#I’m of 2 minds when it comes to MB wearing graphic tops

[art-of-a-space-duck]

Murderbot in graphic tops (and a ponytail). I like to think it got a few extra clothes while on Preservation, most of them gifts from its humans.

I’ll let y’all decide what all the As stand for.

[whatwhiteswillneverknow]

How I managed to get unlimited Internet for $25*

*There’s a few catches to it, but I’ll make this quick: if you are thinking more than one device, heavy gaming or thinking this is life in the fast lane... well, you’ll be disappointed. Also, this is from someone who used this service and I’m telling you... you’ll be unhappy.

How much do I pay for Home Internet service? $25/month for an unlimited hotspot... with a lot of catches. If you’re thinking “oh, I’m going to use this to power my entire home”... skip this post, don’t bother. You’re not going to get as much out of this, I PROMISE you.

Matter of fact, let me tell you who this post is for:

You want Internet Service for one device or you don’t mind swapping devices on this one connection.

It’s for your home connection so that you can reduce your dependence on your cell phone’s data plan when you’re home... or even when you’re out and about.

You’re not a gamer, you’re not planning on using it for heavy downloads, and you don’t mind tapping out at 5MB/s.

You don’t mind your data being slowed down at random times.

A secondary connection for when you’re outside your home and you don’t want to use public hotspots.

You truly understand “you get what you paid for”...

If you’re still reading and want to know what I’m talking about, then this is for you. It’s a system I currently use and when I’m at home, it’s my main internet connection for now. Once I move to a better place, I plan on dropping this plan as I’ll be getting something better than this.

But here’s how I did it...

1) Sign up for Visible and get the cheap R2 phone.

Visible is an Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) owned by Verizon. They will say they worked independent of them, but don’t be fooled by that. Visible is to Verizon as Metro by T-Mobile is to T-Mobile... it’s a prepaid division marketed as another company.

https://www.visible.com

Anyway, they offer one plan only... unlimited Internet, uncapped for $40 on your cell phone. Now, you can use your own cell phone, but the chances of it working with their company is low unless it’s an Apple phone. Got Apple? Great. Anything else? It’s a hit and miss. It’s best to check with them if you want to use your phone with them. But this ISN’T about that. This is about cheap Internet for your other device.

What you’ll do instead if buy their $19 R2 phone. For a budget phone, it’s subpar. I used to own Motorola’s that have more power than the R2. But it has a capable camera on it. However, the most important part is the hotspot, which it offers. We’re not interested in the features of the phone, but of the hotspot.

However, you’ll noticed that I said “$40″... so how do I pay $25/month? Well, that’s where step two comes in.

2) Find a “party”.

Visible got a family plan which is unique in a few ways. For starters, you don’t need to sign up your family. All you need to do is find 3 other people that are willing to split the bill and for each person, Visible will discount you and them by $5... all the way to $15, lowering the bill to $25. Now, what if one person in the party doesn’t pay? You don’t deal with them, the phone company do. So, you can sign up for a stranger’s “party” and not worry unless the person cancels their service... which could happen, but most likely won’t. And if they do, you can find a sub that will take their place.

Now, if you tried the service and you want to form your own party, you can do that. However, if you don’t want to find people to join and want to join someone’s party, you can via this reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VisiblePartyPay/

Look through the links, login to your account and boom, you’re paying $25/month for the life of your account.

3) Get your phone and know the limits

Once you get your R2, you have to set it up with Visible. It can take a few minutes to a few hours. However, the most difficult part of the set up is... the Google account. Oh, you already have one? Then it’s not that difficult. It’s just another device you’re going to add to your account. If you already have an android phone, I suggest skipping to the parts that matter and try not to reinstall anything. You can use the phone just like your other phones, but at 8 GBs of space, you’re probably best just limiting it to just a hotspot. Set up the hotspot to your preferences and flip it on. Now, connect your device to it and voila... Internet for $25/month.

FAQ:

You can probably play some games. I played Hearthstone and some simple online games without issues. But don’t expect to play games that are graphic intense without some serious lag. For example: I use a cloud service called Shadow as a Secondary PC (long story). Even though it can run with just 5 MBs of bandwidth, it lags because the speed will not hold steady. And lagging in gaming means death. So, unless it’s low stakes, don’t treat this as a lifeline.

Yes, you can watch Netflix and stream video. If you want high quality tho, you’re probably going to struggle. DVD is the best it can do. The quality of my Netflix streaming or any streaming for that matter is top notch as I’m happy with 720p. I don’t need 1040p or even 4K.

Yes, it’s really unlimited. (peep the image below)

To prolong battery life, I plug the phone out of the charger and let it sit as any phone. Once it’s below 15%, I plug it back in and let it charge up to 100% and repeat the process. Treating it like a regular phone instead of keeping it plug in is old-fashioned, but a better way than to keep the phone plugged in 24/7. That will wear out the battery faster.

I could use it outside of my home. It’s a mobile phone, not a fixed location. So, you will have a second phone number. It’s a phone service which I use as a secondary line.

The Internet on the phone itself is faster than on another device. It’s meant to be used as a mobile phone service. I’m just retooling it.

R2 uses Android 9. The chances of it being upgraded to 10 is low.

You can hook it up to one device that is capable of using the Internet. It could be a tablet, a laptop, a desktop with a wireless networking card, or a game system for updates and download of files.

Since the phone is cheap, you can’t put insurance on it. It’s $19, brah.

I don’t carry around this phone day-to-day anymore. It’s redundant on my part since I have a more capable phone.

The phone I have now was intended to be used with this phone service, but sadly, the model wasn’t compatible. Otherwise, I would have cut my phone bill down by a lot. With that being said, I didn’t test this phone service beyond data.

I haven’t lost the ability to use the phone’s data once during my 4 months of continuous use. The only interruption was in April, where I simply stop paying for the phone bill.

Yes, there is a way to bypass the one device limit, but it requires hardware and the speed of service isn’t worth going beyond one device, so don’t do it.

Yes, Visble is okay with you using it exclusively as a hotspot.

If you’re wondering why I only used 40 GBs and not skyrocket above 100 GBs, it’s for a few reasons, the major one being I have spotty Internet coverage at home and used this as a secondary line and outside during the month of February. I’m only home during the evening. But I will say this... the reason that it skyrocketed at the end of February is because I put in on a PS4 to install an update to Spiderman and system updates.

The catches:

As you already know, it’s one device per hotspot connection.

It’s another phone to manage, unless you use your own phone.

The suggested phone itself is very limited in space as well as specs. A low budget Motorola will likely have more power than this phone. So, if you do use this phone as a phone, make it a low-stakes situation or a backup.

Depending on where you live, your internet speeds may slow down during prime times.

Service seems to be a hit and miss at times.

Talking to customer support is also a hit and miss. It’s literally an app or website. No phone service, just chat support with email as a second place to catch them.

Never tested it as a full-time service. It’s only at one location.

You may pay more than $25/month if someone leaves the party, but the bill will be between $30 to $40, which is still manageable.

It’s Verizon, which means they are tricky to pin down when it comes to the Net itself.

So, if you think this is useful, you can give it a try. If this article helped you out, maybe throw some funds my way.

https://ko-fi.com/nukirk

https://cash.app/$nufuturepro

Disclaimer: My experiences are mines alone. Your experiences may vary.