Virgin Mobile - UNLIMITED 3G Data -- $40 / month -- NO CONTRACT!! Starts 8/24/10! It has been released that Virgin Mobile will be expanding their prepaid data offering to include and UNLIMITED plan for only $40 per month with NO CONTRACT. This includes all applicable taxes and fees in most states.
**THIS PLAN WILL START ON AUGUST 24, 2010 AND HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY VIRGIN MOBILE ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE**
The company will still be offering 2 different data cards... a USB card for $99 or a MiFi wireless hotspot (connect up to 5 devices) for $149.
For those unfamiliar with Virgin Mobile, they are a Sprint owned MVNO meaning anywhere you have native Sprint coverage (not roaming), you will have Virgin Mobile coverage.
Also, just of note, you can buy "refill cards" at various online sites, such as callingmart.com, for a small discount, making this plan even a little bit cheaper yet!
While I like the Virgin Mobile MiFi (basically it's Sprint), the removal of the 300MB for 30 days at $20 really sucks. That was a perfect amount for a casual user at the right price.
100MB for 10 days is too short little.
So now, it's basically $40 a month, which is cheaper than $50 or $60 plus tax on contract, sort of forces you to buy more than you would use.
The real scam is the fact the data "expires" after 10 or 30 days, which really sucks. They already have the money - the data, like rollover minutes, should not expire.
I applaud the cheaper "unlimited" plans, but i wish there was greater consumer options for those that don't have money to burn.
do they have better coverage than MetroPCS.. which is also $40/month flat.
jet3004
Senior Member
posted: Aug. 22, 2010 @ 10:06p
I have been ready to jump on this since it leaked yesterday but have been searching to see if $149 is the best price for the Virgin Mobile MiFi. Doesn't seem to be available many other places...
jet3004 said: I have been ready to jump on this since it leaked yesterday but have been searching to see if $149 is the best price for the Virgin Mobile MiFi. Doesn't seem to be available many other places...
Check Bestbuy?
jet3004
Senior Member
posted: Aug. 22, 2010 @ 10:36p
LvBrknHrt said: jet3004 said: I have been ready to jump on this since it leaked yesterday but have been searching to see if $149 is the best price for the Virgin Mobile MiFi. Doesn't seem to be available many other places...
Check Bestbuy?
$149. Ugh, too bad I just traded up my Best Buy giftcards for Amazon ones (and of course this isn't on Amazon)...
jet3004 said: I have been ready to jump on this since it leaked yesterday but have been searching to see if $149 is the best price for the Virgin Mobile MiFi. Doesn't seem to be available many other places...
Go to WalMart.com they've got it for $119 + Shipping\Tax
jet3004 said: LvBrknHrt said: jet3004 said: I have been ready to jump on this since it leaked yesterday but have been searching to see if $149 is the best price for the Virgin Mobile MiFi. Doesn't seem to be available many other places...
Check Bestbuy?
$149. Ugh, too bad I just traded up my Best Buy giftcards for Amazon ones (and of course this isn't on Amazon)...
Slightly cheaper on eBay, seen them there for as low as $120 NIB.
Alternatively, you could find a cheap/used USB version of their adapter and get a Cradlepoint router. Final price is probably still less than their MiFi.
jet3004
Senior Member
posted: Aug. 22, 2010 @ 10:58p
BargainHound said: jet3004 said: I have been ready to jump on this since it leaked yesterday but have been searching to see if $149 is the best price for the Virgin Mobile MiFi. Doesn't seem to be available many other places...
Go to WalMart.com they've got it for $119 + ShippingTax
So let me see: sell out-of-contract SERO on fleabay for $170, ditch $35 monthly SERO and $20 cable, get this for $120, take old cellphone from storage box, put $100 prepaid T-Mo on it to get gold status (thus get a year's worth of airtime), put its number in GVoice, and whenever I get a longer call I'll just press a key on the phone and transfer the call to a phone application like Whistle or Gizmo on laptop (which in the meantime I will open, connect to MiFi and turn on its phone application ).
