After 10 years my old phone died so I bought another unlocked cheap phone. No point giving out my number once the credit is used up I will buy another £10 sim and so on.

Bold new experiment!

Since I live in the countryside, there are no high speed interest options without data caps. I have been using my Verizon cell phone as a hot spot for the last 4 years. Speed is great but the data cap is 30 GB and it's $200 a month. :doh:

I've been watching the carriers compete, and lately "Unlimited" data is the thing. It's 50% cheaper but they still cap it at ~22GB, and much less than that if it goes through the hot spot.

So the news update today was about one of these Mobile Virtual Network Operators "Visible" supposedly offers unlimited hot spot at 5MB/s. That should be plenty fast for plain jane Internet access. (Alas, no countryside Netflix yet).

So, I ordered the cheapest phone that will work on their plan $99 and the $40 unlimited plan to try it out. If it really works, great. I have 2 weeks to return it, so if I am not satisifed after 12 days back it goes and I'll give Sprint a try, their Unlimited Premium plans include 100GB of hotspot use, more than 3x what I have now, at $80/month.

Ok, phone set up and active, now running wild on unlimited plan. :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

Speed test shows it is actually faster than my main Verizon account. As long as I can manage 5MB/s without worrying about running out of data, I'll be fine.

Well, 3 weeks in, I can no longer return the phone for a refund. But so far, the service has been good, as good as on the my other plan. :)

So, maybe it's time to let go of the mega $$ plan now. The risk is, once I end that the old plan service, I can't get it back.

Then again, Verizon just came up with 4 new plans, and the "Get More Unlimited" plan (how does one get more unlimited? Isn't "unlimited" all that can be gotten??) comes with 30 GB of "Unlimited" Hot spot data, which is the same as my current $200 plan.

Decisions....:hmmm:

Maybe you're getting more things that are "Unlimited"?

Now that I think about it...
There is only so much time in a month (one month to be exact), so how exactly is it "Unlimited"?

Anybody else getting tired of this joke, because it seems there are an "Unlimited" number of puns I can make here... the possibilities are...




I'll see myself out...

Barracuda


P.S. I didn't look at the link before I posted... so if my post doesn't make any sense, that why.

:Kaleun_Applaud: Brilliant.

Now 2 months in, so far no issues at all. Still paying for the coveted $180 30GB plan, afraid to let that go but the new Visible hot spot is as good as anything I've used outside of a cable connection.

Maybe in a couple months I'll cancel the $180 plan, then I'll be totally dependent on Visible, no going back. :06: But if Visible maintains the current performance, I'll be saving $120 a month.

Z5 unlocked
 

With telstra, my only choice on a great day can get 24 Mbs worst can be as low as 8Mbs. Have an optus tower nearby but no signal.

Regards

I went out on a limb and cancelled my long time 30 GB plan, because now Verizon has a $90 plan that provides 30GB of hot spot data, so, that saves me ~$85 a month. With the $40 plan and $90 plan, $180 - $130 = $50 a month savings and I have a 30BG plan and the Visible unlimited plan, I finally have fairly high speed unlimited internet in the country! :Kaleun_Applaud:

If I really get brave, I may transfer my number to the $40 Visible plan and cancel Verizon altogether, but I'm not ready for that now :)

Hehe.


I pay 2 Euros per month for mobile web, and 9 cent per SMS and 9 cent per telephone minute. At max I spend 10MB per month mobile, do one or two minutes of phon e talking, and send no or one SMS.


:D 2 - 2.36 Euros per month. Who's still with me?


40 Euros per month for cable connection, however. Plus 18 Euros obligatory media tax. Beyond that no further pay TV.

welcome aboard!
 

Between my October post and this update, I have been successfully streaming Hulu and Netflix, pretty much as often as I wished, using Visible's $40 a month unlimited. It has been terrific! But ...

Massive changes at Rancho Subsim:

Bought a house with fiber access, 350MBS download speeds and no more data cap.

Cancelled Visible service

Switched mobile to Verizon prepaid, 15GB data cap at $40 a month.
https://www.businessinsider.com/veri...cribers-2020-6

Success at last!

Did I get this right - you moved and bought a new house only in order to get rid of your old telephone wire? Thats dedication - no half solutions, but clear cuts.



:O:

We tried for a year to get Xfinity to come out and make a line out here in the Suburban countryside. We had a Verizon Jetpack that had 15gb of unlimited data and guess how fast that went out when I was playing my games? less than a day And the more gigs you used, the slower the speed got. Literally, in two weeks, we would have 35 kb/s download speed AT MAX. We would get more 15gb data after a month had passed.

Then, Xfinity came out with fiber internet out here in May, after using Verizon for about a year and I could download SH5 in two minutes, with the max speed capping off at around 500 Mb/s. The Xfinity speed test says that we get nearly 1gb max speed, which is insane.

I understand how grueling it must've been for you to have the slowest internet ever. Life felt so slow back in those days, especially when I had to do online learning for school.

Good hunting! Give those tommies hell! :Kaleun_Salute:

I had to move anyway, my previous house was too small. I wanted a VR room and a bigger library.



Yeah, 15GB a month is barely enough for basic web surfing and video.

Ahh, I remember back in 1999 or so, when I lived in Houston and Time Warner showed up with Road Runner cable, that was amazing! I enjoyed that for 15 years the gave it up to live out of a truck for 3 years, using my phone as a hot spot. Brutal.

Well, here's hoping Starlink will help all the folks living out of town soon... :yeah: