Speeds: Verizon iPad Unlimited SIM vs. MVNO

[codingparadox]

We live on a boat working full time. We're using peplink hardware to speedfusion bond three SIMs for Verizon (iPad Unlimited plan from ~18-24 months ago), TMobile (NoLimitData), and AT&T (RVMobileInternet). The Tmobile and AT&T ones seem to be truly unthrottled (general congestion aside), but the Verizon one virtually always is super throttled during peak hours. Our cell phones will be able to get 50+ megabits while our setup on the boat will get 3, then at 2am, it'll be up to 50mbit, and repeat during business hours the next day.

Have other people seen the same behavior with the Verizon iPad "unlimited" plan, and if so, have they compared against a SIM from one of the MVNOs, to see if that's actually unthrottled? I don't mind paying 200$/mo or whatever if we get actually unthrottled Verizon for our work. The 60$/mo we're paying right now tends to be of questionable utility in general when we need it the most.

[Adm1jtg]

MNVO's woud use the same towers and are prioritized even lower then primary customers

[Dr-BroadBand]

codingparadox

How much data do you need?

If you have a tax ID number you could try to go into the carriers store and
see if you can get a Business plan.

I had a 100Gig/$100 plan with ATT and got 60Mbs down. I stopped that plan, it was too rich for my needs

T-Mobile and ATT both now have a 100Gig/$50

Can always try to get an iPad SIM to work, but will need a backup plan for when it STOPS working.

[codingparadox]

400-600 GB/month is our standard usage across the three SIM cards right now.

We're using the ipad plan right now. That's what appears to be drastically throttled.

[Dr-BroadBand]

400-600 GB/month is our standard usage across the three SIM cards right now.

We're using the ipad plan right now. That's what appears to be drastically throttled.

What modem are you using?

Have you tried to play with the TTL settings??

[codingparadox]

Peplink Transit Duo.

I have not tried mucking with TTL at all. Is there something to be gained there?

The same settings give very low speeds during congested times (but our phones on Verizon at the same time have great speed), and then back to very high speeds at night. So it _feels_ like congestion issues. But I don't know for sure!

[mtl26637]

Sure sounds like you have it narrowed down to congestion fore sure. I've used many of the MVNO's along with prepaid and postpaid accounts with the 3 main carriers but never the vzw tablet plan. I do have vzw prepaid line but honestly i've never noticed any throttling on any of them at my location. The exact priority of postpaid/prepaid/mvno isn't really known for sure but that is the order from most i've ever seen. I can say there is debate whether mvno's are actually deprioritized as much as some of the lower main provider offerings but its hard to say for sure. That being said, I'd try to stick with accounts that use the main provider's apn settings as I have seen differences along with added latency for some of the different mvno providers. Keep in mind though that some of the mvno's actually use the main providers apn settings too. Latest mvno on top of what would be my list would be 'US Mobile', might give that a try for a month and see how it goes for you.

[Adm1jtg]

If you not ever seeing the "congestion" on the phone but are seeing it on the modem device then verizon is likely seeing your plan as a tethered data type plan. Phones use a different data type unless of course they are tethered. In THEORY changing the ttl should make your modem device look like a phone and thus it would use phone data. In reality I have NEVER seen this work on verizon.

There is a way to test if this is what is happenoing but I cannot give details as the process is technically illegal and not allowed to be discussed in here but the concept is you make your modem device look like an old phone on you account by changing the imei. If you modem device with a ohnes imei still expierences congestion I dont know what to tell you. If that test resolves the congestion issues then you will likely need a different plan or to try something like visible.

One last thought just so we are comparing apples to apples, are you sure that both devices the phone and the modem are using the same lte bands when your testing? In my case I have found my phone loves to stay on band 5 almost to the exclusion of all other bands, yet my router stays on band 4 and aggregates to 5. I dont have a utility on my phone to show if its aggregating though it is capable of it. My phone is also something like cat 21 while my router only has a cat 6 modem. This also can make a HUGE difference when comparing, especially with carrier aggregation.

Lastly congestion can be band specific, so changing/locking bands may help as well. Again in my own case my router in the very early morning will use band 5 but most of the day and all night will change to 4. Again likely congestion as band 5 here is only 10mhz and band 4 here is 20mhz with option to carrier aggregate to another 10mhz band

[codingparadox]

Yeah I was thinking about trying band locking just to validate. I guess it could just be straight band congestion, not tower prioritization. I'll give that a shot next time!

The IMEI game is an interesting idea just to try for a limited time to see...

[Dr-BroadBand]

How to enter into Field test mode
On an iPhone.

You can get band, tower ID, and Single strength. Clues that may help.

See link
https://youtu.be/5Mx-mTq2sw4

[Dr-BroadBand]

For help with TTL see post

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2752