Definitely something worth considering. And obviously the call transfer will have to be practiced beforehand
g10ny said: So let me see: sell out-of-contract SERO on fleabay for $170, ditch $35 monthly SERO and $20 cable, get this for $120, take old cellphone from storage box, put $100 prepaid T-Mo on it to get gold status (thus get a year's worth of airtime), put its number in GVoice, and whenever I get a longer call I'll just press a key on the phone and transfer the call to a phone application like Whistle or Gizmo on laptop (which in the meantime I will open, connect to MiFi and turn on its phone application ).
Definitely something worth considering. And obviously the call transfer will have to be practiced beforehand
Your method will save you $60/year (not including the $170 from selling sero or the cost of buying the MiFi) - so yeah, if saving $60 is worth this hassle, then go for it.
On these cheaper plans, they lose money on the heavy users and make money on those who don't use what they pay for. If they offered rollover or anything like it they'd be out of business.
From a reviewer: Since Virgin Mobiles Broadbgand2Go mostly runs on older Sprint 1X networks, it doesn't give you lightning fast broadband performance. For example, using SpeedTest.net to test speeds, downloads were at 640 kbps and 260 kbps using Broadband2Go on my Samsung netbook.
robby69 said: From a reviewer: Since Virgin Mobiles Broadbgand2Go mostly runs on older Sprint 1X networks, it doesn't give you lightning fast broadband performance. For example, using SpeedTest.net to test speeds, downloads were at 640 kbps and 260 kbps using Broadband2Go on my Samsung netbook.
That just is not true. It uses EVDO Rev.A where available, and only drops down to 1X when there is no EVDO. The speeds he got are not even possible on 1X as its speeds are limited to 144 kbit/s
There are no "older" Sprint 1X networks, just portions that have not been upgraded to EVDO Rev.A yet. Those are really rare and I don't think I've seen any 1X only towers in ages.
On my Broadband2Go USB adapter I usually pull around 1.5mbps and 300 kbps up.
Slaycon
Member
posted: Aug. 23, 2010 @ 10:31a
g10ny said: So let me see: sell out-of-contract SERO on fleabay for $170, ditch $35 monthly SERO and $20 cable, get this for $120, take old cellphone from storage box, put $100 prepaid T-Mo on it to get gold status (thus get a year's worth of airtime), put its number in GVoice, and whenever I get a longer call I'll just press a key on the phone and transfer the call to a phone application like Whistle or Gizmo on laptop (which in the meantime I will open, connect to MiFi and turn on its phone application ).
Definitely something worth considering. And obviously the call transfer will have to be practiced beforehand
I don't think Gvoice works with tmobile PREPAID. It would not allow me to set it up with tmobile prepaid. If so, can someone lead me to the directions.
Scooby - thanks for the speed information.
FoxtrotYANKEE
New Member
posted: Aug. 23, 2010 @ 11:02a
Slaycon said: g10ny said: So let me see: sell out-of-contract SERO on fleabay for $170, ditch $35 monthly SERO and $20 cable, get this for $120, take old cellphone from storage box, put $100 prepaid T-Mo on it to get gold status (thus get a year's worth of airtime), put its number in GVoice, and whenever I get a longer call I'll just press a key on the phone and transfer the call to a phone application like Whistle or Gizmo on laptop (which in the meantime I will open, connect to MiFi and turn on its phone application ).
Definitely something worth considering. And obviously the call transfer will have to be practiced beforehand
I don't think Gvoice works with tmobile PREPAID. It would not allow me to set it up with tmobile prepaid. If so, can someone lead me to the directions.
Scooby - thanks for the speed information.
Gvoice works with tmob prepaid, heck it works with anyphone number other than gizmo while setting up orig acct.
i live in chicago and wonder what the d/L speeds might be. i forsee this "unlimited" becoming capped at 5 gigs or limited bandwidth towards the end of your months usage ... imho .. . at least thats what cricket does.
frankm
Member
posted: Aug. 23, 2010 @ 12:31p
aquaflare said: do they have better coverage than MetroPCS.. which is also $40/month flat.
like everything else, it probably depends where you live... however, you will probably see better speeds because unless I am mistaken it's my understanding that metropcs is 1x data whereas this is evdo.
I have the Blackberry Beyond Talk plan with 3G internet and WiFi internet. The 3G internet is SLOW. Cannon imagine using a Wifi Hotspot device to "share" internet 3G with up to 5 users! That is going to be REALLY SLOW!
