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<p>Do you know what the model is? The one they have out right now isn’t bad.</p>
<p>Motorola Triumph.</p>
<p>The expected price is $299 but it is a beautiful phone and it comes out July 21. The current LG smartphone is only $150. I may wait for the new phone too. It’s a little big but maybe that’s better for my old eyes.</p>
<p>If anyone’s considering Virgin for 3 or more people, I’d suggest comparing the cost with a Sprint family plan. Sprint offers discounts through workplaces and credit unions. For our family, it ended up being a better deal. Your own family’s mileage may vary. 
Watch out for taxes and fees if you’re doing the comparison. They showed up on our Sprint bill, but they weren’t charged when we had (non data plan) Virgin phones.</p>
<p>We never come near using our total minutes on our family plan, but that’s largely because minutes in the evenings and weekends aren’t included.</p>
<p>If multiple people in our household want smartphones, then we would look at family plans instead of pay as you go. With one smartphone and everyone else on feature phones, it still makes sense to go with prepaid - especially with this Virgin Mobile rate.</p>
<p>TMobile might have a pay as you go plan for you: 1000 minutes for $100 (plus tax) expiring in one year. Maybe that will change when ATT gobbles up TMobile, but that’s the deal for now.</p>
<p>Yea, H has had that plan for many years now & enjoyed it so far. We buy him $100 every few years & then top off with $10 cards annually.
The reception of tmobile may not work for our kids where they live–we know it doesn’t work for where D will live in LA & don’t know about S’s place in VA.</p>
<p>As for its Beyond Talk plans, the unlimited messaging/data and 300 minutes plan will set you back $35 each month instead of the previous $25 per month, while the unlimited messaging/data plus 1,200 minutes will get bumped from $40 to $45 per month.</p>
<p>Existing Beyond Talk customers can keep their plans as long as they don’t let their accounts expire. So if you’re thinking of switching to the contract-less mobile ISP, do it now. </p>
<p>[Virgin</a> Mobile Revamps Pricing, Will Throttle Data | News & Opinion | PCMag.com](<a href=“http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388441,00.asp]Virgin”>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388441,00.asp)</p>
<p>If you want $25/month - you have to subscribe before July 19 (next week). This means no Motorola Triumph phone.</p>
<p>I use Virgin Mobile and have the LG Rumor Touch. For $25 per month ($27.31 with tax), I get 300 minutes talk time and unlimited internet and texting. I have never gotten anywhere near the 300 minutes. DH and DD have iPhones and often try to convince me to join their plan. No thanks. An iPhone does not make sense for me as I am not tech savvy nor do I really want to be. Although I like the ability to text, I don’t even need all the “stuff” that comes on my Rumor Touch. I haven’t experienced any trouble with reception except when out in a very rural area or, occasionally, when I am at work in the middle of the school building where several concrete walls separate me from the outdoors. It works for me.</p>
<p>BCEagle91 - Thanks for the tip of Virgin Mobile price increase. I heard rumor of it, but the article you cited is the first to mention the grandfather clause. Guess I am heading out to Best Buy to get the LG Optimus V. This is the same phone my D uses for her Tmobile prepaid plan and she likes it. Virgin is better for her since it offers cheaper unlimited data plan (well at least up to 3G). It’s too bad that Tmobile and Virgin are on different type of wireless network so we can’t reuse her old phone. I guess my H will inherit her old one since we are staying on Tmobile prepaid for now.</p>
<p>I think I am going to end up going with AT&T’s prepaid service. They have the LG Thrive which is the equivalent of the LG Optimus V. I use about 80 minutes a month, 400 text messages and about 250 MB of data a month (since I am always on wifi) so the price in the end will be about the same. </p>
<p>The concerns I’ve been hearing about the lack of reliability with VM’s service makes AT&T the better choice in my opinion (delayed text messages, data outages, poor coverage). It’d be nice to have unlimited data so I wouldn’t have to monitor my data usage but I guess that’s the choice you have to make.</p>
<p>I had a long discussion with a friend that was interested in this with me and he went to one store and I went to another and we determined that their network wasn’t reliable enough in our area. One of his comments was that you get what you pay for.</p>
<p>What’s your monthly cost for AT&T prepaid?</p>
<p>well at 10 cents/minute, 80 minutes = $8
you can get 1000 messages for $9.99 and I will roll this over probably for the next 2 months by using a 200 message package for $4.99 each month.
For data (it’s not cheap), I will initially buy the 500 mb for $25 package but I can roll this over to other months by paying $5 for 10 mb.</p>
<p>So total $8 for calls (80 minutes a month) + around $7.50 on average for texting (600 a month) + $15 for data (about 250 mb a month) = $30.50/month for AT&T. </p>
<p>Again, I can do this because I have the college wi-fi network and will only use data a few days of the month when I am off campus for some reason.</p>
<p>Basically about $35/month for 500 mb.</p>
<p>My biggest problem with a smartphone is in figuring out what normal usage would be. I have WiFi available at home and office and I’m not going to be using the net when I’m driving. I guess it would be a trial and error thing.</p>
<p>yeah I’ve had my LG Thrive for a week now just testing out how everything works (will probably return it and try it again once I get down to Clemson) but it eats up a lot of data. I don’t have wifi at home and every time I turn 3G on the MB’s disappear really quickly. I got 3G watchdog to help me monitor my data use every time I switch on the 3G. I guess it will take some time to find out how much data I will use a month</p>
<p>That’s worrisome. Virgin Mobile added the $10 fee for Android phones only - it appears that Android gobbles up bandwidth. Why don’t you setup WiFi at home?</p>
<p>^The wifi decision rests with my parents 
haha</p>
<p>On a side note, I don’t believe that Virgin Mobile will continue to offer unlimited data. Maybe for another year or so. They’ve already started throttling but unlimited data is slowly becoming a thing of the past.</p>
<p>EDIT: Virgin Mobile actually I believe added the $10 for all phones on the Beyond Talk plan, not just Android phones (though most are probably using the Intercept, Optimus V and will be Triumph)</p>
<p>If you have broadband, you just need a wireless router. I have three of them in my spare parts box in the basement. My guess is that you could find a neighbor or a relative to give you one for free.</p>
<p>BTW, if Apple goes up $25 in three minutes, I may just get an iPhone.</p>
<p>Cool, they went up $25. Just over $400/share right now.</p>
<p>haha win! If I had unlimited money, what I would really do is buy a HTC Sensation 4G or T-Mobile G2x unlocked and use it on a prepaid network. Those phones are real nice but I can’t afford to spend $400-500 on a phone just yet ha</p>
<p>Wish the US could be like other countries where you buy the phone and choose the network instead of choosing a phone that only works with one network.</p>
<p>Any more thoughts about the different UNLIMITED data options available? S really wants an unlimited data plan on his phone and our contract will come up this month. If we don’t figure it out, we can have our current plan continue on a monthly basis until we figure it out. We are currently at the tail end of our Verizon plan–voice + $5 each for 250 messages for S & D. S needs unlimited data & will be doing some travel, so would like good reception.</p>