Greatest Cell Cellphone 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 not often had any points with gradual web speeds in areas with protection. When operating web pace assessments from my telephone, my obtain speeds with the essential Seen plan are sometimes 60Mbps or better, generally 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 in the event you’re incessantly touring in highly-congested areas, you could be topic to “deprioritization” as a Seen buyer vs. somebody with Verizon, particularly in the event you’re on the bottom plan. Since I’m usually not touring to highly-populated areas, I wasn’t too nervous in regards to the potential service downgrade, and it hasn’t been a noticeable subject in my 2+ years as a fundamental 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 pals with Verizon had somewhat little bit of reception. I chalked this as much as the city itself having tremendous spotty protection, and so far, 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 other than 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, nevertheless it’s fairly unusual to have a plan that provides really 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 at all times capped at 5 Mbps. For the typical individual, 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 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 information I’m consuming.

Nevertheless, if you’re somebody who’s incessantly downloading/importing massive recordsdata, 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 telephone exterior 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 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 may very well be accomplished on the Seen app with none help. The change befell 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 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 amazing perk and the service is akin 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 broaden its worldwide roaming protection sooner or later.

How To Swap Your Cellphone Plan To Seen

As a paying person of Seen Wi-fi for over 2 years, I couldn’t suggest it extra, particularly for van lifers. With its limitless information plan, limitless scorching spot utilization, and low month-to-month price, it’s been important for dwelling and dealing on the highway.

Moreover, Seen plans are versatile and adaptable, so you may 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 gadgets are suitable – use Seen’s compatibility checker to make sure your gadget is supported) or you may get a brand new telephone via them.