Verizon unlimited

[Finance]

I am presently taking a test drive on Verizon's prepaid unlimited $75 per month on a burner phone. We use it only as a hotspot. Terms are only 600 kbps for the hotspot, but that's sufficient to stream. V says this plan may be de-prioritized during times of congestion. Right now I can only get around 300k, it's peak traffic on Friday. Later tonight it'll speed up. Sometimes it's much faster than the claimed 600k.

So far burned through 17 gigabytes in two weeks. Mostly movies and updating computers, GPS and so forth.

[docj]

Originally Posted by Finance

. Terms are only 600 kbps for the hotspot, but that's sufficient to stream. V says this plan may be de-prioritized during times of congestion.

I'm surprised that you can stream on 600kbps. When we use our 15GB allowance on each of our phones and our Jetpack our speed is also reduced to 600kbps. I've always found it nearly useless for streaming; it either reloads constantly or the resolution is so poor we can barely see the picture. What are you doing to make the picture watchable?

[Finance]

Originally Posted by docj

I'm surprised that you can stream on 600kbps. When we use our 15GB allowance on each of our phones and our Jetpack our speed is also reduced to 600kbps. I've always found it nearly useless for streaming; it either reloads constantly or the resolution is so poor we can barely see the picture. What are you doing to make the picture watchable?

Nothing special, I use the Prime video and Netflix apps built into the Sony TV. I find Netflix handles low bandwidth better, Prime is more likely to stall or be pixelated when on low quality connections.

Next time I watch a movie I'll check the throughput on the WiFi Ranger and report back what the bitrate is.

[docj]

Originally Posted by Finance

Nothing special, I use the Prime video and Netflix apps built into the Sony TV. I find Netflix handles low bandwidth better, Prime is more likely to stall or be pixelated when on low quality connections.

I agree that Netflix handles "dynamic resolution" much better than the other streaming services. We have our NetFlix account set to "medium" which is supposed to limit usage to <700MB/hr. This evening we watched a one hour European show that probably wasn't shot in HD and, according to my Ranger, we used ~340MB of data which calculates out to ~750kbps which is consistent with what you're reporting.

However, unfortunately the other services we use more than Netflix aren't as sophisticated. We watch Acorn and Britbox a lot and they have far more limited capabilities. We have the Ranger limited by "rule" to 4Mbps which limits data usage to ~1GB/hr. Between AT&T and Verizon we have a monthly data budget of ~150GB which we can usually remain within.

[dphaynes]

It depends entirely where you're at.



I used a Verizon 40GB plan for a year and half, then got stuck having to switch to "Unlimited", which I've been on for 7 or 8 months.



I use it extensively, for work (video conferencing and interactive terminal and remote desktop sessions) during the day and streaming/surfing at night. I typically rack up 80GB to 100GB/month.



What they mean by unlimited is "Unlimited annoyances"



Your requests basically get put in the back of the queue if there are any other connections that aren't being limited.


If the cell tower you're connected to is serving a lot of people, you couldn't even stream ASCII art in real time. Vimeo and Youtube will pause for 10 to 20 seconds every 5-10 seconds to buffer, even in low resolutions.


I've never seen it stream smoothly once I've used up my "allowance"



Lately I've been getting worse and worse performance. I suspect that Verizon and AT&T and possibly other carriers are battling or changing contract terms and simply ignoring or delaying traffic that doesn't come from their own customers. I've had pretty good reception wherever I go (New Mexico to Arizona to Oregon to Montana and back down) for the last couple of years, but now I get really bad connections about 60% of the time, especially when I'm in a situation like I am tonight. If you read the RVParkReviews for Ute Lake State Park in NM, they all say good Verizon coverage. That's no longer true.



I've got a good 3G signal on my phone but apparently it's an AT&T tower, and even though I can hit 3-4 bars of 3G to the tower, it refuses to allow me to make any voice calls. Every attempt gets "No Network Found" That's never happened to me until the last couple of months and I've seen it at least 4 or 5 times, probably more. It's really frustrating.


I asked the ranger at the front desk about the phones and she said "Oh no, Verizon phones don't work anywhere in Logan"


I really, really wish I had taken the hit for a few hundred bucks and kept my old 40GB connection. I accidentally used up all 40GB in one night and would have had to pay per GB for that whole month. I really, really, really wish I had just done that.



The unlimited plan sucks, but there's a "trick" you can use to make it suck a litle less.



Use your jetpack until you've exhausted the data for it, then configure your phone as an access point and use that until the data for it is all used.


I was pretty much okay with the unlimited plan (annoyed, but dealing with it) until the last couple of months. Now I just hate dealing with it. I get about one week of decent performance each month, and the rest is just sitting around waiting or not having any connection at all.

[sdennislee]

For those of you that use Verizon for work look in to a commercial account. The shared plan significantly increases the throttle trigger on unlimited plans. The group I'm in at the office our shared trigger is 50 GB. We've never hit the trigger. My guess is they have other plans but this one works for me. My backup plan if needed is to use my VZW iPhone, iPad or AT&T iPhone as a hotspot, hasn't been necessary yet, Jetpack and 50GB has been good.

When and where possible I take advantage of other WiFi sources, i.e. Delta Sky Club in airports, office WiFi when visiting local offices, client visitor WiFi. The one I rarely use is CG WiFi can't remember the last time I had good CG WiFi.

