sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH | Lol
Well considering you can get unlimited usage cards for $70 in Europe, I have to say... these are great deals!!! |
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Chiyo
Save Me Konata-Chan
Premium
join:2003-02-20
Minneapolis, MN
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| Virgin Mobile for the idiots
Anyone who uses Virgin Mobile is already screwing themselves over by doing pre paid or have such a bad credit score or has had their checking account taken away from them that this is their only option.
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That was the wild boar.... Moo!
My podcast: The Banzai Beat »www.banzaibeat.com |
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tubbynet
reminds me of the danse russe
Premium
join:2008-01-16
Chandler, AZ
·Cox HSI
 ·Callcentric
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·FrontierNet Intern..
| backup plan...
i can see this having its own little niche market. i might be inclined to keep one on hand just in the event of...
the main reason i can see it is for people who don't want to have to pay the $60+tax every month to their provider of choice, but still have a need for broadband data. any time we travel, my wife drives and i play navigator. i've got the passenger seat all lined with my inverter and cell phone antenna and its reclined just so. i'm often wishing i could pull up traffic and locations and maps, etc. so that we could make the best trip possible. for $20 plus the cost of the card, i could surf the google for a good chunk of the trip. i don't *need* a card for every day, but when i need it, it would be nice to have.
q.
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"...if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself..." |
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anjorusso
@speakeasy.net
thumbs down from:
TKJunkMail 
| wow so cheap!
who cares about these greedy companies?
come on....within 3 years, mobile broadband will be ubiquitious and free!
so let the baby have its candy while it still can! |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to Chiyo
Re: Virgin Mobile for the idiots
said by Chiyo :Anyone who uses Virgin Mobile is already screwing themselves over by doing pre paid or have such a bad credit score or has had their checking account taken away from them that this is their only option. Maybe these customers, by their financial mis-management, deserve fewer and more-expensive choices in their lives. But when it comes to a public resource, such as the frequency spectrum, is there a limit to what can reasonably be charged for access?
That said, Virgin Mobile's "screwed" pre-pay plan for 250 MB costs half of what Verizon Wireless charges monthly (non-prepaid) for 250 MB. That's an embarrassing tier at an embarrassing price, and I'm glad to see some market recognition of that fact!
What is most intriguing is that Virgin is selling access to the net in byte-sized increments rather than by time. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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tubbynet
reminds me of the danse russe
Premium
join:2008-01-16
Chandler, AZ
·Cox HSI
·Callcentric
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·FrontierNet Intern..
| reply to Chiyo
said by Chiyo :Anyone who uses Virgin Mobile is already screwing themselves over by doing pre paid i think that you will find a lot of people on these forums using pre-paid phones, although possibly not from virgin. a lot of people prefer the convenience of pre-paid such that you have a phone and you control what time you put on there. you are never surprised at the end of the month and if money is a little tight, you can let the phone go without adding time to it. if i didn't *need* the features a post-pay contract offers, i'd be prepay in a heartbeat.
q.
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"...if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself..." |
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nightdesigns
Gone missing, back soon
Premium
join:2002-05-31
AZ
·Cox HSI
| If the cards didn't expire so quickly...
I could see a use for this. I don't need a regular use subscription for a wireless broadband system. However, I travel every few months and it'd be nice to just be able to have access wherever I go. This plan would have been interesting to me if the card didn't expire in a matter of days.
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This Space for Rent... |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast
| said by nightdesigns :I could see a use for this. I don't need a regular use subscription for a wireless broadband system. However, I travel every few months and it'd be nice to just be able to have access wherever I go. This plan would have been interesting to me if the card didn't expire in a matter of days. Yes, that is the main weakness for pre-paid cards(voice or data). They all have expiration dates that are too short for the really occasional users.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page |
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kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL
clubs: 
| reply to Chiyo
Re: Virgin Mobile for the idiots
said by Chiyo :Anyone who uses Virgin Mobile is already screwing themselves over...... As a parent, I've found VM to be very useful. They have a decent selection of 'burner' phones so loss or breakage isn't that big of a deal. And I'd rather not have a family talk plan with an army of phones all under a contract.
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Jeff Howe
Jeff's Blog - »www.jeffhowe.net/Jeffhowe.net/Blog/Blog.html |
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nightshade74
Yet another genxer
Premium
join:2004-11-06
Prattville, AL
·Knology
| Um...
