Virgin Mobile Archive

  • Virgin Mobile launching prepaid MiFi next week

    Virgin Mobile launching prepaid MiFi next week

    Posted on June 23, 2010 | No Comments
    The spotlight on Sprint's MiFi has definitely faded since the launch of the Overdrive and EVO 4G -- both of which can kick it into high 4G gear when in range -- but Sprint subsidiary Virgin Mobile is bringing Novatel's groundbreaking mobile hotspot back into the forefront by taking it to the prepaid world. What that means is that you'll be paying $149 for the MiFi itself -- contract free, naturally -- plus any of a number of prepaid data rates ranging from $10 for 100MB all the way up to $60 for 5GB. It's said to be launching next Monday online and in Best Buy and Radio Shack locations -- so if you're an occasional data user, this might be about the best option on the block.

    Virgin Mobile launching prepaid MiFi next week originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • HTC Wildfire priced by T-Mobile, coming to UK on June 14

    HTC Wildfire priced by T-Mobile, coming to UK on June 14

    Posted on May 19, 2010 | No Comments
    The biggest outstanding question about the Wildfire has now been answered by at least one carrier -- T-Mobile will be delivering HTC's student-friendly handset at the £20 ($29) per month price point on two-year contracts. Frankly, that's a bigger financial commitment than we'd expected to have to make, but it will presumably include unlimited (which in T-Mobile lingo means a 3GB fair use policy) data use and a healthy allowance of calls and texts. If that doesn't rub you up the right way, look out for Virgin Mobile to reveal its pricing in the near term, having announced it'll be carrying the phone via a tweet.

    Continue reading HTC Wildfire priced by T-Mobile, coming to UK on June 14

    HTC Wildfire priced by T-Mobile, coming to UK on June 14 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 05:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Sprint and Virgin Mobile announces Beyond Talk $25 prepaid plan, new prepaid brand

    Sprint and Virgin Mobile announces Beyond Talk $25 prepaid plan, new prepaid brand

    Posted on May 6, 2010 | No Comments
    Sprint Nextel, through its Virgin Mobile brand, has announced a pretty big shift in its business model by offering new prepaid plans that begin at a mind-blowing $25 a month. Starting on May 12, three new Beyond Talk plans will include unlimited messaging, email, data, and web, as well as 300 minutes ($25), 1,200 minutes ($40), or unlimited minutes ($60) of talk time. And that ain't all -- BlackBerry data service can be added for an additional $10. Of course, you'll be paying full price for your phone, but at least the selection is indeed better than the usual pre-paid fare, including the Blackberry Curve 8530 ($300) and LG Rumor Touch ($150). We don't know how the other carriers are going to respond, but this does prompt the question: would you put up with Sprint's handset selection for a plan this cheap? PR after the break.

    Update: The Wall Street Journal has it that Sprint is also fixing to launch an entirely new prepaid brand, and while it declined to share a name for the new branch, it did confess that it "will let customers pay upfront for cell service by the minute rather than signing up for a month at a time." As you may expect, it'll be aimed at "middle-aged Americans who only use cellphones occasionally to make calls," and it'll join Boost Mobile, Assurance Wireless and Virgin Mobile in Sprint's rapidly expanding stable of prepaid sub-brands. Is it difficult to tell these guys love the prepaid and can't quite figure out how to make ends meet on the postpaid side? Nah...

    Continue reading Sprint and Virgin Mobile announces Beyond Talk $25 prepaid plan, new prepaid brand

    Sprint and Virgin Mobile announces Beyond Talk $25 prepaid plan, new prepaid brand originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Virgin Mobile increases value for prepaid broadband data buckets — $60 for 5GB

    Virgin Mobile increases value for prepaid broadband data buckets — $60 for 5GB

    Posted on March 3, 2010 | No Comments
    Virgin Mobile’s Broadband2Go prepaid 3G data service made a splash last summer by offering no-contract plans that came close to competing with two-year offerings from the likes of Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. The major drawback was that the top plan, at $60, only allowed for 1GB of data usage, whereas you’d get 5GB on a contract plan.

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  • Virgin Mobile USA To Kill Their Postpaid Service On May 25th

    Virgin Mobile USA To Kill Their Postpaid Service On May 25th

    Posted on March 1, 2010 | No Comments
    According to a series of tips I just received from multiple trusted sources, Virgin Mobile USA is planning to shut down the post-paid chunk of their wireless services on May 25th, 2010. You see, there once was a little wireless carrier called Helio. Bringing over all kinds of crazy sliding what-nots from South Korea, they tried their damnedest to offer the coolest cell phones on the block. They also bled money like a busted spigot, burning $710 million before they were ready to call it quits. In June of 2008, Virgin Mobile (who then offered solely pre-paid wireless) came along and snatched up Helio for $39 million in stock, primarily to serve as a foundation for their then non-existent postpaid service. A great plan, until Sprint acquired Virgin Mobile just a year later, primarily for their pre-paid service.