Wifi with the Blackberry, on the other hand, is great on our highspeed home network.
fairenough said: i live in chicago and wonder what the d/L speeds might be. i forsee this "unlimited" becoming capped at 5 gigs or limited bandwidth towards the end of your months usage ... imho .. . at least thats what cricket does.
Also in Chicago and get the speeds I mentioned before - anything between 1 and 1.5mbit/s. I don't think we'll know what "unlimited" means to them until they release the actual deal.
mikecism
Member
posted: Aug. 24, 2010 @ 12:30a
The Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk Blackberry only can run the old EVDO Rev 0.
That is why is suck arse slow.
The Mifi runs at EVDO Rev A., so it is much better.
Virgin told me that the new plans will be on their site tomorrow.
snoopdeal
Member
posted: Aug. 24, 2010 @ 5:51p
Heads up on Virgin Broadband2go USB Device on sale, $10 off = $69.99 w/free ground shipping at Radio Shack till 8/28/10 Online only, I went to a store and they said no so I ordered one yesterday, be here Friday.
So is this going to be high quality? Boost, Cricket, etc, have had plans like this but they have spotty coverage and mediocre reviews. $40/month for unlimited mobile Internet would be right up my alley.
I'm tired of paying $100+/month for my iPhone. I VERY rarely actually talk on the phone. I use a decent amount of text messages (a few hundred per month) and data (prob 500MB per month), however (don't even get me started on AT&T's terrible 3G coverage in NYC)
My contract is up. After seeing this deal (yay for no contract!), and reading about the new Google Voice features implemented yesterday (and assuming that the iPod touch announced next week will have basically all of the features of the iPhone 4 minus the 3G radio), I'm considering ditching my iPhone plan completely, and getting the new iPod touch + GV account + Virgin Mobile prepaid mi-fi.
My question is basically: How janky will the above-mentioned setup be? It looks like the mi-fi only gets a max of 3 or 4 hours of battery life, but I think I can deal with that. I'm interested in how seamless (or not) it will be to send/receive SMS (and the occasional phone call) from my iPod Touch, over a mi-fi, using Google Voice.
crawdad689 said: I apologize in advance for the noob post here:
I'm tired of paying $100+/month for my iPhone. I VERY rarely actually talk on the phone. I use a decent amount of text messages (a few hundred per month) and data (prob 500MB per month), however (don't even get me started on AT&T's terrible 3G coverage in NYC)
My contract is up. After seeing this deal (yay for no contract!), and reading about the new Google Voice features implemented yesterday (and assuming that the iPod touch announced next week will have basically all of the features of the iPhone 4 minus the 3G radio), I'm considering ditching my iPhone plan completely, and getting the new iPod touch + GV account + Virgin Mobile prepaid mi-fi.
My question is basically: How janky will the above-mentioned setup be? It looks like the mi-fi only gets a max of 3 or 4 hours of battery life, but I think I can deal with that. I'm interested in how seamless (or not) it will be to send/receive SMS (and the occasional phone call) from my iPod Touch, over a mi-fi, using Google Voice.
Experience/opinions are very welcome!
SMS and data will be fine, voice will be an issue as the latency just doesn't make for very reliable voice circuits. You'll also nee to setup your own VOIP client on the iPhone. Battery life can be resolved with a small USB battery pack, but it won't be as good looking or as seemless as the iPhone on its own.
crawdad689
Member
posted: Aug. 26, 2010 @ 10:26a
Will I still need to "setup a VOIP client" even with the introduction of free US Google Voice calling made yesterday? Latency will make it nearly impossible to complete a call over the mi-fi? I can't just point mobile Safari to voice.google.com and expect good results? http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/25/google-introduces-voice-in-gmail/
Also: Do they make a battery pack cradle/case for the mi-fi? Similar to the ones available for the iPhone? What options are out there for extending the life of the mi-fi?
Well, I picked up the mifi today 90% odds it goes back to wall-mart I currently have millenicom (also sprint) tethered to a zoom router I thought this would be a nice replacement and save me $20 per month I am finding that about 1 of 6 webpages hang up during loading That is using it right next to the zoom router (all the pages load on the zoom, some more slowly, but all load) Has anyone else seen this issue on virgin mobile? I notice virgin gives you a nat IP address whereas my provider gives me a valid one
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