Travel Technology - iPhone 4S to be released on Virgin Mobile (June 29, 2012)

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/iphone

$50/mo for unlimited voice, unlimited text, and 2.5GB data (when using autopay)

Virgin Mobile is a Sprint MVNO

According to VM's Facebook page, via SlickDeals, the iPhone 4 will be $550, and the iPhone 4S will be $650. You cannot port any other kind of iPhone to their network.

To me, the really impressive offer on that page is $30 / month for 300 talk minutes + 2.5 GB of data. I hope Virgin's service thrives, but I wonder if U.S. consumers are ready to pay $650 for their phone after so many years of subsidized plans. I gather that paying for the phone up-front is the direction the industry is going, as it works this way in many parts of the world.

Assuming Virgin's (Sprint's) coverage and service quality were equal to Verizon's, the math of paying up-front for your phone is pretty compelling. I pay approximately $40 / month more than this, and it would take less than a year to cover the cost of the phone subsidy. It would also change how I think about phone upgrades, and release me from the "new every two" mentality.

To me, the really impressive offer on that page is $30 / month for 300 talk minutes + 2.5 GB of data. I hope Virgin's service thrives, but I wonder if U.S. consumers are ready to pay $650 for their phone after so many years of subsidized plans. I gather that paying for the phone up-front is the direction the industry is going, as it works this way in many parts of the world.

Assuming Virgin's (Sprint's) coverage and service quality were equal to Verizon's, the math of paying up-front for your phone is pretty compelling. I pay approximately $40 / month more than this, and it would take less than a year to cover the cost of the phone subsidy. It would also change how I think about phone upgrades, and release me from the "new every two" mentality.

I think the wide availability of SIM free mobiles in the GSM world is making consumers in general a little smarter about the network subsidy and whether or not it is meaningful to them. In developed markets, subsidies have traditionally been used to hide a high total cost of ownership. To a degree, Sprint can get away with this more than most other operators around the world because there's no SIM - you cannot move your number to another phone whenever you want (and can't stick another network's SIM in your phone).

A total cost of ownership of USD 1370 over two years is going to be high for anyone who isn't making very good use of the allowances that come with their plan. For really heavy users, it's not too bad.

You cannot port any other kind of iPhone to their network.

Do you know if that means they won't any carrier? I'd be interested in porting my wife's TMO account over to them...

I'm also curious to see what their 'unlock' policy will be. With Vz, after 3 months they unlocked for international carriers. I believe something similar with AT&T. What are folks' experience with their Sprint iPhone 4s...when do they unlock for customers to use GSM overseas?

My boyfriend and I are grandfathered in on the $25/month 300 minute plan. We have been with Virgin a couple of years, but it wasn't until we got a better droid this past fall that it seemed like a good deal. (Our previous droids through them were way too underpowered and it was painfully slow.)

While we are generally Apple users, we will wait until our current droids become too old or break before shelling out the $550+ for the iPhone. We both have iPod touches, so we know what the iPhone is like, but we aren't heavy cell users and the droid is serviceable at this point.

Sprint is doing this because they have a $15.5 billion commitment to Apple over four years. There was no way they were going to make it with the traditional plan, so they came up with this.

People are moving to prepaid in huge numbers, over at Sprint they lost almost 200,000 traditional customers in the first three months of the year, but gained a half million or so new pre pay customers (which are less profitable for them)

I'm also curious to see what their 'unlock' policy will be. With Vz, after 3 months they unlocked for international carriers.

Customer in good standing for 90 days according to their press releases in November once they locked them all

Do you know if that means they won't any carrier? I'd be interested in porting my wife's TMO account over to them...

Sorry about the confusion. I believe you can port any phone number to Virgin Mobile; however, you must purchase the iPhone from Virgin Mobile. You cannot bring any sort of phone onto their network that wasn't purchased through them.

Didn't there used to be MVNOs that used Verizon or AT&T networks?

Maybe in a couple of years, if Sprint has a decent LTE network up, this might be worth exploring. But the network coverage and performance on Sprint may not measure up.

Maybe in a couple of years, if Sprint has a decent LTE network up, this might be worth exploring. But the network coverage and performance on Sprint may not measure up.

I stopped over neighborhood Radio Shack to ask about coverage/service with Sprint/Virgin network. She said iffy. I said about same as TMO; she nodded. So much for this option...

Didn't there used to be MVNOs that used Verizon or AT&T networks?

Only one VZW MVNO remaining and many options for AT&T.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_opera tors