 glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY
1 edit | Surprised?? This is Sprint network we're talking about. I would go with VZW $80 prepaid instead for a more reliable service.
Plus you get what you pay for. Cheap service = don't complain! | |
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 | | | Re: Surprised?? umm no way . . Verizon is so anti competitive and there prices are ridiculous. .. | |
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| | | | Re: Surprised?? True, but it seems to work. | |
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| Gami00
join:2010-03-11
Mississauga, ON | from the user's affected, they state that sprint's own version of it, using sprint's network is working just fine..
the issue is VM's version of it working on sprint's network is the faulty one. | |
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|  TimePremium
join:2003-07-05
 ·Cox HSI
1 edit | Sprint has excellent service, if you have the coverage. It may be bad in your area, but that certainly isn't the case for the entire country.
However, I do agree with your last point in regards to the service cost.
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"If it can't be done with brains, it can't be done with hours" - Clarence "Kelly" Johnson | |
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| | | how much does VZ pay you to promote their network and services? | |
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|  SLDPremium
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA
1 edit | $40 is cheap?!? You guys have really been brainwashed. | |
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| |  aaronwtPremium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
 ·Verizon FiOS
1 edit | Re: Surprised?? said by SLD:$40 is cheap?!? You guys have really been brainwashed. For cellular yes. But in 1998 I had 5mbs internet for only $16 a month. Compared to that it's expensive.(although after the $60 discount my FiOS 35/35 service is $30 each month.)
I've had the Virgin Mobile cellular broadband since it was first launched in 2009. My speeds are still the same now as it was back then. I'll easily hit over 1mbs speeds in some areas and less in other. As long as I have the fast connection I'll get over 500kbs speeds. But if it drops down to 1X speeds will suffer greatly. But this has always seemed to dependent on my signal strength. | |
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| | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | Re: Surprised?? Wait...how did you get 5M for $16? | |
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| | | SLDPremium
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA | Are you writing about megabits and kilobits (per your capitalization), or megabytes and kilobytes? | |
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| | |  TexasPlusDon't Blame Me I Voted For The AmericanPremium
join:2004-06-16
Bedford, TX | said by aaronwt:said by SLD:$40 is cheap?!? You guys have really been brainwashed. For cellular yes. But in 1998 I had 5mbs internet for only $16 a month. Compared to that it's expensive.(although after the $60 discount my FiOS 35/35 service is $30 each month.) Right...In 1960, I paid 22 cents a gallon for gasoline.
That was then....it is NOW that counts. 
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"The world is a book; those who do not travel read but a single page." -St. Augustine | |
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| iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Fanboy.
Seriously, Sprint's network is rock solid fro a 3G perspective in most of their service areas. It appears though that Virgin Mobile's overlay is crap. If Virgin Mobile added a few more internet egress locations, and upgraded the capacity of those locations, things would be just fine... | |
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| | Reviews:
·WOW Internet and..
·Time Warner Cable
| Re: Surprised?? i don't see VM adding anything. Instead its the software that they use on the devices and how sprint routes their connection over the Sprint Network. Remember they're just the prepaid side of Sprint. Otherwise- samethings as sprint.
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www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
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| | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | Re: Surprised?? Sprint doesn't have a gateway in Walnut Creek, CA. Virgin Mobile does. Similar concept to how DataJack's TMo gateway is in Rackspace at Dallas...same as any other white-label TMo 3G provider. | |
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| | | | Reviews:
·WOW Internet and..
·Time Warner Cable
| Re: Surprised?? which is something you're not required to have. If they did all the providers that pop up as resellers/private label providers wouldn't be able to put up.
hell. Kroger Company has their own cell company from Sprint.
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www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
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| | | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | Re: Surprised?? It's a cost-cutting thing to have your own gateway, provided you push enough traffic through it.
That's why Millenicom MBB is $70 and Virgin Mobile MBB is $40. | |
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| | | | | | Reviews:
·WOW Internet and..
·Time Warner Cable
| Re: Surprised?? it maybe cost-cutting but its not required that's my point. And as far as VM; they can afford to do that. Look who owns them. And they're making their $$ of people not being able to go over and go months without paying the bill. Thats where Sprint makes their $$$ to offset their post paid customers that don't pay. Prepaid customers make up for those.
