RSSVirgin Mobile is a newcomer to unlimited calling plans
By Michael Hatamoto | Published June 24, 2008, 2:38 PM
A bit late to the party but arriving nonetheless, Virgin Unlimited today introduced its unlimited calling plan for its customers.
The new "Totally Unlimited" calling plan will be available for $79.99 per month with no roaming and will be available on July 1. For an additional $10 per month, customers will receive unlimited text messaging, picture messaging, e-mail, and instant messaging.
Subscribers may escape activation fees and an annual contract, which could make Totally Unlimited cheaper than similar plans from Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, and AT&T. Verizon kicked off the party in February after announcing unlimited voice calling for $99 per month. T-Mobile and AT&T followed suit by offering $99 per month for unlimited voice and texting. Sprint Nextel's $99 per month service features unlimited voice, text messaging, e-mail, video, and Internet.
Meanwhile, Virgin Mobile has struggled to keep users and attract users to its pre-paid service. Its 5.1 million customer base makes Virgin the biggest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), a term describing a company that relies on other networks to provide its service. In this case, Virgin Mobile relies on Sprint Nextel's infrastructure.
Furthermore, Virgin Mobile's average revenue per user was already $19.93 per month -- half the amount other carriers make.
There were talks about a merger between Virgin Mobile and Helio, but nothing official has been announced as of yet.
A similar prepaid service, Page Plus Cellular, charges $2.49 per day (about $75 per month) for unlimited voice, though roaming is not included.
Virgin Mobile offers a small selection of phones to its users, with many popular manufacturers and models not available. Today, its top phone is the Slash, which features a built-in camera, phone, Bluetooth, music storage, and ringtones for a $79.99 charge.
Welcome to Buy wOW GoLd and Buy
World of wOw Gold. You can Sell
wow gOLd and Sell World of
wOW gold here. We are a
professional WOw goLd
marketplace on
Score: 0
|Virgin, what a rotten company. I hate their lousy service, with continual text messages about utter crap requiring me to have to waste my time erasing, deleting and cursing at it. If it weren't for the greed of the other Telcos, I'd stop using it altogether. Their website SUCKS as well.
Score: 0
|...and a few years down the road, similar to the broadband crowd, they will all say, "Oh we didn't really mean unlimited...."
Score: 0
|I don't know how these companies can think that they are offering anything even close to a competitive package when Cricket has been offering unlimited packages for between $35 and $65 a month for well over three years now.
Who do these companies think they are impressing offering unlimited packages at two to three times the price of one of their major competitors?
These packages at $80 to $100 a month are still significantly over priced at these levels. Not even sure why they are bothering to roll these offerings out as they are nothing even close to competitive and everyone knows it.
Score: 0
|Stop being ridiculous. Cricket, MetroPCS and the like don't offer NATIONWIDE service. They work on a state by state basis and not even in all areas, like most other cell phone companies. So sure, if you live under a rock and you don't travel out of state or vacation much then it's great! But if you DO travel frequently, for business or vacation then this type of cell phone company doesn't work.
So really, comparing Cricket to any one of these companies is like comparing a marble (http://www.mycricket.com...maps/area?zipcode=33025) to a basketball (http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx).
Score: 0
|