Finest Cell Cellphone Service for Van Life –

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 related 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 working web pace assessments from my cellphone, 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 cellphone with out lag or a lot thought in any respect about information speeds.

The largest factor to learn about Seen’s information speeds is in case you’re ceaselessly 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 apprehensive concerning the potential service downgrade, and it hasn’t been a noticeable situation in my 2+ years as a primary Seen buyer.

Actually, 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 a bit of little bit of reception. I chalked this as much as the city itself having tremendous spotty protection, and thus far, 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 cellular hotspot. Utilizing a cellphone 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 gives actually 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 an alternative 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 typical particular person, this shouldn’t trigger many points. I’ve used Seen’s cellular 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 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, in case you are somebody who’s ceaselessly downloading/importing massive recordsdata, is on video calls usually, or wants extremely quick web speeds, this may not work as your main laptop computer web.

Utilizing Seen+ In Mexico

Once I first joined Seen in 2020, there was no possibility 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 embody 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 nations.

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 could possibly 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 cellphone 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 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 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 consumer 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 may both use your present cellphone to hitch Seen (not all units are suitable – use Seen’s compatibility checker to make sure your machine is supported) or you may get a brand new cellphone by way of them.