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www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
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| | | | | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | Re: Surprised?? VMo's $40 plan is below Sprint's ARPU by 20%+... | |
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| | | | | | | | Reviews:
·WOW Internet and..
·Time Warner Cable
| Re: Surprised?? and i know this. i never said anything about it being below except that Sprint has their $$$ off those customers well before their contracted customers. They give those customers the same thing TMO does. cheap services if you do the month to month service.
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www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
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| | | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | Re: Surprised?? Wait, I thought they used Verizon... | |
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| | | | | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | Re: Surprised?? So now DataJack offers nothing special over anyone else...hmph... | |
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| | glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
1 edit | Fanboy? nahz.
1. I work at a Sprint store, so I sell Sprint, VM and Boost.
2. Have FiOS internet + TV at home.
3. For personal lines, I have 5 VZW cell for me and my family.
I take home everyday each Sprint store demo phone and I can tell you that there is a coverage difference between VZW and Sprint and a big one.
Also, even in the store I'm at. Sprint and Nextel service goes from 1 bar to none. | |
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| | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Surprised?? Interesting. I'm not in NYC so I can't prove or disprove what you're saying, however Sprint and AT&T actually have the best reception around here. Verizon isn't quite as good, fading out almost entirely in some campus buildings. T-Mobile fades COMPLETELY in some campus buildings.
YMMV | |
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| | | Reviews:
·WOW Internet and..
·Time Warner Cable
| I call BS. Especially with roaming. Sounds more on the line of a VZ Fanboy that just doesn't work for them, or more less gets paid by both companies for pushing VZ online and Sprint in the stores.
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www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
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| | | | | | | Re: Surprised?? you can lock your phone to roam for that certain period of time and it works just fine. | |
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| | | said by glinc:This is Sprint network we're talking about. I would go with VZW $80 prepaid instead for a more reliable service. Plus you get what you pay for. Cheap service = don't complain! Gotta love the Verizon Kool-Aid™...  | |
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| fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Intelligent.
Virgin Mobile IS Sprint. It's the same network. Sprint's data network is just fine.
But, I can certainly see your point.. "cheap service - don't complain!" .... I can see how a rate plan has anything to do with how a network operates. So with that, are you saying that if you pay more for the actual Sprint name that its going to be a better experience just because you paid more? Are you trying to say that Verizon is going to be better because you paid more for it? ... with that thinking, the AT&T/apple iPhone service should be "da' bomb!!" compared to other services.
in short - doesn't work.
I had Sprint post paid service with a MiFi card.. turned it off and activated it on Virgin Mobile.. not a single difference for me with the service. This is MY experience and will be the foundation and basis for my opinions.
Reliability isn't measured in price alone, or the iPhone would be THE cell phone to have, cable TV would be better over satellite, and Cable Modems would be better than a Fiber line from Verizon.
Not to mention, there are plenty of tests, etc. that state the Sprint data network is one of the best out there. | |
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 tiger72SexaT duorPPremium
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO
kudos:1 | Get what you pay for Seriously, why would Sprint undercut ITSELF with its own brand? Of course they're going to give you less capable access to their data network. | |
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| iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Get what you pay for They're cutting their costs, not necessarily their service. Virgin Mobile is probably paying less for their bandwidth versus pushing it all out over SprintLink through a variety of internet access points. Not 100% sure exactly what's going on there, but it's something that can be easily fixed, an should be if VMo wants to gain more customers.
Otherwise, you end up with another CricKet...geez their MBB sucks. | |
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 Boomer86never say roadkillPremium
join:2002-10-18
Walden, NY | Unlimited... ...as in unlimited frustration.
At the bare minimum, web browsing and basic e-mail should work without a hiccup.
I suspect either crippled devices OR traffic shaping; it's believed ALL VM Broadband2go traffic is being routed through a single server IP in Walnut Creek, CA.
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Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home and have a heart attack. | |
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| | Speeds Throttled I have both a Data Jack MIFI and just got a Virgin Mobile unlimited plan.
Data Jack hits 1.0mpbs on a speed test while Virgin Mobile hits 600kpbs. What a crock of crap!!! I went to Virgin mobile to delete my cricket air card and now its the same dam speed. | |
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Jet101Jet101Premium
join:2009-10-01
Pflugerville, TX Reviews:
 ·Clearwire Wireless
 ·Callcentric
| I would...but IF Virgin Mobile had an Android phone in the US, and IF they can get their act together on data performance, I would get 4 phones from them on the $25.00 monthly plan with unlimited data and 300 minutes of voice time. I'd ditch my Sprint family plan and have everyone sign up for their own accounts. With an Android phone, Sipdroid could supply the voice minutes, but it's dependent on the network (not taking Wi-Fi into account). | |
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| | Poor Virgin Performance I left T-Mobile after they failed to deploy HSPA+. T-Mobile's 3G network was rock solid with speeds about double I am seeing with Virgin. Unlike Virgin, T-Mobile loaded all web pages without incident. Unlike Virgin, T-Mobile RARELY disconnected me, but Virgin drops all throughout the day. I am finding the problems mentioned in this article as well. At night it is IMPOSSIBLE to use Yahoo email as it just times out over and over again. | |
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| Reviews:
·Charter
| Re: Poor Virgin Performance ummmm, I hope you know this, but you are comparing apples to oranges there. Tmobile uses GSM, or basically the same band type as AT&T. Virgin mobile is run on an EVDO, or in other words, A TOTALLY DIFFERENT CONNECTION METHOD, AND A TOTALLY DIFFERENT COMPANY. T-Mobile owns their own towers, hence why the good service. Virgin mobile RENTS their spectrum, and uses Sprints towers. Its obvious that sprint would not cannibalize its own prepaid by giving a competitor a speed advantage on their own network. Im sure sprint is just giving virgin mobile's broadband a lower QoS than their own. This is how wireless company's would want it to work, so that you have to pay more to get the better service. | |
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| | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Poor Virgin Performance Dude.. Sprint OWNS Virgin Mobile.
Re-read your own post and see how many inaccuracies you can spot. | |
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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA Reviews:
·SONIC.NET
·RoadRunner Cable
| So, How's That Unlimited Working for Ya? Dialup speeds, you say?
Sorry, guys, but while Virgin, et al, may be able to sell us cheaper wireless "broadband", it isn't going to perform well if its all-you-can-eat for $40. Raging against the corporate machine won't change the basic laws of RF or the economics of the existing tower network.
Virgin did a great, disruptive thing offering a prepaid plan, so there is no bill shock, no exponential overage charge. But they were wrong to think they could promote all-you-can-eat on cellular wireless without inviting disaster, though even I didn't expect it to manifest for at least a month.
Hopefully, after they cancel the plan, they'll re-introduce a LIMITED plan that still kicks butt on the competition. Maybe $30/month for 10GB at speed, then throttled to 128kbps - something akin to TMobile, but with a lower starting price. | |
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| iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: So, How's That Unlimited Working for Ya? My crock-of-crap alert just went off.
T-Mobile and Sprint are both trying to se unlimited as a competitive advantage versus Verizon and AT&T. Both are hitting the $40 price point for mobile broadband over 3G, though Sprint does $50 with Rover on 4G.
The fact is that, if Virgin Mobile adds some capacity to their system, they'll be just fine. | |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | Sandvine I bet there is a Sandvine on Virgin Mobile's VLAN | |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | VMo says they're adding capacity Just got a Twitter DM saying they've quadrupled capacity overnight. Anyone see a difference in speeds versus yesterday.
Seems like they're trying to fix the problem... | |
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| | | Re: VMo says they're adding capacity working great this morning. the way it should have all along. hope it lasts. | |
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| | ncbillPremium
join:2007-01-23
Winston Salem, NC | Re: VMo says they're adding capacity It is much improved today, however I wouldn't recommend it for primary internet just yet.
My 768kBps DSL is currently faster and more reliable. | |
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MRCUR
join:2007-03-09
Columbia, PA | No go for me either... I've had one of Virgin Mobile's Broadband2Go USB cards for about a year now. I've only ever used it once at home, and that was just to try it out. I did lend it to a friend who went on a cross-country roadtrip and he said it worked out very well for the most part.
I'm now in college near Baltimore, and I brought the USB stick with me incase we lost Internet or if the speeds sucked here (which they do at times, damn kids downloading crap). I plugged it in the other day and couldn't even get one bar of signal. My BlackBerry (running on AT&T) consistently has five bars and flawless performance anywhere and everywhere on campus.
