# Verizon Prepaid Extreme Deprioritization



## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

I thought I would try Verizon for its reported superior coverage in rural areas. I got a Verizon Prepaid sim card and paid $50 for a month's service. I had read on Verizon's website that Prepaid customers are deprioritised when there is network congestion.

Upon activating the service I found that rural coverage was better than AT&T, but the deprioritization was so bad that it made the service unusable. During the night, between 10pm and 5am I got speeds >10 Mbps. That's more than enough for rideshare. However, during the day I found that speeds dropped down as far as 0 Mbps - no data received - even though I was in strong signal areas. The speeds I got were:










This meant that the service was unusable for rideshare. Verizon tech support said there was "something wrong with my phone and that it wasn't fully compatible with the network". That holds no water, though - it does not make sense that the phone would be compatible with the network during the night but not during the day.

The Verizon store where I bought the sim said that it could be a faulty sim card. Again, that makes no sense for the same reason. A sim would not be faulty during the day but not faulty at night. The Verizon drone in the store denied that Prepaid is prioritized, even after I pointed out that their own website confirms this.

Anyway, it would be good to have Verizon's coverage area, but with usable data speeds. My question is whether or not people using Verizon postpaid plans also get such low data speeds as I did?


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## highsky (Feb 15, 2017)

I have the exact same issue with Verizon prepaid, I used to have ATT prepaid and I was having same problem, switched to Verizon and having the same issue. looks like all companies are using same practice.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

highsky said:


> I have the exact same issue with Verizon prepaid, I used to have ATT prepaid and I was having same problem, switched to Verizon and having the same issue. looks like all companies are using same practice.


Yeah, I also tried US Mobile (Verizon MVNO) and got the same data speeds. I used to have Cricket, which worked well and was always usable.

Where I live it's good to have two different networks and two phones for redundancy - there are lots of dead zones where one network has no coverage but a different one is OK.


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## DriverMark (Jan 22, 2018)

We run Cricket (ATT) on our main lines. Which works great for kids as they use their 5G data then it just throttles them, no extra overages and such.

Backup wife and I have burner phones on Xfinity Mobil (Comcast). That runs on Verizon's network. Xfinity is dirt cheap. Starts at $12/line, then $12/g shared data after that. Since we don't use the phones for much, we usually don't use more than 1-2 gig data a month. Our cell bill comes to about $40ish. And my older daughter is on there, but she never uses any cell data. So 3 lines for $40ish. The make for great backup phones, just flip on the hotspot when we need it.

Makes me wonder though if we bump into the same throttling you outlined above during peak hours.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

DriverMark said:


> Backup wife and I have burner phones


_That's_ where I went wrong. Should have got myself a backup wife ?



DriverMark said:


> Makes me wonder though if we bump into the same throttling you outlined above during peak hours.


For me it depended on the area I was in. Out in the boonies with nobody around and data during peak hours was fine. Back in town - close to zero.


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## RDWRER (May 24, 2018)

It happens to me on AT&T in busy areas after I go past the monthly data limit on “unlimited”...  I’ll have full bars but no network connection, and not just for Uber but all my apps.

Luckily I can usually just drive a few blocks down the street and my service kicks back in. That also frequently gets me a ping right back in the busy area that I just left, but whatever. ?


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## DriverMark (Jan 22, 2018)

The Gift of Fish said:


> _That's_ where I went wrong. Should have got myself a backup wife ?


Opppss.... good thing she doesn't read this stuff :roflmao:


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

RDWRER said:


> It happens to me on AT&T in busy areas after I go past the monthly data limit on "unlimited"...  I'll have full bars but no network connection, and not just for Uber but all my apps.
> 
> Luckily I can usually just drive a few blocks down the street and my service kicks back in. That also frequently gets me a ping right back in the busy area that I just left, but whatever. ?


My AT&T unlimited plan is supposedly deprioritised after 22Gb but I've never used more than 10 in a month.


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## RDWRER (May 24, 2018)

The Gift of Fish said:


> My AT&T unlimited plan is supposedly deprioritised after 22Gb but I've never used more than 10 in a month.


Lucky you. I use that in like half a week.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

verizon is a joke...you get way more with tmobile for way less price


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## lyft_rat (Jul 1, 2019)

My kid burns through the shared in a heartbeat but the throttled unlimited does just fine for rideshare. I got disconnected from service once in the miiddle of a ride and the lady said "don't worry it always happens here" and sure enough kept driving and 2 min later it comes on again.


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## islanddriver (Apr 6, 2018)

I have Verizon prepaid have for years never a problem


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