Cheaper iPhone plans on Virgin

[ebubman]

since Virgin Mobile & Cricket will very soon start offering iPhones with plans far cheaper than ATT or Verizon, am considering moving to Virgin (Sprint coverage) when our ATT contract expires.  anyone else have experience with making such a change?  it makes little sense to overpay for a phone or plan. Article in CNET this week makes it pretty clear that one can easily save a boatload of money by making this change. this is, of course, predicated upon adequate Sprint network coverage where you would be using your phone.  thanks, in advance, for any comments.  Bub

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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ebubman wrote:

since Virgin Mobile & Cricket will very soon start offering iPhones with plans far cheaper than ATT or Verizon, am considering moving to Virgin (Sprint coverage) when our ATT contract expires.  anyone else have experience with making such a change?  it makes little sense to overpay for a phone or plan. Article in CNET this week makes it pretty clear that one can easily save a boatload of money by making this change. this is, of course, predicated upon adequate Sprint network coverage where you would be using your phone.  thanks, in advance, for any comments.  Bub

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since it uses sprint's infrastructure then you get sprints coverage, also believe it is cdma and not gsm so your current equipment will not work on it, if so factor in a almost full retail pruchase price of a new device

[sandblaster]

If wireless data is important to you at all, you might want to check out PC World's latest wireless network data tests: http://www.pcworld.com/article/253808/3g_and_4g_wireless_speed_showdown_which_networks_are_fastest.h... Sprint consistently shows the slowest speeds.

[kinghdmi]

If I remember right,  VM customer service is in Nicaragua.  Good luck with that.  Data speed is nice and slow.  So don't think you'll get something for nothing.

[youngjm ACE - Professor]

Don't forget to consider the cost of purchasing the phone.  

[21stNow]

The other thing to remember is that you won't have access to simultaneous voice and cellular data.

I used Virgin Mobile for around seven months.  Coverage was horrible at my home location, but fine at work.  I used the old BlackBerry Curve 8530 that they offer.  Data speeds were unbearably slow on this phone, but may be better on other phones such as the iPhone.

The customer service reps only read from a script, so don't expect an answer to any unusual questions.  I asked if I could pay before the end date, rather than waiting until the day that the service would end (that was my first time with prepaid service so I didn't know the answer to that).  I asked multiple representatives; they all said that I need to pay on the date that the service ends.  You can pay in advance of that date, in reality.  It seems like paying in advance for prepaid service was unheard of.

If the voice coverage is decent where you are, and the data speeds are tolerable, it can be a great deal.  Unlimited text and data with 300 voice minutes for $35 was pretty good in my opinion.  I didn't have to pay for as many voice minutes that go unused on my other plans.

Edited to add:  If you are just looking to save money while using an iPhone and AT&T's coverage is good for you, I would consider Red Pocket.  Unlimited talk, text and 2GB of data is $60 a month.  You already know the coverage and Red Pocket's customer service is far better than Virgin Mobile's.  Plus, you keep simultaneous voice and cellular data service and you can use your same iPhone if you unlock it (I heard that unlocking wasn't necessary, but never tried to verify this).  Finally, you retain the benefit of having a GSM phone, which can be helpful if you travel out of the country.

[Facci]

Good luck if you switch! In the Chicagoland area, Sprint has lost many towers and their coverage sucks more than it did! Also I know people who have Sprint and Virgin mobile and they all complain about slow data and not getting text messages, not getting phone calls and never being notified of voicemails!