Visible cancels popular Party Pay option, introduces new plans and perks

What you need to know

• Visible has ended the original Visible unlimited plan as well as its Party Pay discounts.
• Visible has introduced two new unlimited plans called Visible and Visible+ costing $30 and $45 per month respectively.
• Visible+ comes with 50GB of premium data, access to Ultra Wideband 5G (C-band and mmWave), and new international calling, texting and roaming features.

Visible has announced two new plans dubbed Visible and Visible+ that are available to new and current customers as of August 17, 2022. As noted by 9to5Google, this also marks the end of the popular Visible Party Pay option that could previously reduce customers' monthly rates to just $25 per month. Even so, Visible is promoting a $5 discount for users who sign up through PayPal to return to the old $25 per month price.

Visible is a prepaid carrier owned by Verizon that uses its LTE and 5G network for coverage. Visible's previous plan had a starting price of $40 per month with taxes and fees included. However, that price could be reduced to just $25 per month for users that joined a Visible Party with at least four members, thanks to the Party Pay feature.

With these two new plans, Visible's old plan is no longer available to new customers. Existing Visible customers will have until October 18, 2022, to make sure their Visible party has at least four members to keep their discounted rates.

Visible's new cheapest plan, simply called Visible, has unlimited data on Verizon's LTE and 5G low-band nationwide network. This plan also comes with unlimited hotspot data at 5Mbps. It also comes with SPAM protection to help block unwanted calls and unlimited talk and text to Mexico and Canada. This plan costs $30 per month with taxes and fees included.

Visible+ builds on this plan with access to Verizon's Ultra Wideband 5G network. It also comes with what Verizon calls the 'Premium Network Experience," which is just 50GB of higher-priority data. Hotspot data is still limited to just 5Mbps on this plan. One of the biggest changes is the international features. Visible+ includes calling to 30+ countries and texting to 200+ countries. This is similar to the international texting feature it offered on Verizon-branded plans.

Visible's $5 smartwatch plan remains intact for Apple Watch users.

Verizon Ultra Wideband is one of the main differences between these plans that aren't immediately apparent. Verizon's 5G network comprises three main types of 5G. The first is a low-band network sharing LTE spectrum with 5G. Known as "nationwide 5G," this network has performances much closer to LTE than fast 5G but also has much greater coverage.

Verizon Ultra Wideband includes Verizon's mmWave network in parts of big cities and its growing C-band 5G. This network has much greater speeds and capacity but requires many more cell towers to implement. As Verizon continues to invest in C-band, its coverage will be much more critical to the carrier's network performance as a whole. It's a bit of a shame that Verizon has chosen to paywall this network, especially since it was included with the old Visible plan, even if it had a 200Mbps speed cap.

Check Ultra Wideband coverage in your area on Visible's coverage map to see if Visible's extra 5G coverage is worth it to you.

What about existing members with Party Pay members?

If you're an existing Visible customer utilizing the Party Pay discount, things will change for you. First, if you like what you see with Visible's new plans, you can now switch to the new plan on your account. This will require a new SIM card, so you may need to contact customer support to get one sent to you. If you signed up with eSIM, you'd be able to download the new SIM. This is down to what Visible is calling Visible Evolution. This is likely a new profile for the different network prioritization offered with the new plans.

Still, many people will elect to keep their old Visible plan. As we saw in our Visible review, this plan was a favorite and was an easy recommendation as one of the best cell phone plans you could get.

If you want to keep your old plan, there are a few things you need to know. First, if you've joined a Party for a discount, you must ensure that the party has at least four members by October 18, 2022. Visible stated in a community post that on that date, the Party Pay system would be shut down, and your discount would be locked in. This wording is a bit misleading, as shown in a Reddit post in which Visible Support tells the user that Party Pay won't be able to be used after January 1. That said, Android Central has reached out to Verizon for clarification.