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Virgin Mobile to Implement Throttling in October

Jul 13, 2011, 3:58 PM by Eric M. Zeman

Virgin Mobile USA today announced that starting in October, it will throttle the data speeds of customers who exceed 2.5GB of data in a given monthly billing cycle. Virgin won't charge overage fees, but users who go over the limit will see data speeds slowed down to 256Kbps or less for the remainder of the billing cycle. Virgin says that fewer than 3% of its customers will be affected by this new policy. "We are all facing the same situation and this is the best way for Virgin Mobile to maintain the best network experience as data usage explodes," said David Trimble, vice president for Virgin Mobile USA. "Our no-contract and postpaid competitors have either implemented more stringent constraints and/or don’t disclose slower speeds and data caps. We believe this adjustment gives the most value to the largest group of consumers." Virgin Mobile published a FAQ page on its web site explaining the changes and how customers can measure their data usage.

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This forum is closed.

keithfrombm

Jul 13, 2011, 9:18 PM

Virgin Mobile Still Exists!?

What kinda ghetto internet do they have? Do they bill your EBT card directly? ;-)

dasenior

That is so effing ignorant. I just moved from Virginia to Kansas and Time Warner couldn't make it out for three days to hook our cable and internet up. My wife and I WORK different schedules so I can't leave my EVO 3D at home all the time for the tet...
(continues)

iDont Care

keithfrombm said:
What kinda ghetto internet do they have? Do they bill your EBT card directly? ;-)

I think you have them mistaken with MetroPCS lol Virgin is ghetto but not that ghetto lmao

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TheRickster

What would constitute as "ghetto internet"?

Better yet, why even use the term "ghetto" in the first place?

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Mark_S

keithfrombm. bm stand for "bowel movement"??
Apparently that is where that comment came from.
Why don't you take a trip to the "ghetto"?
I would pay good money just to see you squeal like a stuck pig while your A$$ gets beat to a bloody pulp. :lol...
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Floydian

Seemed like a smart move to me.

VM uses the Sprint network, so data speeds are OK. Not amazing, not dial-up, but OK, and better than AT&T was where I live.

When I was with AT&T I was paying $65+/mo for 350 min, no text plan, and 2GB of data (plu...
(continues)

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Tomdg07

if you get qualify for any government assistance you get a free virgin mobile phone with 250 no need to bill to ebt card!!! unless you do want the "ghetto" internet they do make you pay for that, continue with your "ghetto" debate please lol 😈...
(continues)

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tether

Jul 13, 2011, 11:21 PM

Why come out with better phones & apps? People will eventually forego data altogether...

Verizon & AT&T are either obnoxiously expensive (VZW has new $100 data add-on per line!) or have low caps. TMO caps you at 5GB, Cricket caps at 1GB! Now Virgin will at 2.5GB (Boost sure to follow). That leaves just Sprint with Unlimited Data and that is sure to die too. My question is, why come out with better, faster smartphones that can do way more in terms of audio & video streaming & data intensive apps then cap that data at such low amounts you can't use the functions the phone was made for or charge so much money, many can't afford to pay for it. I predict all this data rationing/price gouging (can't networks UPGRADE their networks?) will be the start to the end of most people using/paying for data. It's just a rip-off that is gettin...
(continues)

jeffdws

Because there's always Wi-Fi. And what $100 VZW add on do you speak of?

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Azeron

"...come out with better, faster smartphones that can do way more in terms of audio & video streaming & data intensive apps then cap that data at such low amounts..."

Because people will pay for it. Data use is right up there with cigarettes, alco...
(continues)

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Tofuchong

Get 10 Gigabytes of data from T-Mobile for $60.00.

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tether

Jul 15, 2011, 1:24 PM

Obviously this will happen at Boost, what about Sprint?

I think it should be fairly obvious that Boost will do this same thing soon. My question would be when will Sprint, the last one standing offering unlimited data, turn the lights out on that and start throttling or go to tiered data. They are probably my next carrier if they keep it unlimited. With companies like Verizon now charging up to $100 per month to add data to a single cell line, won't the incentive to rip us all off industry-wide lure AT&T to up it's prices & Sprint to cut out unlimited. The MVNOs like Straight Talk, etc. are all on the soon to be "BIG 3" networks so they will all get throttled soon or data caps too on top of the fact that most MVNO phones are complete garbage.

OmegaWolf747

Jul 13, 2011, 4:08 PM

Caps, tiers, throttling and overages

Are all just ways for the providers to limit our freedoms and bleed us dry. There is absolutely no reason to deny people unlimited use of the Net we have always had other than greed, greed and more greed.

Caucasian

just ways for the providers to limit our freedoms and bleed us dry

I have to disagree.

They aren't limiting your freedom to switch to their parent networks unlimited use network. Swap to Sprint, check your employer disco...
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Hitur Petar

There is no reason, other the finite amount of bandwith that exists, the capacity of existing towers and equipment, and the sincere desire to keep the most amount of customers happy, and therefore, you know, remaining customers, not to mention the mon...
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Azeron

Pointing out that a company is greedy in America is like saying the Sun is yellow.

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TheRickster

It's funny that this is happening with Virgin Mobile when Sprint just released a commercial blasting T-Mobile and other phone companies for data caps and throttling.

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jeffdws

Don't know what everyone is crying about... 2.5 gigs is a lot of data. Especially when new inventions like Wi-Fi are right around the corner.

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