ORIGINAL STORY - 5/11/18: A new Verizon plan has been making its way across the interwebs this week, and we've been fielding a number of questions about our thoughts on it.
While we love seeing new Verizon based plans pop-up, the new inexpensive, prepaid Verizon offering, called Visible, is pretty invisible in its application for mobile internet seekers.
Yes, we went there.
This new app based $40/month phone plan runs on Verizon service and offers customers unlimited calling, text, and slowed data on their mobile phone devices.
Data speeds are always capped at 5mbps, and all data usage is always subject to network management. Video is reduced to 420p resolution as well (DVD quality).
Updates to this story:
UPDATE: As of mid-June 2018, the service does include unlimited mobile hotspot throttled to 5Mbps.
Visible does not include any international calling, texting, or data usage - including use in our friendly neighbors to the North and South - Canada or Mexico.
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Getting Visible
The way Visible works is kind of neat though. Similar in access to Project Fi, the service can be controlled completely from the Visible app - from set-up to termination.
As of this writing (May 2018) the app is available only to iOS users, and you must have a compatible Apple iPhone to use the service. Currently, most models of the iPhone will work with Visible, with the exception of the iPhone SE and iPhone 7 models. There is no current option to host the plan on a tablet device.
And initially, potential customers must have an invite code from an existing Visible customer to activate service. We've seen some codes circulating around the internet.
If you're looking for an invite code, this article on CNET shares one that might still be valid.
Conclusion
A $40/month price point with reportedly easy start-up and termination of service (you can do it on an app!) might make this an appealing smartphone plan to complement your data only options.
If you're looking for more than the ability to call, text, surf the web or watch media on your phone - you'll want to consider other plans.
Even those who are thrifty and utilize mirroring gear to use on-device data for watching movies and TV shows will find this plan lackluster - with video capped at 480p quality, you may find mirrored content obnoxiously grainy.
For some additional resources for finding your right plans:
Mobile Internet Resource Center (dba Two Steps Beyond LLC) is founded by Chris & Cherie of