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Virgin Mobile To Start Throttling Broadband2Go
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.
You even have a month to buy in to the old plan if you so desire, which I find surprising.
You still get unlimited data, it just comes slower after a certain point. Sounds reasonable to me, compared to some other plans.
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
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.
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.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Far better than the AT&T bait and switch with iPad plans... remember that? Changed before the device was even available for a full month. Still, this is the fairest cap I've seen a wireless provider implement so far. Throttling users at their limit actually makes much more sense than cutting them off cold. Unless you are one of the people who thought cellular service would be able to truly replace landline service, (having no concept of the very finite bandwidth available via RF) 5GB is a lot of data. ...and if you run into it by accident, you can still use your service for less bandwidth-intensive things like email, light web access, or reloading your Virgin Mobile account.
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.
There are lots of people who use mobile broadband for their primary internet connection:
Those of us who can't get anything else.
I live just outside a good-sized city. I'm not in the middle of nowhere.
I can't get cable. I can't get DSL. I can't get FIOS. I can't get UVerse. I can't get WiMax.
My choices are 3G or satellite, and satellite is even more limited and slower than 3G. And costs more. And is less reliable.
Manager: I'm sorry, sir. You have to leave the buffet now.
Customer: But it says "All you can eat for $10".
Manager: That is correct. That is all you can eat for $10.
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