I usually get an Obama Phone / Lifeline phone from the tents outside the welfare office, but somebody said to look into working with a provider directly. They told me to post here. I've gotten TruConnect, SafetyNet Wireless, SafeLink Wireless, Assurance Wireless, etc.

Can I get service from one of the big providers directly? Or do I have to get one of these off brand ones?

Hi - I have had AT&T postpaid for a few years now and am tired of the high prices. My partner and I both want to get on a prepaid plan again. We are very rural. Five years ago I would have said we had to be on AT&T, but I'm on a Visible free trial and I'm finding that Verizon coverage is good in some spots where AT&T is nonexistent, but the reverse is true, too--in some places AT&T covers and Verizon has nothing, or AT&T is much faster. T-mobile is great where it exists, but coverage is much more sparse, so they aren't a real contender.

Couple of factors: we have two relatively new iPhones (13 and a 14 Pro) and plan to ditch them for Pixel 8s or 9s soon. And, we can't afford to do yearly right now.

So I was thinking about US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan with the Multi-Network add-on. I don't fully understand deprioritized data even after reading a lot here. We barely use data--maybe 2GB a month each. We're almost always on Wifi or just getting texts or doing light surfing while on cellular. Is the QCI9 that comes with Starter going to be useless for us if we do need cellular when we're in the big city a few times a year?

Any other plans we should consider?

Thanks for your help.

Looking for a backup internet for 5G that does not use T-Mobile infrastructure.

Currently I have C4P Shield. Works well but just want a backup of that.

Thank you community.

I currently have two lines with US Mobile, one of which are covered by a 12-month free multi-line promotion following the activation of an iPhone 18 Pro Max. Having prepaid for 12 months of the Unlimited Premium plan during last year's Black Friday sale, I have approximately one month of service remaining. Additionally, I possess an inactive free line provided by AirTalk due to my participation in the SNAP/Medicaid program.

I am weighing two options:

First, porting my primary number to Mint Mobile to take advantage of their $10/six-month promotion, while transitioning my secondary, work-related line to AirTalk, as it requires only voice capabilities rather than data. I recognize that this approach would forfeit the remaining 12 months of the second-line promotion with US Mobile.

Alternatively, I am considering renewing my US Mobile service under the multi-line promotion for the upcoming year and downgrading to the Starter plan at $25 per month. Which of these strategies would you recommend?

I requested my own call and text detail records from US Mobile — a routine request, nothing unusual. What I got back included **325 call and text records belonging to a completely different, unrelated customer**, mixed into my export, covering an 8-month span (not a single stray record — consistent activity across 8 separate months).
Here's the timeline, since I know "trust me" posts aren't worth much without receipts:

**The three explanations, in order:**
First rep told me it was "a quick formatting error," said the number "isn't linked to your account at all," and offered a **$15 service credit** (conditional on keeping Autopay on, which — no).
Second explanation, two days later: the records belonged to a *second line on my own account*. Except that line wasn't added to my account until months *after* the disputed activity had already ended. Not possible based on my own account history.
Their own Product Experience Lead admitted in writing: *"the explanations you've received so far have not fully held up against your own account timeline, and that's on us."*
Final explanation, from their Legal department, weeks later: the records belonged to an entirely different customer and were "inadvertently copied" into my file during manual processing.
**The evidence problem:**
Somewhere in the middle of explanation #2, they also disclosed that the *original* file — the one that could've shown exactly what happened — had already been deleted. After I'd already flagged the issue to them.

**The timeline overall:**
2+ months
3 contradictory explanations
6 different representatives
2 emails to their Legal department that went unanswered for weeks (later blamed on a "spam folder" issue)
1 deleted file
$15 offered as the resolution
I compared the original export against the "corrected" one they later uploaded. Every single one of my own 27,000+ legitimate records was untouched, byte-for-byte identical. The 325 records belonging to the other customer were just... removed entirely. Not corrected — deleted outright.

