Attention Virgin Mobile Internet USB Users

I want to switch to Virgin Mobile. Is there anyone out there who is using their USB internet? 

I would love to hear from Virgin Mobile users please.

Thank you very much!

DearMissMermaid said:

I want to switch to Virgin Mobile. Is there anyone out there who is using their USB internet? 

I would love to hear from Virgin Mobile users please.

Thank you very much!

Click to expand...

What are you switching from? Verizon has a larger network so why not go with Verizon?

DearMissMermaid said:

I want to switch to Virgin Mobile. Is there anyone out there who is using their USB internet? 

Click to expand...

Here in Canada Virgin uses the Bell system.  In the west Bell and Telus share towers.  So if you're wondering about coverage in wester Canada you can look at the Bell or Telus network and see how good or bad the coverage is in your expected area.

seilerbird said:

What are you switching from? Verizon has a larger network so why not go with Verizon?

Click to expand...

I'm really interested in hearing from any current Virgin Mobile internet users, their thoughts on the system.  I wasn't inquiring about Verizon.

I am currenlty in the USA, wondering if anyone here, has any experience with Virgin Mobile.

Thank you.

We recently purchased a Virgin Mobile usb modem.  We had an outage today, but when we called tech support, they had us back online in less than 30 minutes.

Paul

They use the Sprint network. A guy i know uses the wi fi hotspot one he got for $189 or so at best buy.
He says it works well. he even was able to stream video.

We have had it for a couple of weeks, $ 40,00 pm unlimited useage NO CONTRACT.
Coverage is a bit limited, especially if you go to out of the way places.
Currently just south of Tucson only have 1 bar on the graph but it is still good .
Have not been anywhere that I didd not get service
Howard

We bought ours, now only for the $40.00 per month unlimited data, no contract, but also down here in Del Rio Texas, there is no Verizon data service.
Paul

DearMissMermaid,

Thanks for starting this thread.  I think I strained my mouse fingers clicking on it and any spelling errors may be so attributed.

I've been looking at Virgin Mobile too. 

I talked and exchanged emails with just a few that use  it.  There are the normal dead spots from Sprint.  There seems to be a large one between Akron and Youngstown Ohio along the I-76 corridor.  That could be inconvenient for me.  I talked to one vendor who uses and likes it in Hartville.  Hartville is between Canton and Akron.  One of my wholesalers, much more computer savvy than I, is trying it.  Most of his business is online and some items are listed before he  and his wife even get them home from auction.

This link might help.  It a message board for Virgin Mobile broadband discussion.  Most of it is written in geek but maybe someone can translate then relevant parts to English.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cover,3595~mode=shut

fleamarketeer

We are using the Virgin Mobile MiFi and are happy with it. At $40/mth for unlimited uncapped service it is the best "deal" around right now. We also have a Verizon Mifi which we have the 5GB/$50 mth plan, and it is a little faster, but the constant worrying about exceeding the 5gb is a hassle. Coverage for both is fine until you travel off the main roads and into the boonies...

I finally got the USB Virgin mobile,  the USB was about $79, then the $40 unlimited plan, which you don't have to renew on the same day each month.  As I understand it, you can use it month by month, skip a few weeks, then hook up again. I haven't traveled much with mine yet, I foolishly waited on getting it, until I stopped for a few weeks, but it seems to work fine whether I have one or four bars, it keeps trucking along. I realize I may travel out of their map zone in the future, but for now I am one super happy camper.

I've downloaded and uploaded tons of stuff for my writing etc. plus downloaded movies with no problems.

AT&T and I are battling over the 2 year contract mess, they have me snagged into, but honest to goodness they are the absolute worst carrier. Their internet would cut off every minute, for the next 20 minutes, enough to make me certifiably insane, when I was working, or anytime I was in the middle of something critical. The 5gb limit was a major hassle for me.  If I had leftovers (they don't roll it over) I would try to download a movie, before "losing" the GB's,  but oh nooooooooo, they would cut me off 50 times and it would take days to download one movie.  Their system promises to roam for free, it does not roam at all.  I rarely went through a day without major hassles from AT&T, even when I was in a good signal area. Their map doesn't agree with their coverage at all, it lies.

