Visible’s new plan puts Verizon’s to shame

Visible, the budget wireless brand owned by Verizon, is offering a new premium plan that looks like a heck of a deal compared to its parent company’s offerings. The new Visible Plus Pro plan (I didn’t say the name was good) costs $45 per month. For that price you get unlimited 5G Ultrawideband (UW) data, which is an awfully good deal when you consider that Verizon’s own entry-level unlimited plan, Unlimited Welcome, starts at $65 per month and doesn’t include 5G UW. This new Plus Pro plan also comes without throttling. Many lower-cost carrier plans and MVNOs tend to offer a certain allotment of “premium” data. Once you exceed your allowance, you might see slowdowns at times when the network is busy. But Visible’s fine print states that both its Plus and Plus Pro plan are “not subject to any data prioritization limitations.” So that rules. It gets better: the Plus Pro plan includes unlimited hotspot usage at up to 15 Mbps. Verizon’s basic plan doesn’t include any hotspot data, just the option to add it for an extra $10 per month. There’s also 4K video streaming and service for one cellular smartwatch included. You can probably guess what I’m going to say next, but just to reiterate, Verizon’s basic unlimited plan doesn’t include any of that. This would all be less of a good deal if Verizon puts Visible traffic on a lower network tier than its own postpaid customers. Network operators commonly put different kinds of customers on certain service tiers called Quality of Service Class Indicators, or QCIs. This helps with overall traffic prioritization when there’s congestion, usually putting first responders on the fastest tier. Verizon didn’t immediately respond to my question about Visible Plus Pro’s QCI, but Android Authority’s comprehensive comparison between Visible and Verizon suggests that Visible’s premium plan is actually assigned a higher-priority QCI than Verizon’s Unlimited Welcome — at least, that’s been the case in the past. We’ll update this article if Verizon responds to our request. It’s all too rare to read about an ISP’s new plan and think “Huh, that sounds like a good deal, actually.” But that’s the case here, even after going through the fine print.