Who is Virgin Mobile?

[CDMA]

Is this a new company? I looked at the Michigan coverage map and it looks the same as SprintPCS's coverage? Are they related? I checked out their web site and they even allow you to keep your current wireless number and transfer it to their network. Pretty cool, but tonight is the first time I have heard of them.

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

virgin mobile is simply reselling sprint service on their own brand name. they are marketing their own brand of prepaid service using sprints network.

[CDMA]

Are they going to change their name after prom night?

[cryogenic]

LOL... that was just WRONG. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

Like most things Virgin, they are based out of the UK, where they have their own network...

[Matt]

No, Virgin is a MVNO in the UK as well.....they use the T-Mobile UK (formerly One2One) network.

[ehcruzan]

Exactly! They don't own a network.

[Jack]

I would personally sign up with sprint

Jack

[cryogenic]

Might as well go with Sprint, because prepay doesn't seem to really be that reasonable, given the expiration times on most prepay minutes. Most people I know spend $30-40 per month on prepay, so why not just get a plan with a provider and be done with it? I understand that doing such a thing with Verizon sometimes involves ungodly deposit requirements, but Sprint's credit standards are very close to pre-pay levels, anyway. They may set you up on an account with an ASL (Account Spending Limit) and charge you to speak to a CSR, but that's better than nothing. Still no deposit even in those cases.

[ehcruzan]

Virgin Mobile requires a refill every 90 days and the existing minutes remain in your account.

[Danbizi]

This is Virgin as in Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Cola, etc. Virgin Mobile is a pre-paid plan using sprint's PCS network. I started using it a little while ago and really like it. I think it is much better then any of the other prepaid plans I've seen such as: AT&T, Verizon and Trac phone.

There is no sign up fee (in fact you get 10 dollars of time free when you first sign-up.) The cost per minute is 20 cents a minute for the first 10 minutes of each day and 10 cents a minute for the rest of the day. This is much cheaper over all then any other prepaid I've seen. Your time expires after 90 days unless you "top-off" (buy more time) before the expiration day, then your time rolls over and your new expiration date is set 90 days from the last purchase date . You can add time very easily through your phone if you register a credit card with them or you can get time cards at various stores or purchase time on their website. You can check your balance and see when your time expires via the phone or their website. You can also check a record of your calls on the website as well.

This is great for people who don't use a cell phone a lot, say, only for emergencies and some short phone calls because a person could keep cell phone services for only 20 dollars every three months, less then $100 dollars a year.

I like it because my usage is uneven. My usage may be very light for several months and then one month it might be very heavy. With this plan the time not used in the light months role over in to the heavy month when I need it. With a regular plan that time would be lost and on the heavy month I'd be paying a lot extra if my usage exceeded my monthly alotment. So prepaid saves me both ways with this plan.

There is one important caveat: There is no roaming, if you don't get a sprint PCS signal, you don't get a signal. For me that has yet to be a problem . But it would be a good idea to check to see if your area is well covered by Sprint before getting into this plan.

Sorry to ramble on and sound like a commercial. But I do think this could be a very good way to go for a lot of people. The website is virginmobileusa.com.

Dan

[wakko]

can you activate an old sprint phone on virgin, or will they only activate the virgin branded phones? It seems like it would make sense to activate sprint phones.

[Danbizi]

No, afraid not,you have to buy one of their phones which is limited to 2 Kyoceras: The 2119b (I believe) and the 2255. I have 2255 and I like it so far.

[RITMarketer]

Originally posted by: cryogenic
Might as well go with Sprint, because prepay doesn't seem to really be that reasonable, given the expiration times on most prepay minutes. Most people I know spend $30-40 per month on prepay, so why not just get a plan with a provider and be done with it? I understand that doing such a thing with Verizon sometimes involves ungodly deposit requirements, but Sprint's credit standards are very close to pre-pay levels, anyway. They may set you up on an account with an ASL (Account Spending Limit) and charge you to speak to a CSR, but that's better than nothing. Still no deposit even in those cases.

Only three reasons I EVER recommend Prepay

1: It's an emergency phone, so instead of monthly, you pay a low charge every 3 months
2: Credit situation
3: You just want to cap what you can use (Cingular doesn't offer caps, and I usually recommend just going 1 or 2 plans higher b/c you can always change contract. Some people just insist that they DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH A BILL)

P

[braindead500]

Well if your going to get a prepaid phone, you should definitely get virgin. They offer the best rates. But it does end there. They don't currently have any intersting cell phones but will get some new ones in the future.

[rwagner]

Sprint no longer offers prepay. Virgin is like a Sprint prepay costing as little as $7/month. One must ante up $20 every 3 months. The best feature is it's automatic. This means you'll never lose accumulated money because you forgot to renew, and you'll never run out of money at an inconvenient time. If the account is nearing expiration or money is nearing zero, they'll automatically charge your credit card for another $20. There is no upsell to spend more than $20 on a higher-priced 'card'. The only other prepaid offering automatic replenishment is Cingular.

Another advantage of Virgin is that you can buy it anywhere in the US. You need not be in their territory, as is the case with Cingular and even AT&T. When I lived there, I found it hard to believe Albany NY is outside the AT&T "service area". I had to drive 100 miles to Binghamton to buy an AT&T prepaid. Virgin is sold on the Web, at Target and many other mass merchandisers.

Virgin offers two phones: the Kyocera 2119b Party Animal and the Kyocera 2255. Be sure to get the 2255 because it is dual mode CDMA/AMPS (analog); the 2119b is CDMA only. The Virgin Web site does not explain this important difference.

Virgin is not simply a Sprint customer. The US division is a 50% joint venture between Sprint and the British company. In one news story, the US Virgin CEO said it was "GSM-based". Wrong. It is in Europe but in the US it's 100% CDMA/AMPS, same as Sprint.