retroblog.net

It looks like Sprint/Nextel is about to shake things up again in the prepaid wireless market. Last year, Sprint/Nextel caused a huge stir in the industry by introducing a $50 unlimited plan on their Boost Network. And now it’s time for Virgin Mobile to shine. Virgin Mobile is Sprint’s other prepaid/no-contracts brand and for a while there, it looked like the brand was going to flounder in the wake of Boost Mobile’s popularity. But the recent unveiling of Virgin Mobile’s “Beyond Talk” plans changes everything.

The huge buzz is centered around the low price point of the $25 a month plan. The $25 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web. The plan also includes 300 minutes of voice calls per month. This is currently the lowest price in the industry for unlimited data & text. With the high demand of 3G mobile web service, this deal is a game changer. Especially when you take into account that there’s no long term contracts and no extra hidden fees.

For those that want a Blackberry, don’t fret. VM’s got you covered as well. The blackberry plan adds $10 on top of the Beyond Talk plans so at the lowest tier service, you can get by with just $35 a month for voice/data.

I’m personally itching to get in on this deal. I’m currently on Boost Mobile (iDEN) which isn’t built for high speed data. Plus I’m a bit tired of the old-school Motorola phones on Boost. I need to get with the times and get me a newfangled data-driven handset. The new LG Rumor Touch looks perfect for my needs.

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I recently purchased Virgin Mobile’s Super Slice for my dad. Since he doesn’t use a cell phone enough to warrant a regular monthly plan, I thought a prepaid service was the way to go. An interesting thing happened when I tried to activate the phone for him. I couldn’t activate the phone through their website. When I called up customer service they told me the phone’s serial number (ESN) was already assigned to another account. wtf??!! It’s a brand new phone from best buy and YOUR telling me I can’t use it b/c SOMEHOW the serial number has been stolen off the phone???? well the guy couldn’t exactly tell me how this mix up came to be but there wasn’t anything that they could do on their end to get the phone activated. I had to go back to best buy and exchange the phone for a new one. brilliant. definitely doesn’t bode well for the phone or the service. hhhmmmmm….