**Where it stands now:**
I've filed a formal FCC complaint (informal complaint process — they're required to respond in writing within 30 days of being served). I've also sent US Mobile a formal Notice of Dispute, which is required under their Terms & Conditions before arbitration can be filed — there's a mandatory 60-day waiting period, so I'm not able to actually file for arbitration until that window closes.
Posting this mainly as a heads up for anyone else on US Mobile, or considering switching — if something like this happens to you, document everything in writing, don't accept the first (or second, or third) explanation at face value, and don't let anyone talk you out of pursuing it because "it's just $15 anyway."

I have been thinking about switching from Verizon to Visible. Although, I know Verizon owns visible I need something cheaper and Verzion's prices are outrageous. I don't care about having the top tier package and I am not worried about having service everywhere I go- I have wifi and most of the places I go do too. I just have a couple questions.

• Can I transfer if I have a phone I am still paying off?
• Can I transfer more than one person?
• What are your thoughts? Is there something better?

Im looking for another service provider. I currently use straight talk however it does not work in Canada. I travel through Canada a couple times a year going to and from Alaska. I’m able to make calls at night in the hotel on WiFi but otherwise I’m completely off the grid going through Canada. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this? I also want to find a carrier that has a watch plan and perhaps a tablet plan.

TLDR: Be careful which model of watch you try with Visible.

------------

I signed up for Visible specifically because I wanted to add a smartwatch to my plan.

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Watch FE LTE (SM-R866U) and spent the next 2–3 weeks trying to get the cellular service activated.

The watch itself works perfectly through the Galaxy Wearable app. Bluetooth works, setup works, everything works — except adding the Visible mobile plan.

Every time I tried to activate the cellular portion, I entered my Visible credentials and it immediately got stuck on “Retrieving information about SM-R866U…” and then eventually threw a generic error/frown screen.

I've factory-reset the watch probably 30 times. Everything was fully updated. I cleared Galaxy Wearable's cache/data, reset network settings, tried activating cellular during initial watch setup, tried skipping cellular setup and adding the mobile plan afterward — same exact result every time.

I work in tech support myself, so I'm pretty comfortable with this stuff. 😂

Then things got really confusing.

After weeks of dealing with Visible support, I was told the first watch was a retail demo unit and didn't have the required hardware.

Okay. Fine. That made sense.

A few days later, I received another message from Visible saying the watch was apparently still unpaid on Verizon's side and had a restriction that Verizon needed to remove.

So I accepted that explanation, returned the first watch, and bought a brand-new, sealed Galaxy Watch FE LTE specifically to eliminate those possibilities.

Surely the new one would work.

Same exact activation failure.

Another Visible representative even had me try a QR-code activation process. Then a manual code process with many long codes. That let me enter a code, but then it said the code had already been used and to contact the service provider. I was later told this process was only for phones, not watches, so another huge waste of time.

Eventually, after another long support session, we finally got to the compatibility issue.

Visible told me that the supported Samsung watches are:

• Galaxy Watch 8
• Galaxy Watch 8 Classic
• Galaxy Watch Ultra

The Galaxy Watch FE is apparently not supported.

Here's where I had a problem with the whole situation.

I asked Visible where on its website it clearly says that the FE isn't supported.

The information I was directed to says that Visible's smartwatch service supports:

>Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, 8 Classic, and Ultra

It also says:

>“Users can bring their own Android watch to Visible.”

But it doesn't explicitly say “ONLY these three Samsung watches are supported” or specifically state that the Galaxy Watch FE is excluded.

I pointed this out to the representative.

The representative actually acknowledged earlier in the conversation that it appeared to be nowhere on the website clearly showing the supported Samsung watches, although they were “pretty sure” only those three were supported.

I asked if they could escalate my FE activation to determine whether there was an IMEI/account/provisioning problem.

They initially said they could potentially escalate it, but ultimately told me they couldn't because escalations are only done when a supported watch encounters an activation error.

