Today, Amazon.com is offering the Virgin Mobile version of the Novatel MiFi 2200 portable hotspot for $49.99. Shipping is free.
At $100 off the standard retail price, it is the lowest price we’ve ever seen for the MiFi on Virgin Mobile.
The only downside of the the Amazon offer is that the Wal-mart version of the device offers a $20/month, 1GB data plan, which is not available on MiFi’s sold from other retail outlets. The non-Walmart versions of the device offer a $20/month, 500MB plan instead, in addition to the $50/month unlimited (albeit, throttled after 2.5GB) plan.
With Virgin Mobile now offering a $10, 100MB data plan, the $50 price point is very attractive as an emergency backup connection solution. It is the lowest price for a Sprint 3G or Sprint MVNO mobile broadband card on prepaid service that we have seen offered from a direct retailer.
The Virgin Mobile MiFi operates on Sprint’s CDMA EV-DO Rev A, 3G network.
Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 Prepaid Mobile Hotspot (Virgin Mobile)
Update: Price is fluctuating. See comments below for updates.
Price has increased slightly to $54.99.
Price has increased not-so-slightly to $69.99. Still the cheapest price out there that we can find.
Virgin has a terrible wireless footprint. Cheap with no coverage (if you travel) is not cheap!