I just hope that Virgin Mobile keeps their super simple system and keeps it unlimited. It's refreshing to see some real competition for a change, instead of every company doing the identical plans.

I have better things to do, that to worry about horrendous surcharges from AT&T, if you over shoot your limit, the charges are about 4-5 times what the first 5gb are, a really nasty situation that can bankrupt a budget in a hurry.

DearMissMermaid said:

I have better things to do, that to worry about horrendous surcharges from AT&T, if you over shoot your limit, the charges are about 4-5 times what the first 5gb are, a really nasty situation that can bankrupt a budget in a hurry.

Click to expand...

Now this really, really irritates me.  I'm a software developer and ensure the software I create has reasonableness checks and warnings.  If I was writing the software as soon as someone hits 90% of their monthly budget I'd send them a text message or email or whatever. And the same at 95% and 100%.  Then every time they added another $10 or $20 I'd be doing the same. 

This is easy to do.  It's not rocket science. 

I need to research the overcharges, because I did not think it was that bad. I might be confusing it with my Verizon plan, though, which was pretty simple.

Tony, there is an email notification feature for when your plan starts to reach the limit, possibly overlooked by Miss Mermaid, but to your point, that would be insane not program that in.

I have not had the awful experience that Miss Mermaid had with my AT&T. I have had drops, but I expect a few, and I just don't download movies. Both carriers warn you about that, because the bandwidth is just not there yet, and video will suck down 5GB in a heartbeat.

I have also had the experience with Verizon with their MiFi where they don't publicize that it does not work with USB adapters.

I think the carriers are doing a poor job of educating their customers because those of us in the business know there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. The demand is growing exponentially while the infrastructure is creaking along.

As usual, caveat emptor.

I have a friend that just did that and he's happy with it; I may switch to it also. We did have a little trouble installing it but it might have been his antique laptop. With Virgin there's no contract required and unlimited access is about $40/mo. vs. Verizon's $59.95 and a possible contract for a year or two. If you buy Virgin  air time a Walmarts you can buy $10, $20, $40 increments good for a month i.e. if your not a heavy web user you can save a lot vs. Verizon.  If you want to skip a month, not a problem.  I think the Virgin air time is with Sprint so if your near major highways or cities you shouldn't have a problem.  Verizon does have the best network nationwide but that's only important if you travel those places.

The HUGE difference with me switching to Virgin Mobile, is that it's an unlimited plan for the month.  When your month is up, you can renew right away, or wait a few days or weeks, or months, there is no contract that forces you to pay for it every month. For people like me, on the move, this is fantastic. I recently hit the road again unexpectedly.

Virgin Mobile finally fixed their map, so that you can check for coverage by addresses etc. Since I often stay in budget friendly parks, this is important for me to be able to check for coverage ahead of time, since I need internet for work. I don't need it for play, other than the movie download is lovely, in my situation.

I've been able to do all my work, plus download some movies for fun.  Typically, I set mine to download the movies in the middle of the night, while I am sleeping. Then I can watch them at my leisure. I don't own a TV, I know that sounds insane, but none came with my old motorhome. The guy kept removing things from the motorhome before we finally closed the deal, and the TV left one day before I bought it, but it wasn't the newfangled digital kind, and it wasn't installed, so it didn't really matter.

I know TV's are cheap, but mounting one is really expensive, so I've not been able to afford all that.  There really is no where to put a TV in my motorhome without mounting it with a bracket to drop down from the ceiling or an angle bracket in the bedroom. The brackets and installation is what seems so expensive. So being able to download some movies with Virgin Mobile without the hassle of paying a bloody fortune (per AT&T and other carriers that limit your monthly quota) has been a nice bonus for me.

Some RV parks provide internet for free, but some have this horrible plan where you pay extra fees that aren't budget friendly. Also one park was snooping at my usage and complained about my use, until I told them I was a travel writer, who needed to upload pics etc,  then they unblocked me, still it gave me the creeps they were monitoring my usage.

Of course I am used to the budget parks, I can't just show up and pay ridiculous rates at the fancy RV Resorts,  because they offer free Wifi. 

On a funny side note, on several occasions when I contacted AT&T about coverage or the fact my internet was dropping every few seconds, they repeatedly suggested I go to McDonald's and use their free WiFi.

