“Virgin Mobile will be carrying the iPhone 5 next week on its Beyond Talk plans with unlimited 3G/4G LTE data and messaging starting at $35/month (with $5 discount for auto-payments),” Seth Weintraub reports for 9to5Mac.
“Virgin, a pre-paid division of Sprint which also uses the carrier’s CDMA 3G and LTE 4G networks,” Weintraub reports, “will also offer the 32GB and 64GB versions of the iPhone for $649.99 and $749.99 respectively.”
Weintraub reports, “Virgin has been offering the iPhone 4 and 4S for quite some time and recently began discounting the devices by 15% with the same $30/month unlimited plans.”
Read more in the full article here.
That’s a lot of bullshit
Unlimited data, but you look at the rate sheet and it’s only 2.5 Gb at full speed.
AND! It’s 3G speeds
T mobile has a better plan than that
As a former Virgin and current T-mobile user, I disagree. At best, this is a close call, and it may actually be a better deal than T-Mobile for singles or couples. For families of 3 or more, T-mobile is probably cheaper.
Right now, T-Mobile sells iPhone 5 for $630 ($20 less than Apple’s nominal retail price). Virgin sells it at $550 ($100 discount). So, Virgin scores points there.
Monthly plan on Virgin for $30 on autopay gives you some 350 voice minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data. Cheapest T-Mobile plan is $50 for unlimited voice, text and data. However, Virgin throttles data to 2G after 2.5GB, while T-Mobile throttles after 500MB.
If 350 minutes aren’t enough, Virgin has a $45 plan ($40 on autopay) with 1200 minutes, which is enough for vast majority of population. Data throttling is also after 2.5GB.
So, even with a more expensive monthly plan, Virgin is still cheaper than T-mobile.
To get more high-speed data on T-Mobile, you have to pay $10 extra (for 2GB), or $20 (no throttling at all), making it even more expensive than Virgin.
So the only possible advantage here would be the speed and coverage of T-mobile’s 4G network, compared to Virgin’s 4G.
My experience with both tells me that Virgin’s 3G is on the slow side. I never tried their 4G, so I can’t tell, but T-Mobile’s coverage and speeds in NYC are quite good.
The only reason I switched is because I have a family of four. On T-Mobile, this costs $100 (with lowest data throttling limits), whereas on Virgin, even with their cheapest plans, it would still be $120. With our usage patterns, we’d probably have to spend $140 (to add minutes to my wife and myself, who like to use phones for actual talking…).
Predrag. My throat feels very sensitive after reading your reply!!! 🙂
Virgin uses the Sprint network which is slow and useless. People think their iPhones aren’t working when they use Sprint. Prices are great but you get what you pay for.
Go for the 64. U will need it. Maybe not now, but in time. I promise. 16 GB with a contract is fail.