Knowledge Speeds
The largest distinction between the bottom plan and the premium plan is information speeds. With Seen’s base plan, you’ll get 5G Nationwide and 4G LTE information, with 5G speeds capped at 200 Mbps.
With Seen+, you’ll get 5G Extremely Wideband information plus 50GB of premium information when linked to 5G Nationwide and 4G LTE.
Utilizing Seen’s base plan, I’ve not often had any points with sluggish web speeds in areas with protection. When operating web velocity exams from my cellphone, my obtain speeds with the fundamental Seen plan are sometimes 60Mbps or larger, typically even topping 100Mbps. With these speeds, I’m in a position to browse the web, stream Netflix, and use my cellphone with out lag or a lot thought in any respect about information speeds.
The largest factor to find out about Seen’s information speeds is in case you’re ceaselessly touring in highly-congested areas, it’s possible you’ll be topic to “deprioritization” as a Seen buyer vs. somebody with Verizon, particularly in case you’re on the bottom plan. Since I’m sometimes not touring to highly-populated areas, I wasn’t too anxious concerning the potential service downgrade, and it hasn’t been a noticeable subject in my 2+ years as a primary Seen buyer.
In actual fact, I’ve solely seen slower service twice – as soon as at a music pageant in San Francisco and as soon as having no cell reception within the small city of Stanley, Idaho whereas my associates with Verizon had a bit little bit of reception. I chalked this as much as the city itself having tremendous spotty protection, and up to now, that’s the one time I’ve ever not had any reception when Verizon prospects had sign.
Seen Wi-fi Cell Hotspot
What units Seen aside from different carriers is its limitless cellular hotspot. Utilizing a cellphone as a hotspot is a quite common means for van lifers to get web on the street, however it’s fairly unusual to have a plan that gives really limitless cellular hotspot information utilization. Most different carriers will cap information utilization and severely decelerate your web speeds when you’ve hit your information restrict for the month, making your hotspot unreliable and unusable when you’ve hit the cap.
As a substitute of capping information allowance, Seen caps your information speeds. Utilizing your limitless cellular hotspot, speeds are all the time capped at 5 Mbps. For the common particular person, this shouldn’t trigger many points. I’ve used Seen’s cellular hotspot as my main web supply for engaged on the street for two+ years will no complaints. I’m in a position to do all of my laptop work with no points and be part of video calls with minimal to no disruption. Seen is dependable and quick, and I by no means have to fret about how a lot information I’m consuming.
Nonetheless, if you’re somebody who’s ceaselessly downloading/importing massive information, is on video calls usually, or wants extremely quick web speeds, this won’t work as your main laptop computer web.
Utilizing Seen+ In Mexico
Once I first joined Seen in 2020, there was no choice to make use of my cellphone outdoors of the US which was a little bit of a draw back. Nonetheless, in August 2022, Seen opened up Seen+ plans which embrace limitless discuss and textual content to Mexico and Canada, limitless discuss, textual content, and roaming in Mexico and Canada (information as much as .5GB/day), and worldwide calling/texting to many international locations.
I spend winters touring in my van all the way down to Baja, Mexico so this was an enormous additional benefit to Seen’s service. I upgraded my plan to Seen+ earlier than crossing the border, which took lower than 10 minutes and might be accomplished on the Seen app with none help. The change came about instantly; I didn’t want to attend till a brand new billing cycle.
I’ve been in Mexico for over a month now and have been actually impressed with Seen’s service down right here. In areas with cell protection, I’ve been in a position to name and textual content household and associates again within the US as regular and use my cellphone minimally for Google Maps, social media, and light-weight web looking. The speeds are quickest within the morning and decelerate over the course of the day, as information utilization is capped at .5GB a day and slows down considerably after that. So long as you handle your expectations (you’re not going to see the identical web speeds roaming in Mexico as within the US), it’s an awesome perk and the service is similar to different main carriers’ worldwide companies.
Now, there are limitations to Seen’s worldwide capabilities – most notably that worldwide discuss, textual content, and information are restricted solely to Mexico and Canada – however I’m hopeful that Seen will increase its worldwide roaming protection sooner or later.
How To Change Your Telephone Plan To Seen
As a paying person of Seen Wi-fi for over 2 years, I couldn’t advocate it extra, particularly for van lifers. With its limitless information plan, limitless sizzling spot utilization, and low month-to-month price, it’s been important for dwelling and dealing on the street.
Moreover, Seen plans are versatile and adaptable, so you’ll be able to decide the plan that most accurately fits your wants, which is essential when dwelling on the street.
You may both use your present cellphone to hitch Seen (not all units are suitable – use Visible’s compatibility checker to make sure your system is supported) or you may get a brand new cellphone by means of them.
