In today’s press release, Virgin Mobile has disclosed that it will be entering the unlimited calling plan arena from July 1st. Named Totally Unlimited, the move brings in a plan that is cheaper than those offered by other carriers.
The plan will run for $79.99 per month and there is no 2 year agreement required. Users will be able to use Top-up cards or credit/debit cards to take advantage of the plan. An additional $10 per month will enable the user to have unlimited text, IM, email and picture messaging.
More information can be found at the dedicated Virgin Mobile Totally Unlimited page.
Wonder how the old MVNO is doing financially. This is great for the people who do pre-paid. But will this unique idea from a pre-paid provider gonna last. Will in six months we here Virgin Mobile is closing it’s doors?
That seems to be the going trend. MVNO’s aren’t making it… the business model is flawed, and I’m not exactly sure how… but it’s flawed. It’ll be interesting to see how Virgin Mobile fares in the nationwide all-you-can-eat cellular world.
Mojo from The GEEK Reports
Carriers are still trying to show value in lots of voice minutes, but a lot of customers see the real value as the data service. The question goes like this: If data is only a $10 adder for unlimited, then why do I have to buy $80 worth of voice? Can’t I just have data for $10/month?
Well, if nobody noticed Boost Mobile does $50 for unlimited talk, $60 for unlimited talk and text, and $70 for unlimited talk, text and data.
Hey Dan H.,
You are correct on the Boost Mobile pricing… however, I think the big difference here is nationwide service. Virgin Mobile is offering unlimited service on a nationwide network, while Boost is still offering region wide. While for some people that may be okay, for others it is not. That would be the big difference between the two plans. Word on the street has it that Boost will be dumping its current CDMA line-up of phones and going back to an IDEN based product, but I’m not sure whether it will still fall under the Boost Unlimited brand? We’ll have to wait and see… I do know that plans for a Boost Rumor and a Boost Centro were scrapped… which leads me to believe the rumors floating around.
Mojo from The GEEK Reports
Mojo,
It’s hard to say. Right now only Dan Hesse knows for sure, but I don’t see them scrapping Boost Unlimited. It seems more like they are restructuring for a nationwide release. They just changed the prices of the unlimited in all of their markets to match (because they used to be set by region) and though they still have no good phones I hear that somewhere down south there is a Boost provider that has been selling the Instinct for about 2 months (word of mouth, but from a Sprint employee’s mouth).
I do feel you on the nationwide fact, though Boost is nationwide they just don’t offer numbers nationwide. Yeah, I feel ya that makes them a “regional” carrier, but eh.. I know a lot of people that would take an out of state area code for a $50/month unlimited calling plan 🙂
Dan H,
The only thing I can see is that right now Boost unlimited doesn’t offer service outside of your home region without roaming charges. I think if that changes… they’ll definitely be a competitor with Virgin Mobile. They need to do something, as Boost makes up 30% or so of Sprint’s revenues.
Mojo from The GEEK Reports