Virgin Mobile users: You're officially getting capped (And prices are going up)

[SunnyD]

Effective July 20th.

Current customers will be okay... for a while.

Existing Beyond Talk Virgin Mobile customers as of July 19 can keep their current plan pricing as long as they don’t let their account expire, and they can upgrade to new devices without incurring additional costs.

Beginning in October 2011, Virgin Mobile will also move to reduce data speeds when a customer’s data usage exceeds 2.5GB in a month but still provide unlimited 3G access without a contract, usage cap, overage or activation fees. Based on current usage patterns, fewer than 3 percent of Virgin Mobile USA customers use more than 2.5GB of data usage per month. After reaching this level, this minority of customers may experience slower page loads, file downloads and streaming media. When a customer’s next month begins, the data usage meter starts back at zero with unlimited 3G speeds.

Capped speed will be 256kb/s.

 

[Phantomaniac]

Even WITH the cap and price hike, its still one of the best deals out there for people who don't talk much but use text/data. A T-Mobile plan with a 2GB cap is still twice as much ($70/TMo vs $35 w/Virgin), and other providers cost even more than that.

I still recommend Virgin Mobile overall, and my Optimus V has been nothing short of awesome.

 

[vshah]

256 kilobits isn't too bad...not going to be streaming any video though, that's for sure.

 

[poofyhairguy]

So basically, if we get in beforehand we get the old deal?

Geez, in this industry we only have one friend and his name is Grandfathered Plans.

 

[AstroManLuca]

It'll be hard to hit that cap when you're limited to Sprint's 3G speeds.

 

[ImDonly1]

People who currently have VM will be grandfathered on the pricing, so they can't complain.

 

[boomhower]

It'll be hard to hit that cap when you're limited to Sprint's 3G speeds.

It's not that bad. Sure in general the other carriers are faster but every area I have been in has been fast enough to stream Netflix with good quality, that's pretty much my litmus test on exceptable speeds.

 

[BoberFett]

Damn, a $10 price bump at the bottom, a $5 bump in the middle, and a $5 cut at the top. I guess that's one way to upsell.

Oh well, it's still better than contract prices.

 

[gsaldivar]

Still the best deal in town...

 

[theeedude]

Predictable. Then again, it's still a great deal.
I think T-mobile prepaid is the only real competition, and even that one is almost 2x as much.

 

[Pliablemoose]

So it makes sense to get a plan started now and save $120/year. Hmmmm....

 

[QueBert]

Predictable. Then again, it's still a great deal.
I think T-mobile prepaid is the only real competition, and even that one is almost 2x as much.

Boost's good imho, it's $50 to start but it drops $5 every 6 months until it hits $35. And you have slightly better coverage since it's Sprint + Nextels network. Bonus you get unlimited minutes not 300. To my knowledge Boost doesn't have any plan to cap data either.

 

[zerocool84]

It's pre-paid so I don't see the big deal at all.

 

[NeoV]

actually Virgin's plans are not all prepaid