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Virgin Mobile To Start Throttling Broadband2Go

Posted by timothy on from the oh-did-we-say-unlimited? dept.

Daevad writes "Virgin Mobile sent an e-mail today informing me of their plans to start throttling the Broadband2Go Plan. The web site doesn't seem to reflect the change yet, but here is the message they sent to me: 'Here at Virgin Mobile, our mission is to deliver an outstanding customer experience. Sometimes that means making difficult choices in order to provide the best possible service to the greatest number of customers. To make sure we can keep offering our $40 Unlimited Broadband2Go Plan at such a great price, we're putting a speed limit in place for anyone on that plan who uses over 5GB in a month. How will it work? Starting February 15, 2011, if you go over 5GB in a month on the $40 Unlimited Plan: Your data speeds will be limited for the remainder of the monthly plan cycle. During this time, you may experience slower page loads and file downloads and lags in streaming media. Your data speeds will return to normal as soon as you buy a new Broadband2Go Plan. This change will only affect plans bought on or after 2/15/2011. How will it affect me? Keep in mind, 5GB is A LOT of data. To give you an idea, it's about 250 hours of web browsing or over 500,000(!) emails. So this change shouldn't affect you unless you're a heavy downloader/streamer/etc.'" Just when I was getting comfortable recommending it to people, too. I do prefer a slowdown to an absolute cap, but this sours me a bit on the (locked-to-Sprint) MiFi I bought to use the Virgin service.

8 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Bait and switch? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1, Informative

    Yup, classic bait and switch.

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    Palm trees and 8
    1. Re:Bait and switch? by timeOday · · Score: 4, Informative
      From the summary: "This change will only affect plans bought on or after 2/15/2011."

      You even have a month to buy in to the old plan if you so desire, which I find surprising.

    2. Re:Bait and switch? by falconwolf · · Score: 3, Informative

      You even have a month to buy in to the old plan if you so desire, which I find surprising.

      Not quite. Virgin's Broadband2Go is month to month, there is no contract. So if you pay for B2G service on 14 February you will not be throttled throughout the rest of February but after 14 March you will be throttled if you go over 5GB.

      I fully support this. Normal users won't use that much, however for businesses and such that need more bandwidth Virgin should offer higher priced plans with more bandwidth.

      Falcon

      --
      Should there be a Law?
  2. A lot of data? by theaveng · · Score: 1, Informative

    I downloaded 100 GB last month (movies, tv shows, music videos) on my DSL. 5 GB is not much data at all.

    ALSO: Since VirginMobile US is subcontracting from another company (Sprint?), it's likely the limits are being imposed by them. (shrug). I still like the company. They give me my cellphone at $0.00 per month, and I only pay for my minutes used. It's nice and cheap.

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    1. Re:A lot of data? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      VM doesn't sub contract from sprint anymore. VM is now owned by sprint 100%. It has been a sprint brand for atleast a year I believe.

  3. Wrong by Lord+Ender · · Score: 5, Informative

    Virgin mobile is a no-contract company. If they locked you into a contract and THEN started to throttle, that would be a bait and switch. But with no contract, you can decide to stop buying more airtime if you don't like the new terms.

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  4. Files are getting bigger and bigger by tepples · · Score: 1, Informative

    So this change shouldn't affect you unless you're a heavy downloader/streamer/etc.

    The Windows SDK alone is a gigabyte and a half, and a six-month upgrade to a popular GNU/Linux distribution is nearly a gigabyte.

  5. They're Also Canceling The Plan Altogether by damnbunni · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you don't already have the $40 'Unlimited' level on automatic update/renewal, you won't be able to buy it in the future.

    They're not going to offer it at all. Just the lower level, much more limited data (and those ARE a hard limit.)

    http://www.virginmobileusa.com/legal/terms-of-service-virgin-mobile#bb2g_plans_expiring

    And they may cancel it completely in the future.