Knowledge Speeds
The most important distinction between the bottom plan and the premium plan is knowledge speeds. With Seen’s base plan, you’ll get 5G Nationwide and 4G LTE knowledge, with 5G speeds capped at 200 Mbps.
With Seen+, you’ll get 5G Extremely Wideband knowledge plus 50GB of premium knowledge 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 pace assessments from my telephone, my obtain speeds with the fundamental Seen plan are sometimes 60Mbps or higher, typically even topping 100Mbps. With these speeds, I’m capable of browse the web, stream Netflix, and use my telephone with out lag or a lot thought in any respect about knowledge speeds.
The most important factor to learn about Seen’s knowledge speeds is in case you’re incessantly touring in highly-congested areas, you might be topic to “deprioritization” as a Seen buyer vs. somebody with Verizon, particularly in case you’re on the bottom plan. Since I’m usually not touring to highly-populated areas, I wasn’t too frightened concerning the potential service downgrade, and it hasn’t been a noticeable concern in my 2+ years as a primary Seen buyer.
In actual fact, I’ve solely observed 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 pals with Verizon had slightly 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 Cellular Hotspot
What units Seen other than different carriers is its limitless cellular hotspot. Utilizing a telephone as a hotspot is a quite common manner for van lifers to get web on the street, however it’s fairly unusual to have a plan that provides actually limitless cellular hotspot knowledge utilization. Most different carriers will cap knowledge utilization and severely decelerate your web speeds when you’ve hit your knowledge restrict for the month, making your hotspot unreliable and unusable when you’ve hit the cap.
As an alternative of capping knowledge allowance, Seen caps your knowledge speeds. Utilizing your limitless cellular hotspot, speeds are at all times capped at 5 Mbps. For the typical particular person, this shouldn’t trigger many points. I’ve used Seen’s cellular hotspot as my major web supply for engaged on the street for two+ years will no complaints. I’m capable of do all of my laptop work with no points and be a 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 knowledge I’m consuming.
Nonetheless, if you’re somebody who’s incessantly downloading/importing massive recordsdata, is on video calls usually, or wants extremely quick web speeds, this may not work as your major laptop computer web.
Utilizing Seen+ In Mexico
Once I first joined Seen in 2020, there was no choice to make use of my telephone exterior 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 (knowledge 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 advantage to Seen’s service. I upgraded my plan to Seen+ earlier than crossing the border, which took lower than 10 minutes and may very well be accomplished on the Seen app with none help. The change happened 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 capable of name and textual content household and pals again within the US as regular and use my telephone minimally for Google Maps, social media, and light-weight web shopping. The speeds are quickest within the morning and decelerate over the course of the day, as knowledge 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 important perk and the service is akin to different main carriers’ worldwide providers.
Now, there are limitations to Seen’s worldwide capabilities – most notably that worldwide discuss, textual content, and knowledge are restricted solely to Mexico and Canada – however I’m hopeful that Seen will develop its worldwide roaming protection sooner or later.
How To Swap Your Telephone Plan To Seen
As a paying consumer of Seen Wi-fi for over 2 years, I couldn’t suggest it extra, particularly for van lifers. With its limitless knowledge plan, limitless sizzling spot utilization, and low month-to-month value, it’s been important for residing and dealing on the street.
Moreover, Seen plans are versatile and adaptable, so you’ll be able to decide the plan that most closely fits your wants, which is essential when residing on the street.
You’ll be able to both use your present telephone to hitch Seen (not all units are suitable – use Visible’s compatibility checker to make sure your machine is supported) or you will get a brand new telephone by means of them.
