand the Mint plan — unlimited talk, messaging, and data, with 10G hot spot data.

I get a running track of how much non-hotspot data I use.

So I'm wondering if when I renew, at double the rate, if then unlimited non-hotspot data goes away.

Normally, data using wouldn't be a big deal, except my WiFi is so slow I often switch to cellular on the phone, at home.

That could get pricey.

So maybe Visible+ might be something for me to consider.

I just don't know what VZW coverage is like, with the exception of one place I used to frequent, where there it was nil.

I'm guessing there's no Try Before You Buy for VZW, and only a coverage map to judge?

[Black]

I'm still with PagePlus. Am I deprioritized? How do I tell?

[MarkintoshToo]

I'm still with PagePlus. Am I deprioritized? How do I tell?

Did some quick Google Fu and here's what you need to know. PagePlus is an MVNO on the Verizon network. Their service level is QCI 9, which is the lowest priority level. What that means is your day to day service may be okay if you are not in a busy place. But as soon as you go somewhere with a lot of people it can get really bad. Any sporting event, theme park, concert, political demonstration and you will be at the back of the line for service. You may not get much if any data nor can you make a call. In an emergency situation like a wildfire or flood - you may be out of touch.

It doesn't have to be a huge crowd to make this happen. A rural area might have a tower with bandwidth for a 100 users at a time, so if 300 people show up for an event, it gets bad. QCI 9 service is useless in my town as we get huge influxes of visitors.

Also, there are far better deals out there than PagePlus these days. Only a handful of MVNOs get QCI 8 service on Verizon, with Visible+ and US Mobile being two of them.