I can't do pricing analyses for every household's situation, but clearly, if you care about your money, you might spend a few minutes doing your own analysis to see if you can save hundreds a year.
the catch is they are a sprint MVNO. there is NO ROAMING. if you aren't in range of a tower, no signal. you can't ride on verizon's network. and sprint's data speeds in the 300Kbps range on average
you get what you pay for
Why? Over two years you save a huge amount of money on the $30/month plan (like $1400) in monthly fees compared to the ATT or Verizon carriers.
For what you will pay at Virgin Moble for the iPhone you can just get two new ipads.
For everyone asking, NO Virgin Mobile will NOT let you bring your own phone, they run on CDMA not GSM, its locked to there network as with all phones. You may be able to use the phone with other carriers such as MetroPCS, they are one of the few who unlock/flash Virgin phones.
Also guys being that i have used virgin before, please be aware that there are many issues and outages with there Data Network (just look on there facebook, about the "unexplained" outages), there Data wont compare to what you have now with AT&T, etc. I know within a few weeks from launch we will be reading about the SLOW DATA, if that doesnt matter to you then please go and save you some $$$$.
Also the Virgin iPhone will most likely be less after a few months. When the Blackberry first launched (they were one of the few with a prepaid blackberry) they priced it at $399 ($50 Rebate), a few months later it was $249, then a few months later (about 10 months) it was down to $199.00.
Sorry, but in 2012 going prepaid doesn't equate to bad credit like it used to. I think it equates more to wanting to pay less and not wanting to be roped into a 2-yr contract where a carrier has you by the balls.
There is no prestige in being tied into a contract where you're getting bent over by your service provider. Sadly, it is the people with your frame of mind that allow the major mobile companies to do just that.
I think that phone might have had a problem. I have never seen or heard anything like that before around the Chicago area.I was in Chicago recently with my friend who's on Virgin and I could not believe how useless his phone was.
Meanwhile, my T-Mobile phone was usually full bars, and never less than 2.
I'll admit the CDMA network is somewhat slow, but for the price I don't mind. Also, I know this site is for Apple people, and you all like the iPhone, but there are faster Android alternatives available on Virgin Mobile. You can get the HTC EVO V 4G which has WiMax service for the same $30 a month. Over here at least, the Clearwire WiMax network flies. This is a typical result, and frankly $30 a month for just the unlimited data with speeds like this is amazing.The price is not that great considering how lousy Sprint's network is.
I was in Chicago recently with my friend who's on Virgin and I could not believe how useless his phone was. After the second day, he literally shut it off since it was only getting a signal about 10% of the time and the only calls/texts that were going through were people complaining about how they couldn't reach him. It was some Android something or other, if that makes a difference, but the same phone works great all over CA and OR. And we were mostly in the South side, but did venture as far north as Wrigley.
Meanwhile, my T-Mobile phone was usually full bars, and never less than 2.
But I remember how shocked I was because I have never seen a phone behave so badly, especially in a metro area, and he was cursing it out the whole time.
Which is why if you READ what I wrote I left Virgin to use a descent phone, if they sell the iPhone for $299 I'll go back to them on the $40 plan since 300 mins is too little.
So I have a sprint 4S currently. will i be able to activate that on the VM plan thats coming out? Theres currently no phone number attached to this phone
I wonder if the next iPhone (see how I didnt say iPhone 5 not piss some of you guys off) will also have a prepaid option when launched. And does this June 29th date have anything to with the next iPhone.
Any bets on how quickly they'll get the next iPhone? If they have it at or around launch, I'm signing up immediately.
No. VM (like sprint) is CDMA, and there are no unlocked CDMA phones. None of the CDMA carriers seem to allow you to bring a phone from another network in (although some MVNOs let you bring in phones from their parent network, like Page Plus allows Verizon phones), and an unlocked GSM phone just isn't going to work.
That sounds like UMA technology. What you were told is true (using UMA to make phone calls doesn't deduct minutes from your plan), but the iPhone doesn't support UMA.AND if you're calling from home and are connected to a WiFi network, then those minutes aren't taken fro your plan at all.
I don't know if anyone mentioned this or not and I didn't feel like reading the other posts. When I saw this article, I called Virgin Mobile and AT&T and AppleCare. They all said that I would not be able to use my AT&T iPhone 4S on Virgin Mobile's network and therefore would not be able to benefit from the lower pricing.
But, I decided to call other GSM carriers and T-Mobile offers pre-paid plans that are pretty awesome. AND if you're calling from home and are connected to a WiFi network, then those minutes aren't taken fro your plan at all. Also, if you pay online, then you don't owe any taxes or fees and the bill is exactly $30, $50, $60, or $70. Plus, you get unlimited* data(depending on the plan you choose, you get the regular speed connectivity for a pre-determined amount and then it gets throttled after that. And yes, T-Mobile also has visual voicemail. I just have to decide whether or not it's worth it to cancel my contract and switch.
They're also offering free sim activations when you sign up. I don't know how much longer this promotion will last, but they went ahead and sent me 2 SIM cards at no charge and I have 90 days to decide whether or not to use them and still receive the promotion.
But, I decided to call other GSM carriers and T-Mobile offers pre-paid plans that are pretty awesome.
AND if you're calling from home and are connected to a WiFi network, then those minutes aren't taken fro your plan at all.
And yes, T-Mobile also has visual voicemail.
People who can't do math are throwing hundreds of dollars away each year to the big carriers. AT&T stock dividend yields 8%. Thanks for putting money into my pocket, guys! You are partially paying for my Straight Talk cellular service!
I believe you need to surrender the handset if you quit within a month or two. The only way to do this is to go a couple of months at the cheapest rate. The $325 ETF is pro-rated, they credit you for $10 for each month you've fulfilled your contract.Would it work to buy the iPhone for ATT for say $199 (16GB 4S) and then cancel immediately and pay $325 ETF and then buy the straight talk SIM?
A little cheaper than buying outright from Apple.
Straight Talk does not keep an online log of your calls or texts. And there's no bill either.What do you mean in the above quote? How can they not tell you who's calling and who's sending you texts? They don't have CallerID?
My biggest wish is that Virgin Mobile's entry will eventually prompt Straight Talk to offer a slightly cheaper plan with fewer voice minutes (I really don't talk on my iPhone that much).Here's to hoping that AT&T's and Verizon's strangle hold on the US market is nearing it's end.
Prepaid's biggest hurdle was the lack of good phones available (and responsible data rates).
With ST, Cricket's, and Virgin's cheap rates - hopefully people will begin to wake up and realize how much they are overpaying.
There's no visual voicemail with Straight Talk either. Straight Talk has their own voicemail servers. Not that I care since I'm a Google Voice user.It is possible to use an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile, but my understanding is that right now it'll only work on GSM, not UMTS. Besides that, stuff like visual voicemail won't work.
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I'm almost certain it doesn't. Check with howard forums for more info, but I think you're left with it functioning like a normal cell phone. Which of course isn't a deal breaker in and of itself, but visual voicemail does seem like a neat feature.