Visible is a new wireless service provider offering $40-per-month unlimited service, with data throttled at 5 Mbps and video at 480p, that users access through an iOS app and a SIM card from the company. Visible is funded by Verizon, uses the company’s LTE network and is staffed by former Verizon executives.
As reported by TechCrunch, Visible wouldn’t disclose how much funding it received from Verizon to get its service launched, but Visible CEO Miguel Quiroga said the company has been working on the idea for a year or so.
“We are a phone service in the platform that enables everything that you do,” Quiroga told TechCrunch. “The way we launched and the app messaging piece of it. You do everything else on your phone and a lot of time if you ask people your phone is your life,” said Ormes. The thinking was, “let’s give you a phone that you can activate right from your phone and get ready to go and see how it resonates.”
Visible’s service, available through its website, requires users to have a compatible, unlocked iPhone. After signing up, the company mails a SIM card to the user that then activates the service. Visible boasts of attentive customer service, payments through PayPal and Venmo, and no contracts.
That Visible is funded by Verizon is noteworthy considering Verizon has largely focused its efforts on its Verizon-branded postpaid wireless service. Unlike its rivals, Verizon hasn’t leveraged a separate corporate brand to go after other demographics like Sprint does with its Boost and Virgin brands, T-Mobile does with its MetroPCS brand, and AT&T does with its Cricket brand. Instead, much of Verizon’s prepaid and wholesale efforts have flowed through America Movil’s MVNOs like TracFone and Straight Talk, as well as cable MVNOs like Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile.