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Virgin Mobile Delays New Throttling Practices
Will Be Delayed Until 'Sometime in 2012'

Sprint-owned prepaid vendor Virgin Mobile recently announced significant pricing changes, reducing the price of its Beyond Talk "unlimited" voice, data, and text messaging plan to $55 per month, and raising the cost of the company's less expensive Beyond Talk plans to $35 and $45 per month, respectively. Virgin Mobile also announced they'd soon be changing the definition of "unlimited" for these plans, throttling users back to around 256 kbps if they consumed more than 2.5GB a month.

Today Virgin Mobile announced they'd be postponing the implementation of that throttling system. The announcement came alongside the unveiling of the LG Optimus Slider phone. The company failed to give a reason for the delay or give a solid date for when throttling would be implemented, except to say it will begin "sometime in 2012." From a statement:
quote:
"We have decided to delay the reduction of data speeds until 2012 to ensure we have all of the necessary systems in place so that our customer experience will remain positive," Evegan said. "We will provide further information on timing beforehand so our customers have advance notification."
Virgin Mobile certainly isn't alone in implementing new throttling practices. AT&T started warning and throttling the company's heaviest users starting this week, and Verizon also announced a new network management policy this week that de-prioritizes the traffic of the carrier's top 5% heaviest users.
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shoopdawhoop
@comcastbusiness.net

shoopdawhoop

Anon

New Date

January 1 2012

hhawkman
Premium Member
join:2001-02-08
Port Hueneme, CA

hhawkman

Premium Member

Verizon Management

quote:
and Verizon also announced a new network management policy this week that de-prioritizes the traffic of the carrier's top 5% heaviest users.
I don't see a problem with this. Throttling and de-prioritizing are 2 different things.
swiftymc
join:2004-02-15
Mansfield Center, CT

swiftymc

Member

Re: Verizon Management

yea...its funny how you want to alienate any percentage of your userbase

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler

Premium Member

Hope they fix this in 2 years!

I hate reading these cell provider front page notes - it's just one screw-tightening after another. Meanwhile, technology advances, and cell phone offerings keep getting more frilly & awesome. I just fear that once my contract is up in 2 years, the cell phones will be amazing, but any plan on every carrier will be nitpicked to death.

Hopefully the future won't just be a selection of great phones bundled with terrible-yet-equal cellular plans.

BUCKEYECOM
@buckeyecom.net

BUCKEYECOM

Anon

Re: Hope they fix this in 2 years!

What do you expect from a prepaid company? hell its even owned by Sprint. VM does NOT allow roaming, has NO US based support or staff, and the phones are just now getting better while prices are going up. Yet Sprint (its owner) is claiming T-Mobility shouldn't get TMO USA due it will eliminate a competitor in the market place. Sprint needs to step up and show some balls and start making itself more attractive to keep customers or to earn them. By raising prices even on a prepaid level while others are lowering their prepaid options and actual contract plans. Sprint stands still watching doing NOTHING trying to stop mergers due to their not happy with T-Mobility getting TMO-USA.

cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26

cork1958

Premium Member

Re: Hope they fix this in 2 years!

All I can say about this company is I'm glad my kid has had to deal with it and not me. I'd cancel them in less than a minute.

Totally incompetent company that can't do a single thing right!

BUCKEYECOM
@buckeyecom.net

BUCKEYECOM

Anon

Re: Hope they fix this in 2 years!

And their parent company isn't any better. I still find it funny that nobody has said anything about Sprint crying about TMO-USA and T-Mobility especially Karl with this.

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler

Premium Member

Re: Hope they fix this in 2 years!

Actually, if you do go back thru the news archives, he has done that.

compuguybna
join:2009-06-17
Nashville, TN

compuguybna to cork1958

Member

to cork1958
yet its owned by SPRINT. Go figure.
said by cork1958:

All I can say about this company is I'm glad my kid has had to deal with it and not me. I'd cancel them in less than a minute.

Totally incompetent company that can't do a single thing right!

tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

next stage of war against the consumer begins: 2012

so, in keeping with that theme...

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· 6KbIsNK4
tkdslr
join:2004-04-24
Pompano Beach, FL

tkdslr

Member

With any luck this will keep t-mobile honest..

I'm on the verge of abandoning my current ISP and all the crappy related dsl solutions in favor of access via t-mobile 4g prepaid hotspot.

I just activated it today.. and it's fast 9Mb down, 1.8Mb up.. with just two out of four bars of signal level. P.S. A direct connect vis USB port indicates it's a 28Mbit connection.

Naturally, I won't be downloading any movies with the wireless service, but it sure will make surfing a whole lot more enjoyable.

compuguybna
join:2009-06-17
Nashville, TN

2 edits

compuguybna

Member

No such thing as Unlimited--VM is low priority on Sprint Network

History repeats itself with Virgin Mobile (generally shafting customers in the long run).

