I get 50GB of data at a higher priority, and then unlimited data at a lower priority. It's not a deliberate or fixed speed limit -- it's just QoS, and after 50GB it's the same QoS as their lower-tier $25 plan always has.

On both sides of the QoS fence, loosely speaking: If the network is congested in an area, things get slow. If the network has good coverage and is not congested, then things are fast enough -- dozens of Mbps in both directions is typical with my old phone's somewhat-limited available 5G NSA or LTE CA modes. (Sometimes, it's triple-digit Mbps, which amusing and frankly overkill for my use.)

With TTL=65, this works fine for me in my neck of the woods. I need tethering when I need it, though I don't need it often. But in some circumstances (some friends and I do a technology-laden form of "camping" sometimes and one of my roles there is to provide Internet) I burn through quite a lot of data.

[1]: Visible is a part of Verizon, and has always been. The chief difference other than different pricing is that it comes with even worse customer support, if you can believe that.

The mobile data isn't limited in speed, just lower priority as you note.

The fact that Visible/Verizon can even get my (unlocked, full price) iPhone to cooperate in limiting itself in that way in the first place makes me pretty sad.

Eg, if one were to buy a new phone and put a new Visible SIM into that phone and tether their new MacBook with it, and do nothing else, the speed would indeed be limited and this limit would be enforced at the carrier level, and furthermore connecting a second device would be theoretically impossible.

But setting TTL to 65 has been very effective every time I've done it, whereby: The speed of tethering is about the same as the speed of data on the pocket computer itself at any given time.

And I've never actually run into a device limit, even without tricks.

(So yeah, there's reasons for my camping rig to have a USB 3 ethernet adapter for a phone, with USB PD passthrough. I wouldn't care so much if 10Mbps were all that could be accomplished, but things are not necessarily slow like that at all if you're holding it right.

There's a million other ways to skin this cat. A cheap travel router is one way. A cheap USB WiFi adapter on a laptop is another. Setting TTL forever is a one-liner on Windows. And y'all know how to do NAT.)

> Unlimited Plus plans allow up to 50 GB of full-speed data.

> any data used after you reach your data limit is throttled or slowed to 256 kbps

Many MVNOs have "unlimited" plans that are definitely not unlimited. If a plan offers 50GB of high-speed data and then throttles the connection to 256kbps, it's a 50GB plan. By contrast, a plan like T-Mobile's Go 5G Plus/Next plans never slow your mobile data.

Other plans like T-Mobile's Go 5G (regular) will be lower priority once you've used 100GB. That lower priority averages 11-15% slower. Most of the time, the network isn't congested and it doesn't matter. You get virtually the same speed as truly unlimited plans. 11-15% slower isn't the same as getting throttled to 256kbps. Of course, it will depend on network conditions. If you're at a fireworks show or a music festival, lower priority might be a lot slower.

There are options if you want truly unlimited mobile data. If you're looking for hotspot, that's harder. T-Mobile does offer its Away Unlimited plan for $160/mo, but that is lower priority - 13-30% slower at the 25th and 75th percentiles. 77-292 Mbps from the 25th to 75th percentiles is pretty decent performance, but if you end up in an area with lots of network congestion, then you're low priority.

"You can pay a flat rate for unlimited use, but after you use 3,000L of water, we will reduce service to your house to 1/10th the normal pressure"

It's fine, you just have to wait 40 minutes between flushes.