Visible Wireless

[willbur]

Greetings All-
Shopping for a new cell service provider. Visible Wireless looks good but some reviews are not complementary. Any opinions/reviews/experiences the BITOG community can share?

The forum members here appear especially knowledgeable on this topic

 

[factorytuned2012]

verizon prepaid
cricket wireless
puretalk

would be my choices

 

[Rand]

Which towers do you want?

 

[newtoncd8]

Visible is "powered by Verizon".
The idea is to offer a service to people that don't need customer service, which is why the reviews might be a bit harsh. Also, at high traffic events (sporting, concerts, etc), Visible could be throttled a bit compared to Verizon.
If you are computer/phone savvy, you can definitely save on the monthly fees.

 

[eljefino]

My whole family's on it.

There are two plans, the cheap one has lower network priority. Wife gets the "good" plan but we haven't noticed a difference. Only time it was a problem was a kids track meet in BFE where we had to use an app to buy tickets. Hundreds of bored parents in the stands were hogging all the bandwidth.

I had an issue porting my number and the bizzarre customer service told me to reach out to them on facebook for a fix. And it worked! CS is an understandable nightmare so they're more of a set it/ forget it operation.

My $20 plan has unlimited text/data/voice and will hot spot one device at 2 mb/sec which is enough for a SD stream. I'm cheap so this is good enough for me.

The phones aren't subsidized and there's a short list of BYO phones that work. I got a $100 TCL. It's adequate.

 

[Skippy722]

I’d recommend US Mobile, you won’t be tied to any particular service provider as you can switch between ATT, Verizon, and T Mobile with the same number. We have them on their “Warp” aka Verizon right now. $50/month all in for 2 lines unlimited everything.

 

[bullwinkle]

If you don’t need lots of data, Tello is the cheapest, only $9.18 incl. tax, etc. for 2 GB of data (which is throttled to 2G after the 2 gigs/month is used), unlimited talk & text on T-Mobile’s network. Since the home phone is on WiFi most of the time, it doesn’t run out. Cheaper than my Cincinnati Bell or Spectrum landlines were!

 

[Tkonrr]

I just switched to Visible exactly 5 hours ago. Brought my unlocked phone from AT&T's Cricket wireless. Calls are clearer and the data speeds including hotspot are much faster for less money than Cricket was charging. Only disappointment is that I hadn't switched to Visible months ago.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

I have the T-Mobile Magenta plan for people 55+. Got it when it was $30 a line with everything unlimited. Now I think its $35.

 

[chainblu]

I've had a Visible account for more than two years. Admittedly, I'm not a cell phone 'power user', but it does everything I want it to do well.

 

[Nukeman7]

I’d recommend US Mobile, you won’t be tied to any particular service provider as you can switch between ATT, Verizon, and T Mobile with the same number. We have them on their “Warp” aka Verizon right now. $50/month all in for 2 lines unlimited everything.

^^^^ US Mobile is the way to go for affordability, flexibility and coverage. Here is a long BITOG Thread from earlier this year that discusses the same topic the OP initiated. In US Mobile lingo, Warp = Verizon Network, Dark Star = AT&T Network, Light Speed = T-Mobile Network. They offer a 30 day free trial period to "test the waters" before switching long term.

Link to US Mobile Plans

 

[GMBoy]

Visible is "powered by Verizon".
The idea is to offer a service to people that don't need customer service, which is why the reviews might be a bit harsh. Also, at high traffic events (sporting, concerts, etc), Visible could be throttled a bit compared to Verizon.
If you are computer/phone savvy, you can definitely save on the monthly fees.

I have Verizon and there is no customer service there as well.

 

[earlyre]

i'm on Verizon Prepaid, My Gf is on Visible.
most of the time, no problems... Most of the time...
occasionally, she'll not have service, while I do. in the same locations, at the same times.
some times it takes a while, 5 min - 1 hr, for my texts to get to her. and some times I get her txts 3-4 times in a row.( the same msg repeated over and over)
and on occasion, when we're talking her voice will break up and sound robotic.
the only other differences between our phones, is She's using an iPhone 15 Pro, and I'm using a Pixel 8 pro.
Verizon is the only network that really works in our area.