I didn't get a chance to try out speeds because of the absolutely horrendous service, so I might be looking into another prepaid mobile broadband service to replace VMobile. T-Mobile has HSPA+ here, so that might be something to look at... | |
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| | | Re: You can always order postpaid without contract Link? | |
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| | | said by blguy07:Zoom offers cheap USB 3G sticks under $100 bucks which can be activated on ATT. Its $20 more per month and better than VM and faster. Don't believe all bad reputation rap, the service is lot better than before. If you're in lucky market, it makes more sense to go with 3G/4G combo or HSPA+ AT&T's overage charges are draconian. | |
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| | virgin mobil s?cks I have there phone and they are dying to get me to use the service ,virgin mobil is full of it and nothing more than scam for cash operation. | |
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| | WhooHoo! Wireless dial up for your family! Ditch the landlines. | |
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| | works great for me looks like another case of the internet hates everything :] | |
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| |  IllIlIlllIllEliteDataPremium
join:2003-07-06
Lindenhurst, NY
kudos:7 | Re: works great for me i bought the MC760 usb stick as soon as i saw the first light of news on this site.
it worked excellent the day i got it.
the speeds were incredible.
today, the speeds were exceptionally poor for evdo rev a.
very much like 1xRTT.
i even went as far as to disassemble the usb stick and my laptop, wire and mount the device internally in the laptop with the antenna mounted inside the top frame of the lcd monitor.
of course i had to sacrifice one usb port, no big deal when you have 4 of them.
i removed the port and plugged up the hole with epoxy.
no more usb device sticking outside the laptop, really cool.
there is no way to lock the device just on EVDO and not 1xRTT, but the way to do it, is to not connect the 1xRTT antenna, just the evdo rev a antenna.
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| | | IllIlIlllIllEliteDataPremium
join:2003-07-06
Lindenhurst, NY
kudos:7 | Re: works great for me well, the device now says "not activated".
so i call the 877 number to activate and get a robot rep, enter my account number and say "tech support".
i get switched over and get a busy signal for about 10 seconds, then an automated voice says "were sorry, the party is unavailable, we are disconnecting this call, goodbye."
i call again and repeat the same steps, but this time, while automatically getting transferred to "tech support", i got disconnected.
what the hell is going on with VM ?
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Delta55
join:2007-11-18
Jacksonville, IL | Should read 'HAD' huge issues. It was a server capacity issue.
The problem has been addressed and resolved.
I'm a new VM customer too who's struggled with connectivity problems for the past 72 hours. It sucked and I was fully ready to return the hardware and eat the $40 as a lessoned learned.
But VM responded to the demand and took care of the capacity problem. It's fixed and the service is great. Fast downloads and great browsing. Frankly I could care less about the VM haters. Go ahead and pay $80 for the same service on some other provider. It's your money and I'm sure that other company is thrilled to have you as a customer.  | |
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| | | Re: Should read 'HAD' huge issues. Delta, I just got onboard with this yesterday here in Orlando. The issues are not fixed yet as best I can tell. I'm getting about 1/5th the speeds using the MiFi I get with AT&T's iPad service. 200 to 300 kbps. Granted, I've only tested it in two different locations over less than an 24 hour period, but as of 10 AM Sept 3 the speed is still less than acceptable. But I'm not a hater. I like the idea here and am hoping they are successful as this will probably fuel a wireless access price war we can all benefit from. | |
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| | "unlimited turned broadband2go to crap I have had virgin broadband to go off and on for 6 months. Used it all over the USA. It has worked well, (better than most hotel wifi) Since the Unlimited blitz.... The ping time, latency has gone from acceptable to poor. Now the majority pages time out, (like being on satellite internet) pingtest.net gives a F grade and shows my gateway to be someplace in southern CA no matter where in the country I am. If this doesn't get fixed soon I will sell the u760...
