As of today Virgin Mobile launched a set of single and multi-line monthly plans that increase the amount of data available to customers for a lower cost per month. The new plans, exclusively available at Walmart, also offer some nifty features via the Virgin Mobile application, particularly for those who are data-hungry or frequent international travelers. Although the price of single lines has decreased while the data has been increased the real deals to be had are offered by their multi-line plans, which have been significantly upgraded when compared to their old subscriptions.
Let us begin with the new single line plans (see gallery below). For $30/month customers get 300 minutes for calls, unlimited text, and “unlimited” data; meaning 3GB of 3G or 4G (LTE) data depending on the network, after which data drops to older 2G networks – pretty standard when it comes to “unlimited” data plans. Upgrading to $40/month gives users unlimited calling in addition to what the $30/month plan offers. These new single line plans are $5 cheaper than Virgin Mobile’s old plans and offer 500 more MB of high-speed data. Sure, it isn’t a huge amount of savings, nor is 500MB of data that significant, but getting extra data for a lower cost is always a huge plus.
Multi-line plans are where the real value is; although they still cost the same their data caps have been significantly increased (see gallery below). For the same amount of money the data cap has been increased 2GB for each multi-line plan. To start, every multi-line plan offers unlimited talk and text, let’s just throw that out there. For two lines customers pay $65/month and receive 6GB of shared data; three lines costs $90/month for 10GB; four lines costs $115/month for 14GB. Obviously the four line plan has the best overall value, which is great for families, or a hardcore enthusiast who wants to rock all the phones all the time.
The new plans are currently available for seven different 4G LTE smartphones. The Virgin Mobile application comes preloaded on these devices, but don’t worry, the app actually isn’t useless bloatware (see gallery below). If you are expecting to have a heavy month of data use, or are leaving the country, you can buy small or large increments of additional data or set up international add-ons right from the app. On multi-line plans you can also allocate specific amounts of data for each device, which is handy because data use measured on the phone side doesn’t always match carriers measurements, thus capping your data in settings isn’t exactly reliable. So what do you guys think about these new plans? Regardless how you feel about their overall value, at the very least Virgin Mobile must be commended for actually offering more data for a lower price, or unchanged price; it seems most large carriers have adopted the complete opposite strategy as of late.