I thought that was hilarious, why would I pay for AT&T if I was going to camp out at McDonald's to use their free Wifi?

Besides, there is nothing on a McDonald's menu I would ever eat, though I once let the dog eat a hamburger from there.

I don't think McDonald's wants me or anyone to camp out there using their Wifi without spending money with them, but it's funny (to me) that AT&T told me on several occasions to go there for free Wifi, since their system rarely worked in the areas they promised it would.

I just hate being tied to a contract, when I travel so much and could end up out of range of the contract.
So Far, I've been able to find budget-friendly parks and campgrounds where my Virgin Mobile worked fine.

There are a few parks I would love to go to, but their coverage doesn't extend there, so that's an issue sometimes, as I often travel down the less beaten path.

Currently I am in Florida, which is notoriously expensive for RVing in the winter.  I found a budget park at $17 a night where my Virgin Mobile works fine, so I am one happy camper with this new arrangement with Virgin Mobile.

I hit submit or post before I was finished...oops!

I am using an antique laptop, and Virgin Mobile works fine on it. On my budget, my laptops are bought "refurbished" at a fraction of new cost.

You can buy the USB for Virgin Mobile from $59.99 and up, then you can activate it whenever you are ready, you do not have to activate it when you buy the USB.
When you are ready to use it,  just plug it into your laptop, and it takes you online to buy the usage.

Finally someone understands the erratic traveler!

Here's the short link for buying the USB adapter:

http://tinyurl.com/23gly7d

[quote author=DearMissMermaid]I hit submit or post before I was finished...oops![/quote]

FYI you could click the Modify button alongside an incomplete post. The button stays visible for 24 hours after initial posting.

Edit: Check the footnote to see what happens when I subsequently edit my message.

Edit: I split and moved the messages discussing 'what happens when I modify my message' to its own topic here.

I just subscribed to Virgin mobile broadband; $80 modem from WalMart and $40/month for unlimited(?) use although I have never gone over 3Gb in a month.
So far, I am very satisfied at my home location. I previously had Verizon at $60/mo, and while I was generally satisfied, the performance at our new home was very bad. I complained to Verizon several times, and never got any satisfaction that the local cell tower was not performing as well as I would get at almost any other place I traveled.

Also, since Virgin and Cricket came out with cheaper plans, and since even Verizon started advertising $50/mo 4G service, I called Verizon to say that I was not getting $60 worth of service and I needed a better deal (I was month to month, not contract--anybody who signs up with those bandits for 2 years of anything needs counseling, but that is another thread). Not getting any satisfaction, I went to Virgin Mobile.

It will remain to be seen if I get satisfactory performance from Virgin at the places we normally travel compared to Verizon. I still have my Verizon modem and can get daily or weekly service if needed. At home, I am seeing anywhere from 3 to 10 times the download speed and 4x upload over Verizon. So far, so good.

I am planing on getting a Virgin Mobile dongle in a couple of weeks... I'll be using the weekly plan since I only need it one week out of 3 and not all of that.

From what I understand Virgin Mobile used to "Rent" space from one of the other providers.. I'm not sure which one but I notice that the 5-computer wi-fi router is called "Mi-Fi" same as Verizon's

However I'm told by experts that non-virgin mobile air cards can not be activated on the virgin mobile service so I'm not sure which network they use here now.. I do know the coverage map for the area I'll be suing it is solid, very very solid.

John From Detroit said:

I am planing on getting a Virgin Mobile dongle in a couple of weeks... I'll be using the weekly plan since I only need it one week out of 3 and not all of that.

From what I understand Virgin Mobile used to "Rent" space from one of the other providers.. I'm not sure which one but I notice that the 5-computer wi-fi router is called "Mi-Fi" same as Verizon's

However I'm told by experts that non-virgin mobile air cards can not be activated on the virgin mobile service so I'm not sure which network they use here now.. I do know the coverage map for the area I'll be suing it is solid, very very solid.

Click to expand...

We have the Virgin Mobile usb modem, and and the unlimited $40.00 per month plan.  Dont be fooled by the coverage map.  We are currently west of Casa Grande, Arizona in an area that is no where near the edge of the coverage area, but the service is very, very slow most of the time.  I did a speed test today.  Latency was 1386 ms.  Download was .41mbs, and upload was .09 mbs.

Paul