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  • Sprint applies pressure, but still bled quite a bit in fourth quarter

    Sprint applies pressure, but still bled quite a bit in fourth quarter

    Posted on February 10, 2010 | No Comments
    Over the past few years, Sprint has definitely given itself a facelift and now has excellent pricing plans and some decent handsets. Sadly, things aren't turning around as quickly as Sprint would like since it has been showing some tremendous losses the past few quarters. The fourth quarter, however, shows that Sprint is slowly but surely easing its way to where it wants to be.

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  • Sprint finalizes Virgin Mobile USA acquisition, rushes out to snag some cranberry sauce

    Sprint finalizes Virgin Mobile USA acquisition, rushes out to snag some cranberry sauce

    Posted on November 24, 2009 | No Comments
    It's hard to say if these guys were just looking to get this whole thing finalized before the holiday break, but either way, all the requisite i's have been dotted and t's crossed. As of today, Sprint Nextel has acquired Virgin Mobile USA -- a process that began back in late July -- and frankly, there's nothing you can do about it. The move will obviously position Sprint as a bigger player in the prepaid space, but outside of that presumably true assumption, it's tough to say what else the newfound lovers will do together. So, will the Facebook statuses be updated soon as well? Hello?

    Sprint finalizes Virgin Mobile USA acquisition, rushes out to snag some cranberry sauce originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Virgin Mobile looks ready to euthanize Helio brand, Ocean 2 vanishes

    Virgin Mobile looks ready to euthanize Helio brand, Ocean 2 vanishes

    Posted on October 28, 2009 | No Comments

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    Back in our day, the kiddies all ran around with Helios, VK Mobile looked like it could be the next Pantech, and "Kickflip" was a phone, not a skateboarding move. Okay, fine -- we knew like one or two people that used Helio, VK Mobile never even made a dent in the US market, and skateboarding had a lock on kickflips long before the wireless industry did -- and actually, that perfect storm of bad news may have ultimately led the once-promising MVNO to the sad situation we have here today under Virgin Mobile's stewardship. Virgin has now all but erased the memory of Helio from its website, leaving just the Ocean and Mysto to soldier on -- and the phones now go by their ODM's names (Pantech and Samsung, respectively) rather than Helio proper. The strangest part is that the Ocean seems to have outlasted its replacement, the Ocean 2, which is now gone -- unless you hit up Virgin Mobile's Korean language site, a sub-brand in itself that it inherited from Helio and has a track record of giving members of the community better, faster access to hot devices. Any way you slice it, though, it never made sense for Virgin to run two brands -- Helio's fate was sealed the moment the sale was finalized, but considering the company's spot-on mantra of "bring awesome Asian phone tech to North America," we'll always have a soft spot in our hearts for these guys.

    [Via MobileCrunch]

    Virgin Mobile looks ready to euthanize Helio brand, Ocean 2 vanishes originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Confirmed: Virgin Mobile is getting the LG Rumor 2

    Confirmed: Virgin Mobile is getting the LG Rumor 2

    Posted on August 27, 2009 | No Comments
    It's a big ol' day of scoop confirmation for us. First the Nokia N900 turns out to be an exact spec-for-spec match with what we said it would be back in May. Just a few hours later, we're seeing confirmation that Virgin Mobile is getting the LG Rumor2 - just as we said they would back in July. Yeah, the second one isn't quite as huge as the first one - but a scoop is a scoop, right?

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  • Sprint puts $483 million on the table for Virgin Mobile USA

    Sprint puts $483 million on the table for Virgin Mobile USA

    Posted on July 28, 2009 | No Comments
    In what looks to be shaping up to be another healthy week for M&A activity, Sprint Nextel is putting more of its focus on the prepaid cell phone service market with a $483 million deal to buy out Virgin Mobile USA. The acquisition, which was announced earlier this morning, calls for Sprint to pay $5.50 in stock for each Virgin Mobile share, a 31 percent premium to the MVNO's closing share price Monday of $4.21. The deal is expected to receive approval either in the fall or in early 2010. Sprint Nextel actually already owned 13.1 percent of Virgin Mobile, which uses the carrier's network to offer service to some 5.2 million subscribers. The deal cancels out Virgin's $248 million in outstanding debts and will unite Sprint's Boost service and Virgin Mobile under the same roof. Sprint says it would keep the Virgin Mobile brand and let Virgin Mobile USA's CEO Dan Schulman, run Sprint's entire prepaid business if and when the deal closes late this year or early next.

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  • Sprint set to acquire Virgin Mobile

    Sprint set to acquire Virgin Mobile

    Posted on July 28, 2009 | No Comments
    virginSprint and Virgin Mobile sitting in a tree, m-e-r-g-i-n-g. Well, not merging per se. More like Sprint is acquiring Virgin Mobile. Seems as though this whole "pre-paid, no contract" thing is a hit and Sprint, looking to gain some ground in the mobile arms race, wants in on the action.

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