Greatest Cell Telephone Provider for Van Life –

Information Speeds

The most important 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 related to 5G Nationwide and 4G LTE.

Utilizing Seen’s base plan, I’ve hardly ever had any points with gradual web speeds in areas with protection. When operating web velocity checks from my telephone, my obtain speeds with the fundamental Seen plan are sometimes 60Mbps or better, 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 information speeds.

The most important factor to learn about Seen’s information speeds is for those who’re continuously touring in highly-congested areas, you might be topic to “deprioritization” as a Seen buyer vs. somebody with Verizon, particularly for those who’re on the bottom plan. Since I’m sometimes not touring to highly-populated areas, I wasn’t too nervous concerning the potential service downgrade, and it hasn’t been a noticeable challenge in my 2+ years as a fundamental Seen buyer.

In reality, I’ve solely seen slower service twice – as soon as at a music competition 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 Cellular Hotspot

What units Seen aside from different carriers is its limitless cell hotspot. Utilizing a telephone as a hotspot is a quite common manner for van lifers to get web on the highway, however it’s fairly unusual to have a plan that provides actually limitless cell 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 an alternative of capping information allowance, Seen caps your information speeds. Utilizing your limitless cell hotspot, speeds are all the time capped at 5 Mbps. For the typical particular person, this shouldn’t trigger many points. I’ve used Seen’s cell hotspot as my main web supply for engaged on the highway for two+ years will no complaints. I’m capable of do all of my pc 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 information I’m consuming.

Nevertheless, if you’re somebody who’s continuously downloading/importing giant information, is on video calls typically, or wants extremely quick web speeds, this may not work as your main laptop computer web.

Utilizing Seen+ In Mexico

After I first joined Seen in 2020, there was no choice to make use of my telephone outdoors of the US which was a little bit of a draw back. Nevertheless, 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 right 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 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 capable of name and textual content household and associates again within the US as regular and use my telephone minimally for Google Maps, social media, and lightweight 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 excellent perk and the service is similar to different main carriers’ worldwide providers.

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 develop its worldwide roaming protection sooner or later.

How To Swap 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 value, it’s been important for dwelling and dealing on the highway.

Moreover, Seen plans are versatile and adaptable, so you possibly can decide the plan that most closely fits your wants, which is essential when dwelling on the highway.

You possibly can both use your present telephone to affix Seen (not all units are suitable – use Seen’s compatibility checker to make sure your system is supported) or you may get a brand new telephone via them.