Honestly I would rather go back to the limited plans and have the data work rather than this mess.... | |
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| | Virgin MiFi After seeing Pogue's column yesterday I bought a Virgin Mobile MiFi.Why? No contract and the $40 unlimited bandwidth using Sprint's 3G network. I have an iPhone and iPad, both grandfathered in under the $30 per month unlimited AT&T plan. If this thing works out I can dump my iPad plan (albeit permanently giving up my option for the AT&T unlimited plan) and go to the cheaper $15/month plan for the iPhone. Although this only saves me a couple of bucks a month, it gives me the option of using my laptop or any other device with the MiFi.
So far the story is not too encouraging. It was very difficult to get the MiFi set up. And once it was set up it kept disconnecting and requiring me to go back to the set up wizard to re enable the device on my account. The set up wizard told me to call Virgin tech support, but that just resulted in a bunch of hang-ups from "Alex", Virgin Mobile's automated response agent (perhaps an inbred relative of Sprint's Clair?) and then finally getting put on hold for over 30 minutes before I hung up (Alex said they were "very busy" today).
This morning I tried again and was able to get the device successfully connected (and it seems to be staying connected). I ran a bunch of speed tests (Speedtest.net) using my iPad's 3G connection vs the connection via the MiFi. Using 10 runs each I was getting just under 1Mbps downloads and 0.3Mbps uploads on the iPad 3G and 200Kbps downloads and 90Kbps uploads with the MiFi. (Some of the iPad 3G speeds were as high as 1.5 Mbps downloads).
So there is a significant lack of performance in the Virgin MiFi (I think the technical term is "stinks on ice". And its connection reliability is yet to be seen based on my initial set up experience.
That being said, I'm going to keep with it for a while for a couple of reasons. Virgin may just be having some start up problems with this service. They are probably getting hammered once the word of this product got out. The other thing is that 3G service is really just a lifeline for me, not my primary means of connection. So while I'd love to see the Virgin speeds match what I'm getting from AT&T, it may not really matter in the long run. I'm still pretty pissed that AT&T changed their service plans right after I got the iPad 3G and that I'd have to jailbreak my iPhone to make it a no charge extra hotspot.
So don't write the MiFi off yet. It may still suffice for those who just need to check email without having to find a hotspot while on the road. Perhaps their speeds will increase some, although I would imagine demand will cause exactly the reverse. | |
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|  DeeCPremium
join:2000-09-01
the world
kudos:1 | Re: Virgin MiFi I did the same. I bought one because of the "no contract" and for use as a backup to my cable.
Yes, it was a pain to setup ...but I was able to do it myself. The wizard is no fun, but the main problem I was having was that when the Mifi went to reset after entering all the info, my laptop would automatically connect back to my wireless cable service. I had to disable that temporarily untilt he Mifi successfully reset and was running. After those hiccups, I could jump back and forth to either service without a problem.
The speed, right now, sucks! I had better speed with my Sprint phone nearly 2 yrs ago. They have to fix that, and I"m hoping they will.
I will be keeping it...since again, like you, it is not my primary internet connection, but merely a backup.
Let's hope they improve the speeds  | |
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| | does it work with win ce? I bought a $100.00 netbook off the internet. it runs windows ce otherwise it runs like any other computer--works on the internet when plugged into an ethernet connection. My Question--is there anyway this VM service can run on this computer--it does have a usb connection? | |
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| | | Re: does it work with win ce? Don't know if the USB version would work, as WinCE isn't listed as one of the compatible OSes.
However, it it has wireless b/g, it should be able to connect to the (more expensive) Mobile Hotspot. | |
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| | | | Re: does it work with win ce? WinCE is not listed with Verizon either but this computer does work when the Verizon ethernet cable is plugged in. There must be thousands of these cheap netbooks out there. If anyone reading this has one and has a VM modem, please plug it in and let me know if it works. Ty! | |
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| | Problems And now the entire network has crashed for Virgin Mobile. All of the United States and Most of Europe are down. No text, no SMS, no web service.
And now lets hear from the people on this forum that keep defending Virgin Mobile.
You know I could provide you with the same level of phone service that Virgin Mobile does. Send me your money each month and I'll give you the same thing that they give you......NOTHING....SERVICE OUTAGE....CRASHED.......What a joke. | |
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| | | | Re: Problems I'd give them a couple months to work out the quirks. They probably way underestimated how many people would sign up for this plan and weren't prepared. | |
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| | mifi Been connected all day with no problems, decent speed. | |
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