Typical use for me is GoToMeeting, email w/large attachments, internet research, file sharing, etc...

My travel these days keeps me in the midwest and south east. VZW seems to work well in these areas. Normally see speeds of 30 to 40 mbps down, can't remember up speed. I did add an antenna to my JetPack the mounts inside on the window with suction cups.

[Finance]

I think dphaynes nailed it. Prioritization of (other) traffic is the major pain nowadays. Getting "unlimited" while not getting placed on the lowest priority is the trick. I would love to see exactly what the carrier's programming rules are fore the network switches. Of course we'll never know, and it probably changes all the time.

Watched a Netflix video last night, the bit rate varied between ~250 and 600 kbps on average, with some drops to zero as well as spikes above 1.5 mbps. Their app clearly excels at buffering because this happens without visible change in screen display. And Verizon is managing the traffic on some sort of time weighted average, because brief traffic is allowed well in excess of the stated cap. I just ran a speed test and got average 900kbps down and the Ranger reported a peak around 1.2 mbps.

[Bobschle]

I have Verizon and the throttling that happens after you reach your limit is dramatic! You barely have enough bandwidth to do email and basic web surfing. And even then it will be frustrating. Streaming … no way

[johninsd]

I have the FMCA Sprint unlimited plan at $49.99/mo. and it works very well for me at home, going through about 80 - 90 gb/mo. and haven't noticed any slowdowns. Sprint has less coverage than Verizon but if you happen to be in a location where Sprint has good coverage it works quite well. I had my cable internet disconnected at home as the Sprint service does everything I want to do and it's actually cheaper and faster than the Spectrum cable was.

[LK23]

All this discussion of frustration with Verizon when there is an easy answer.

Dump Verizon for T-Mobile. You won't be disappointed. We have had T-Mobile on our 2 iPhones and one iPad for 18 months after switching from Verizon. I am very pleased with T-Moble—excellent customer service, no hidden fees and great Wifi speeds in most locations. $90/month

We changed our Verizon plan costing $220/month to a FMCA Verizon Jetpack 25 GB plan for $50/month. This is our backup plan when in a few locations where Verizon Wifi speeds is better than T-Mobile. We are finding we Don't use the Verizon plan that often.

Savings = $80/month

Result = Faster Wifi speeds and at least double the data limits.

[docj]

Originally Posted by LK23

Dump Verizon for T-Mobile. You won't be disappointed. We have had T-Mobile on our 2 iPhones and one iPad for 18 months after switching from Verizon. I am very pleased with T-Moble—excellent customer service, no hidden fees and great Wifi speeds in most locations. $90/month

With many cellular carrier decisions, one's choices aren't nearly as cut and dried as they might seem. Six months ago I attempted to switch to T-Mobile for many of the reasons you mention. However, at my winter location T-Mobile's service was abysmal even though both Verizon and AT&T had excellent coverage there.

Traveling through much of the Mountain West this summer convinced me that, like it or not, nothing beats Verizon's overall coverage. Even AT&T, which we use as a backup, comes up short by comparison.

[LK23]

Originally Posted by docj

With many cellular carrier decisions, one's choices aren't nearly as cut and dried as they might seem. Six months ago I attempted to switch to T-Mobile for many of the reasons you mention. However, at my winter location T-Mobile's service was abysmal even though both Verizon and AT&T had excellent coverage there.

Traveling through much of the Mountain West this summer convinced me that, like it or not, nothing beats Verizon's overall coverage. Even AT&T, which we use as a backup, comes up short by comparison.

My experiences are much different from yours. We travel full-time. In the past 18 months we have traveled across 17 states from Oregon to Florida and back to California. I maintained a list of our Wifi speeds at 66 campground as mentioned in an earlier post.

T-Mobile Better: 33
Verizon Better: 27
Tie: 6

And, when T-Mobile Wifi speeds exceed Verizon, the Wifi speeds are much higher

[turbopilot]

Originally Posted by docj

Traveling through much of the Mountain West this summer convinced me that, like it or not, nothing beats Verizon's overall coverage. Even AT&T, which we use as a backup, comes up short by comparison.

Agree. The LTE coverage maps say it all. If you roam the entire US and demand LTE, there is only one carrier for coverage when you operate outside of major cities. Today it is Verizon.

Sure wish Verizon would fix the Nevada, Idaho coverage gap. Seems like I am driving through there all the time with no coverage for 100 miles in some places.

I will say that T-Mobile is coming on very strong in the last few years. Just a few years ago their coverage map looked like Sprint's today. T-Mobile's recent purchase of the 600 MHZ spectrum is a game changer. Once they roll out this new frequency and cell phones provisioned to receive these new frequencies, T-Mobile will likely blow right by Verizion in coverage.

[mricet1005]

The hotspot 15gb limit is a hard throttle and pretty much useless once hit the limit. The phone throttling is much less severe and depends on traffic. So for streaming Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, etc. I bought an HDMI adapter for my iPhone and connect phone directly to the TV via HDMI and then can continue to stream. I’ve used 40 GB on my phone this month and continue to be able to stream. Now just use Jetpack for laptop and uploading my travel photos to Facebook and Google Photos.