 

[Quattro Pete]

and will hot spot one device at 2 mb/sec which is enough for a SD stream.

Their website says it's actually 5 Mbps, which is relatively decent for occasional use.

 

[factorytuned2012]

i'm on Verizon Prepaid, My Gf is on Visible.
most of the time, no problems... Most of the time...
occasionally, she'll not have service, while I do. in the same locations, at the same times.
some times it takes a while, 5 min - 1 hr, for my texts to get to her. and some times I get her txts 3-4 times in a row.( the same msg repeated over and over)
and on occasion, when we're talking her voice will break up and sound robotic.
the only other differences between our phones, is She's using an iPhone 15 Pro, and I'm using a Pixel 8 pro.
Verizon is the only network that really works in our area.

Visible is a cloud based wireless network It's junk I wouldn't waste my time I would just go on VZ prepaid.
https://www.google.com/search?q=doe...wKYAwmSBwkzNi4zOS4xLjKgB6SXAw&sclient=gws-wiz

 

[DemoFly]

Visible is "powered by Verizon".
The idea is to offer a service to people that don't need customer service, which is why the reviews might be a bit harsh. Also, at high traffic events (sporting, concerts, etc), Visible could be throttled a bit compared to Verizon.
If you are computer/phone savvy, you can definitely save on the monthly fees.

I've been a visible customer for 4 years. They have excellent customer service. I prefer Visibles customer service over verizon by far. Which is ironic because Verizon owns Visible.

Visible is a cloud based wireless network It's junk I wouldn't waste my time I would just go on VZ prepaid.

Not true. Visible no longer operates on cloudcore. They are a traditional MVNO offering QCI8 and QCI9 plans. Visible+ plans are better than Verizon prepaid at a lower cost. It has 5G Ultra Wideband, no throttling, and unlimited hotspot data.

 

[factorytuned2012]

I've been a visible customer for 4 years. They have excellent customer service. I prefer Visibles customer service over verizon by far. Which is ironic because Verizon owns Visible.

Not true. Visible no longer operates on cloudcore. They are a traditional MVNO offering QCI8 and QCI9 plans. Visible+ plans are better than Verizon prepaid at a lower cost. It has 5G Ultra Wideband, no throttling, and unlimited hotspot data.

Thanks for the information, when I was on visible a few years back it was the cloud network. I guess the cloud network wasn’t working out for them. I have a friend that was on sprint legacy which was switching over to T-Mobile he could call me but I couldn’t call out specifically to him. Out of a phone book of 90+ contacts why the two networks weren’t compatible at the time I’ll never know.

 

[javacontour]

Thanks for the information, when I was on visible a few years back it was the cloud network. I guess the cloud network wasn’t working out for them. I have a friend that was on sprint legacy which was switching over to T-Mobile he could call me but I couldn’t call out specifically to him. Out of a phone book of 90+ contacts why the two networks weren’t compatible at the time I’ll never know.

I believe back then, Visible was the "beta test" of the cloud network.

Remember, Verizon was still very much a CDMA carrier. Not everything was GSM for them.

Testing the "new path" with a MVNO like Visible was a way forward.

I suspect they learned a lot and sorted out many of the early issues. This allows both the Cloud Network to improve and Verizon avoids alienating their larger flagship customer base.

The above is purely speculation, but seems to me a reasonable scenario.

Stuff is going to the cloud. The cloud is bound to improve.

 

[willbur]

Thanks to all for the info. I'm considering Visible bc they give a $10/month discount to verizon internet customers; and coupled with the yearly plan upfront cost, I can get their "deluxe" plan for roughly $23/month. Not sure if both can be combined. It's between them and Us Mobile, but the responses here are offering other ideas...

 

[javacontour]

Thanks to all for the info. I'm considering Visible bc they give a $10/month discount to verizon internet customers; and coupled with the yearly plan upfront cost, I can get their "deluxe" plan for roughly $23/month. Not sure if both can be combined. It's between them and Us Mobile, but the responses here are offering other ideas...

One used to be able to get a one or two week free trial. (Edited to add it's a 15 day free trial now.)

Most modern phones allow one to use dual eSIMs. Give it a test drive before paying and porting your number to see if it works for you.