Virgin Mobile Unveils New Plans With More Data But No More Free Hotspot

AnciusD · Oct 1, 2016

The new plans are:

$35/month for unlimited talk and messaging and data with the first 5 GB at high speeds.
$45/month for unlimited talk and messaging and data with the first 10 GB at high speeds.

After the first 5 or 10 GB of data is used, speeds are throttled to 128 Kbps or less for the rest of the month.
http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2016/09/virgin-mobile-unveils-new-plans-with.html

kate · Oct 1, 2016

Not bad for the cost, unfortunate about no more hotspot though.

Included data for the price beats both current Cricket and Boost plans:

$35 - 5GB - Virgin Mobile
$35 - 2.5GB - Cricket
$35 - 2GB - Boost

AnciusD · Oct 1, 2016

kate said:
Not bad for the cost, unfortunate about no more hotspot though.

Included data for the price beats both current Cricket and Boost plans:

$35 - 5GB - Virgin Mobile
$35 - 2.5GB - Cricket
$35 - 2GB - Boost

Not even sure if my old phone allows it.

I'm wondering if older gf'd plans get automatically bumped up or if I have to go online and manually change plans.

I just recently signed up for the TMobile "WalMart plan" $30/5gb/100 minutes talk/unltd text.

aml1025 · Oct 1, 2016

The old plans from Virgin Mobile did not include hotspot, either; you may be thinking of Boost's plans.

The hotspot offerings for Virgin Mobile appear to be the same as they were. Additionally, the "old" Virgin Mobile Unlimited Plans are still available as options on my account. They haven't been removed/retired as plans traditionally have been when new ones are offered.

The changes aren't everything I'd hoped for, but they will be beneficial for my family. We'll be sticking around a while longer.

I manually changed our accounts yesterday, to begin with our new month. Maybe after a while, Virgin Mobile will change people over automatically, but it doesn't appear they will right away.

AnciusD · Oct 1, 2016

If the only difference is the loss of hotspot, I don't care. Maybe I should just change over now? Can't think of any reason not to.
I'd rather have the extra 2.5GBs. My new month just began. If I switch plans now, how is it affected?

aml1025 · Oct 1, 2016

You can either pay again to restart your plan now, or have changes begin with your next new month.

AnciusD · Oct 2, 2016

aml1025 said:
You can either pay again to restart your plan now, or have changes begin with ypur next new month.

Darn, just missed it by a day. Thanks.

aml1025 · Oct 2, 2016

AnciusD said:
Darn, just missed it by a day. Thanks.

If you ever contact Virgin Mobile through social media, it may be worth getting in touch to see if there's anything they can do to help you.

AnciusD · Oct 3, 2016

aml1025 said:
If you ever contact Virgin Mobile through social media, it may be worth getting in touch to see if there's anything they can do to help you.

Thanks, good suggestion.

jerrspud · Oct 4, 2016

it looks like a no brainer to me. I'll get double the data and roaming now for the same price! My phone is rooted and I've never had a plan with "hot spot" for the hot spot to work.

EDIT/Update
The roaming only works on a handful of phones. I was disappointed that it didn't work for me over the weekend, and I found out my phone is not on the list.
http://virginmobileusa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5879/#devices

ALCATEL DAWN
ALCATEL ONETOUCH ElevateTM
HTC Desire® 626s
Huawei Union
LG K3
LG StyloTM 2
Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)

EDIT 10/26/2016
now even more on the list. Mine is still not. When I'm in a roaming area there are bars, but it won't connect. That's new

Alcatel OneTouch Elevate
Alcatel Dawn
HTC Desire 626S
Huawei Union
Kyocera Hydro Reach
LG K3
LG Stylo 2
LG G Stylo
LG Tribute 5 (M1)
LG Tribute 2
LG Volt 2
LG Tribute HD
Motorola Moto G (3Generation)
Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)
Samsung Galaxy J7
Samsung Galaxy S7
Samsung Galaxy S5

DavidIsDead · Oct 31, 2016

How was the off network roaming handled before these new plans? Were we just not able to make and receive calls in those areas before now?

mikeca · Nov 3, 2016

DavidIsDead said:
How was the off network roaming handled before these new plans? Were we just not able to make and receive calls in those areas before now?

That's correct as far as I know with all the Virgin Plans there is no roaming.

jerrspud · Nov 3, 2016

DavidIsDead said:
How was the off network roaming handled before these new plans? Were we just not able to make and receive calls in those areas before now?

There was no roaming before. There would just be no service once you left a Sprint area.

tunaman2 · Nov 7, 2016

Right. As I understand it, Sprint has tower-sharing deals with Verizon in some areas. For years, Sprint only allowed Sprint customers to use those towers; VM and Boost customers simply got "No Service" messages on their phones. For example, back when I got my first VM phone, my GF was still using a Sprint feature phone. We'd drive from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach through some really small towns in South Carolina. Her phone would have all 5 bars, but mine would have no service. So I guess now I'll be able to at least make calls in those areas.

I switched plans today. Because I'm a VIP, I was able to cancel my current payment and apply it to the "new" month. I guess my official due date got pushed from the 28th of the month to the 7th of the following month, but that's OK by me. I wonder if being a VIP now pushes that to the 17th of the month (or whatever)?

Anyway, having double the data for the same price works for me! But actually I'm more excited that VM finally added Spotify to their list of "no data" streaming services. I'm a BIG Spotify user, so this is great news for me!

tunaman2 · Nov 7, 2016

aml1025 said:
Additionally, the "old" Virgin Mobile Unlimited Plans are still available as options on my account. They haven't been removed/retired as plans traditionally have been when new ones are offered.

When I switched plans this evening, the website warned me that my old $35 Unlimited/Unlimited/2.5GB plan is no longer offered, and I would not be able to switch back.

jerrspud · Nov 8, 2016

tunaman2 said:
When I switched plans this evening, the website warned me that my old $35 Unlimited/Unlimited/2.5GB plan is no longer offered, and I would not be able to switch back.

correct.... and why would you want to? The new plans are better.

aml1025 · Nov 11, 2016

tunaman2 said:
When I switched plans this evening, the website warned me that my old $35 Unlimited/Unlimited/2.5GB plan is no longer offered, and I would not be able to switch back.

Yes, I believe they ended up retiring them at the end of October. Usually they become unavailable right away, though, so it was strange.

storageman · Nov 13, 2016

Now this is funny. The reason I switched to Boost 6 months ago, so I could get the Roaming feature. I wanted to do it a year and a half ago, but Boost didn't have any phones I wanted, besides my Virgin SGIII worked like a charm. But In June Boost got the Samsung J7 (Great Phone), and I switched and the roaming works good.

Virgin Mobile Unveils New Plans With More Data But No More Free Hotspot

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