Verizon has announced new data plans ranging from 5GB to 150GB for both pre-paid and post-paid customers that work in hotspots and routers. Post-paid has been available since August, while pre-paid was just announced a week ago.
There are some differences between pre-paid and post-paid, including items like 5G support, among other things. For instance, the post-paid Pro and Premium plans also include access to Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network with 4K streaming, while the Essential plan has 720p streaming only and no 5G access. Make sure you read the fine print under each level - for most people you will want to go for the highest plan anyhow, which includes all of the features in most cases.
Ordering challenges
I had difficulties ordering mine online with all sorts of funky errors from Verizon's site about invalid addresses. Using the iPhone app was flawless, and worked the first time. I've had many reports from customers that this happened to them as well.
Peplink routers seem to work
Keep in mind that this has only been tested with a handful of routers and devices, and that your mileage may vary. I've tried the Peplink MAX Transit, Peplink MAX HD2, Peplink MAX HD4 MBX, and Peplink MAX HD1 Dome. If you go through the process online, Verizon will ask for your IMEI, which you can find in your router/device, and will validate whether it will work with their network. Some newer hardware has been reported as not being supported, but could change as it becomes more mainstream. I've had more luck with pre-paid over post-paid in terms of various hardware.
Testing
I've done my usual testing and have seen the same performance out of this plan/SIM as my other Verizon plans. Post-paid will always have an advantage over pre-paid in terms of network management - Verizon tends to slow down pre-paid first, and leave post-paid alone unless something really bad is happening. This is why I would recommend post-paid over pre-paid given how close the costs are.
Throttling
These plans have a hard cap of whatever GB you select, so once you exceed your monthly quota, you will be throttled down to very slow speeds - usually 3Mbps with 5G connections (hard to get on most modern mobile routers) and 3G speeds on LTE connections - the latter is almost unusable.
The folks over at the Mobile Internet Resource Center have two detailed articles on both of these plans if you are interested in more details:
Jen Nealy
Technomadia
Other Plans & Providers
If you're interested in other providers, you can find my recommendations below.
Steve Mitchell
This is fantastic news as we now finally have decent high data monthly data plans from all three major US carriers! If you have been waiting for a Verizon plan, this is a great one to consider.
