Sprint owned Virgin Mobile has once again decided to alter pricing of its Mobile Unlimited Plans. The pricing of these new plans leaves me generally baffled as to what they are trying to accomplish because in some cases they seem in direct conflict with their "data done right" plan pricing. Before I delve more into that issue, let's take a look at this MVNOs new plan pricing structure.
All Virgin Mobile Unlimited Plans include unlimited talk and text with varying amounts of 4G LTE data. The plans are priced as follows:
- $35 for 1 GB of 4G LTE, previously the plan contained 250 MB
- $45 for 3 GB of 4G LTE, previously the plan included 1 GB
- $55 for 8 GB of 4G LTE, previously plan included 3 GB
In addition to the above plans, a $25 monthly plan has been added that only includes 500 minutes of talk, unlimited text but no data. This replaces a $20 plan that previously only included 300 minutes of talk with the rest of the features the same as the new $25 plan.
Virgin Mobile's $35 plan that was limited to 300 minutes of talk but included unlimited text and 2.5 GB of 4G LTE data is no longer a plan option.
Customers who have one of the previous plans that are no longer offered, may be happy to know that they can keep their plan as long as they keep their service active.
Plan Analysis and Comparison
What's particularly baffling with Virgin Mobile's new offerings is that they are considerably worse than what's available from Sprint's other prepaid brand Boost Mobile. While Boost and Virgin both offer the same $35 plan with 1 GB of 4G LTE data, Boost will give you an additional 1 GB of data and reduce the cost of the plan to $30 if you signup for auto pay. This leaves no reason for anyone to signup for the Virgin Mobile plan, of course with Virgin spending money on advertising and with some less informed consumers out there perhaps Virgin can still snag a few new customers. Boost Mobiles $45 monthly plan includes 5GB of 4G LTE data, and their $55 plan includes 10 GB of 4G LTE data. Both Boost plans offer 2GB more data than Virgin Mobile's equivalent plans. So unless Boost Mobile alters the amount of data offered with their plans for the worse, I can't think of any reason for consumers to flock on over to any of these new Virgin Mobile plans.
Earlier in the article I mentioned that Virgin Mobile's new Unlimited plans are in direct conflict with their own data done right plans which are available exclusively at Walmart. Let's take a closer look at the data done right plans to see how they may be of better value for you than any of Virgin Mobile's new Unlimited plans. The data done right plans have two offerings for single line plans. Pricing and structure are as follows:
- $30 for unlimited data with the first 3GB at 4G LTE data speeds, unlimited text, and 300 minutes of talk
- $40 for unlimited data with the first 3GB at 4G LTE data speeds with unlimited talk and text.
The $40 data done right plan is outright cheaper by $5 than the same plan offered under the Virgin Mobile Unlimited umbrella. The $30 data done right plan offers 2GB more 4G LTE data for $5 less than the similarly priced $35 Unlimited plan. The $30 data done right plans 300 minute voice limitation can easily be bypassed by using a service like Google Voice-Hangouts.
So again, it's really hard for me to understand what's going on with the policy makers over at Virgin Mobile. Unless I'm missing something, their new Unlimited plans seem like a real head scratcher to me. What's your take? If you feel compelled to signup for one of these new plans, share your reasons for doing so in the comment section below.