Then I received the final clarification:

>“I am sorry for the confusion. The website says Visible's Smartwatch plan supports the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, 8 Classic, and Ultra, which means the rest of the Samsung watches are not supported.”

So that's finally the definitive answer.

My takeaway

I'm not upset that Visible doesn't support the Galaxy Watch FE. That's their choice, and I can live with that.

What frustrated me was the 2–3 weeks of troubleshooting and conflicting explanations before anyone simply said “the FE isn't supported.”

I was told:

1. The first watch was a retail demo unit.
2. Then I was told it was unpaid/restricted on Verizon's side.
3. I returned that watch and bought a brand-new sealed FE.
4. The exact same problem happened.
5. Only after all that did I finally get the explanation that the FE isn't supported by Visible.

So I effectively spent money on a second watch and countless hours troubleshooting something that apparently could have been resolved with a simple compatibility check at the beginning.

Final answer: Galaxy Watch FE / SM-R866U is NOT supported by Visible.

If you're considering Visible specifically for Samsung smartwatch service, apparently you need a Galaxy Watch 8, Watch 8 Classic, or Watch Ultra.

And if you're buying one, I would verify the exact model/IMEI with Visible before spending the money, because I certainly don't feel like going through this again. 😂

Hopefully this helps someone else avoid the same headache.

Hi,

For the past 2 1/2 weeks I have been having an account login problem. I've been back and forth both via email and phone support with all suggestions tried and nothing has helped, including suggestions I've found here.

They keep asking me where I am located. They have insited that I am using a VPN and yesterday customer support walked me through how to disable it on my phone. It was off. My phones are Moto Stylus 5G with RP service and Samsung Galaxy A15 with Mint service, of which both use GSMT SIMs and I get roughtly two bars on signal strength.

I usually use a VPN changer and have never had problems with using it while logging into Red Pocket in the past, and I've always used my username for login, never my email associated with RP, which is Mailfence provider. I just don't know what changed. If I don't use a VPN or change Private DNS under Network & Internet from Automatic (recommended) to Off, I still have the problem. With these off, when using my phone's hotspot, it shows a private IP address when using my Mint phone.

I've sent them Wifi information via Windows for both phones that shows mac address, ip addresses, dns servers and that didn't seem to shine a light on the problem for them.

I've done a factory-reset on both phones (so fun, ha) in case I changed some settings, besides initially trying Network reset and have not been using any DNS changer. I've tried using incognito mode on my desktop browser after clearing history, cache, cookies. And when trying in Linux operating system, I've disabled the service OpenVPN via the command line and clearing the DNS cache under systemd. I'm not using a firewall in Linux. I've tried Firefox, Floorp which is a Japanese Firefox flavor, I've tried Chrome from my phones.

So, I think, like the forum link I attached, it may be that I've been blocked and they have no way to unblock me, or don't know how. After yesterday's phone help and me sending them screenshots of the errors, "invalid credentials", "authentication error. The username is not acitve", I was advised to wait and hour and try again due to the failed attempts. So, I waited until this morning to try again, the same problem, "invalid credentials". Using the Reset Password link never sends a link to my email, not in spam or inbox.

I suggested having my account email changed which is what I plan to do next time I contact them. I've read that some website accounts have problems with certain email providers, especially those that allow aliases. I use mailfence, which is based in Denmark or Belgium, not sure and they allow aliases. I do not want to use gmail and I'm getting so sick of Cloudflare verification endless loops at some websites.

So, I wanted to know which VPN, if any, do you use when logging into your RP account?

Thanks for your time and feedback, ya'll, from out in the country in Arkansas.

I'm having trouble activating visual voicemail on Android with safelink wireless using their T-Mobile SIM card. None of T-Mobile's visual voicemail apps, work with my phone. Since I took a break from them more than a year and came back, they still have an issue with visual voicemail.

Using Unihertz Jelly Star with Safelink T-Mobile SIM card.