The VM site shows different price points.
»web.virginmobileusa.com/broadbandPlans
$10 10 DAYS 100 MB
$20 30 DAYS 250 MB
$30 30 DAYS 600 MB
$40 30 DAYS 1 GB |
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nightshade74
Yet another genxer
Premium
join:2004-11-06
Prattville, AL
·Knology
| reply to Chiyo
Re: Virgin Mobile for the idiots
said by Chiyo :Anyone who uses Virgin Mobile is already screwing themselves over by doing pre paid or have such a bad credit score or has had their checking account taken away from them that this is their only option. I'm sure some poor souls are on prepaid because they have
to be. However it isnt everyone.
Light users come out better on prepaid. $20 gets you 200 minutes on
Virgin... Where are you going to get a post paid plan for $20?
When my brother shows up from Italy I can hand him my
old Verizon phone and activate it on Page Plus. For $2.49
/ Day he can talk as long as he wants. »www.pagepluscellular.com/Plans/U···ice.aspx
No contract -- just the $5 to activate it. |
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grydlok
join:2004-01-06
Richmond, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Chiyo
I don't think my mom is an idiot. I bought her a virgin mobile phone. She only uses it very little. I load minutes on her phone for emergency's. You guys kill me with this Internet slick talk, but if you saw someone with a VM phone on the street you would be chicken to call them an idiot. |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to nightdesigns
Re: If the cards didn't expire so quickly...
said by nightdesigns :This plan would have been interesting to me if the card didn't expire in a matter of days. I wonder if the expiration is from the time of first use or from the time of purchase.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to tubbynet
Re: Virgin Mobile for the idiots
said by tubbynet :if i didn't *need* the features a post-pay contract offers, i'd be prepay in a heartbeat. You are aware of how expensive it is, right? It isn't just a question of business model...
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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tubbynet
reminds me of the danse russe
Premium
join:2008-01-16
Chandler, AZ
·Cox HSI
·Callcentric
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·FrontierNet Intern..
| said by funchords :said by tubbynet :if i didn't *need* the features a post-pay contract offers, i'd be prepay in a heartbeat. You are aware of how expensive it is, right? It isn't just a question of business model... i understand that, but i *really* don't like talking on the phone. ideally, i'd have a google voice number for voicemail (or some similar service) and then i'd only call people that i felt deserved a call.
~90% of my communication is done from my computer (email, skype, google chat, etc.). even though the costs of a pre-pay "plan" are higher than those of post-pay, i would end up spending less (as i already spend ~$56/month for 450 mins with unliminted "in" text/pix/vid from verizon).
q.
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"...if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself..." |
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battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000 | reply to tubbynet
Re: backup plan...
I see that as their biggest market. We get calls all the time from people who want to rent a card for the week while they go on vacation. At least now I have a suggestion for them. |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast
| reply to funchords
Re: If the cards didn't expire so quickly...
said by funchords :said by nightdesigns :This plan would have been interesting to me if the card didn't expire in a matter of days. I wonder if the expiration is from the time of first use or from the time of purchase. The clock starts when activated on the phone - a process you have to go thru to use the minutes or bytes.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO | reply to nightshade74
Re: Um...
Hmm, that's a *little bit* better. Might pick one of these up and use it when I'm away from home and don't want to use WMWiFiRouter on my phone.
Then again, Millenicom is 5+ GB for $60... |
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TACSPEED
Premium
join:2001-04-14
Tacoma, WA
·Advanced Stream
1 edit | reply to funchords
Re: If the cards didn't expire so quickly...
Buy the USB equipment and sign up for the service.
When you are ready to use the service, you either use a Top UP card that you purchased earlier or use your credit or debit card to purchase the minutes.
The timer starts the immediately after you purchase the data minutes.
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Fiber Optics is the future of high-speed internet access. Stop by the BBR Fiber Optic Forum.
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
·Comcast
·Qwest.net
·magicjack.com
·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to nightshade74
Re: Um...
Actually, they're back to the price points stated in the DSLR article. Which suck.
Hopefully they'll get their heads screwed on straight by the time the card actually comes out and offer some decent plans. I'm not saying nobody will buy these, but very few people will.
One bright side to things: the modem is a Novatel unit. They make good modems. |
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