UNLIMITED is a word that should never be used with any cell carrier or internet provider.

Lets take for example, when VM first came out with BROADBAND2GO.... "unlimited" internet for $40 a month. I tried that for a while since I was without anything except dialup.
VM uses sprint's towers and their services always seem to be on the bottom of the prioritization of service.
I knew "unlimited" wouldn't last long off a mobile broadband device, and it didn't. Within a short period, it was reduced to 5GB, and shortly after that, reduced to 2.5GB with a new price of $50. So, now even the word "throttling" is entering the picture.
Broadband2Go never really had a good speed, 1mbps at the most, and I won't even go into the routing nightmare VM went thru when they first launched the service.

THEN comes their Beyond Talk plan and the Launch of the first Android powered phone, the Optimus V. "unlimited" data, yeah, right. I had one of these too, Speeds were never over 500-600kbps. (and not alot of people in this town even knew Sprint had a tower here).....Well, as you can see, "unlimited" means 2.5gb here too with throttling here as well. And all this with a rate hike. $25 to $35. (and of course, VM went thru the same old data access routing issues that they did with the Broadband2Go. left customers without 3G for days and days).

Their claim is "unlimited" means "unlimited access", not "unlimited download capability".

What a crock of sh*t. i've cancelled both.

Hard to believe this flim flam VM operation is managed and owned by SPRINT!

________________________________________________________
Virgin Mobile Lowers Cap Even Further
Company Goes From $40 Unlimited To $50 2.5GB Cap
by Karl Bode Wednesday 16-Feb-2011

Last month, Virgin Mobile eliminated unlimited data on their prepaid Broadband2Go service, imposing a 5GB cap that if crossed -- results in users being throttled to 256kbps. Now Virgin Mobile is constricting things even further, and according to their website has eliminated that $40 plan, replacing it with a $50 plan that comes with a 2.5 GB cap. As with last months new cap and throttle system, users who exceed this 2.5 GB of use in one month will find themselves paying $50 a month for a 256 kbps connection. The company also still offers users the option of a prepaid $10 for 10 days plan, which comes with 100MB of usage. The company's shift from $40 unlimited to $50 heavily capped and throttled was a rapid one, and you begin to wonder precisely what March will hold.
________________________________________________________
Virgin Mobile Changes Pricing, Throttles Users
Users Will Be Throttled to 256 kbps After 2.5GB
by Karl Bode Wednesday 13-Jul-2011

Sprint today announced that the company is making several changes to Virgin Mobile brand prepaid wireless broadband. Most notably, Vrigin Mobile is going to reduce the price of its Beyond Talk "unlimited" voice, data, and text messaging plan to $55 per month, but raise the cost of the company's less expensive Beyond Talk plans to $35 and $45 per month, respectively. Virgin Mobile's also changing the definition of "unlimited" for these plans, throttling users back to around 256 kbps if they consume more than 2.5GB a month.
dbldbl
join:2006-01-23
Palm Springs, CA

dbldbl to tkdslr

Member

to tkdslr

Re: With any luck this will keep t-mobile honest..

I've been trying to look for this plan, on wal-mart as well as searching forums on the 4G hotspot news. Any tips on how to look up your TMo plan?

lighthouseJ
cheers
join:2005-05-02
Golden, CO

lighthouseJ

Member

boooo

Time to switch to wifi more often . .
chgo_man99
join:2010-01-01
Sunnyvale, CA

chgo_man99

Member

T-Mobile vs At&T Mobility

I often travel on weekend away from my house and had a chance to compare t-mobile hspa+ service with att 3G (hspa 7.2) in my area where I stay on weekend (chicago suburbs).

They both are similar in performance and t-mobile has speed slightly higher but I am sure i would probably achieve similar speeds on att if my phone was hspa+ compatible. I was not impressed by t-mobile too much. signal strength slightly weaker, average ping 120ms and speed 5mb (8-10 at night if lucky).

Meanwile with my iphone I get average 2-3mb with peak times 4-5mb. For loading pages it does not make much difference and for videos a lot, because I am getting more data for less ($45 4g tethering plan vs. t-mobile prepaid $50 3GB, no need for 5gb postpaid really and where I live now t-mobile has no native coverage)

The only reason I tried t-mobile is because they seem most reasonable and perfect for occasional, small use.

jhacker
join:2001-12-11
Peoria, IL

jhacker

Member

256 kbps would be great!

Hell, I'd be happy if I could get even get 256 kbps on a consistent basis with my Sprint service. In our area, they're so saturated I'm lucky if I can even stream a 48kbps audio signal for more than a couple of minutes. I've called them many times and let them know I'd be better off going back on dial-up! At best, I get around 170 kbps when doing a speed test.