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Comment by devicenull | Hacker News Reader

This isn't terribly amazing. I paid $130 for my Android phone, and pay $25/month through Virgin Mobile.

Is your $25/mo plan unlimited? Is Virgin Mobile's coverage as good as Sprint's (the network this will fall back to)?

What's amazing here is they are offering a Voip phone with a $19/mo plan (cheaper than, say Vonage at $25) plus fallback to a large mobile network. That is a pretty good price point.

virgin mobile is sprint. the network is the same. as is boost mobile. also, you're an idiot.

I did not realize Virgin Mobile used Sprint, or I would not have asked that question. The fact still remains that the proposed plan is unlimited and less expensive. Plus they intend to branch out to other mobile networks as well, so they could achieve better coverage.

Sprint bought Virgin out of Virgin Mobile USA a couple of years ago, so more than using Sprint, Virgin Mobile is simply a Sprint brand.

The "Sprint" Sprint brand has better coverage than the Virgin Mobile Sprint brand, presumably because of roaming agreements with Verizon.

There's that and there's also the fact that Virgin is only allowed to use iDEN towers and not CDMA towers.

Virgin Mobile USA is CDMA.

Sprint operates two nationwide networks. Depending on the device and the services it provides you could be using the CDMA network or the iDEN network that is mostly used for prepaid phones and direct connect.

Sprint itself also has a CDMA voice and data roaming agreement with Verizon, which MVNOs and subsidiary brands do not benefit from.

Virgin Mobile uses Sprint's CDMA network. Sprint has very good coverage in most major cities and along most interstate highways. That covers most of most peoples' lives, except the relatively small percentage of Americans in rural areas.

Virgin only uses iDEN. That's why their coverage is ass. You could be standing in line sight of a tower and have zero connectivity because that tower isn't supported.

that isn't true, they are on the sprint cdma towers. Boost is their pre-paid brand that's on iden. Virgin won't roam on to verizon, though, which sprint handsets will.

Wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Mobile_USA "wireless voice, messaging and broadband data services to subscribers throughout the United States via the Sprint Nextel CDMA PCS network"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boost_Mobile "Boost Nationwide Unlimited (AKA Monthly Unlimited Plan), which differs from their previous UNLTD plans, is offered for iDEN handsets as of January 22, 2009 and CDMA as of January 2010"

The reason you have sucky coverage is the PRL list is much more limited for Virgin phones and they don't allow roaming. Update the list and get better signal.

The $25 plan from Virgin Mobile offers 300 minutes of talktime.

I use Google Voice and GrooveIP on my Optimus V on Virgin Mobile on the 300 minute/$25 month plan to get significantly more than 300 minutes of talk time, since data is "unlimited" (I'm sure it isn't really unlimited, but I've yet to hit any caps that I've noticed).

I agree with GP post though. This deal is good, but not quite as amazing as the article makes it seem. Even if you have to go with the newer pricing ($35 vs $25), Virgin Mobile has plans in this general range and their phones are a known quantity (and pretty well supported by CM7 ports).

Virgin mobile uses Sprint's network.

I have that too. The speed sucks dick but it's cheap.

Thoughts:

  1. I really hope it knows to just use cell while driving instead of trying to connect to random passing APs.
  2. Am I the only person in America constantly surrounded by secured/non-free Wifi?
  3. Why wouldn't I just pay less for my phone and $10 more a month for Virgin Mobile?

I think the idea is that you spend most of your time at home, work, or school. Places which you generally have full access to the wifi network.

Virgin's coverage is ass.

Agreed. So imagine what this other company's coverage will be like - and they aren't owned by Sprint like Virgin Mobile US is. (incidentally, if you update your PRL on your Virgin phone to a Sprint list you get better service...)

How would I update my PRL? And what would I update it to? I had no idea that these caveats existed on Sprint's network, I had just (naviely?) assumed all Sprint-based service was "the same"

If you google usually you can find a guide for your phone on HTC or other developer/modder/hacker forums for smartphones. It involves getting codes specific to your phone and using some software and a USB data cable to upload new settings to the phone. It's similar to firmware flashing.

Oh yeah, and they really really don't like you to do it because you're basically using parts of the network they don't want you to use. So whatever you do, don't tell Sprint customer service.

It really depends on where you are. I've only ever had issues with coverage in one place, and everyone else (on other carries) had the same issues.

Indirectly answering your point #3 above, this would appeal to inter-country travellers. More specifically, there is probably a sizeable segment of customers who travel back and forth between Canada and the US where this would be a hit.

At $19/month, it's also cheap enough to be a work/travel phone that is assigned to you. Although there is a growing trend for IT-consumerization and multi-SIMs, there are still plenty of people who prefer to keep physically separate personal and work mobile devices. This could easily appeal to them and organizations.

For a smaller (but very lucrative segment) of roaming subscribers, being able to use a single phone number accessible over WiFi no matter what country you're in is a compelling value prop; no more need to worry about data/voice add-on packages.

It's like being able to take your voip line with you on your phone, accessible through one number. Surprisingly, nobody else can offer that right now. The closest we've got is FaceTime (cellular network for voice; free voice calling if you're on wifi and reaching out to another iOS device), and even that doesn't quite provide the same convenience.

And with declining voice revenues, carriers are fighting a losing battle knowing their margins are being squeezed. They are deathly afraid of voip cannabilizing their voice revenues.

This is a good move by Sprint. I wonder if they have any equity in Republic Wireless.

It's a nice idea in theory, but if it gets popular it'll just become more expensive as it eats into the bottom line of the bigger carriers. It's like POTS/DSL: you can't cut out the middle man when they own the equipment. Even Virgin upped their fees.

The fact of the matter is, if there was stable free wifi everywhere many of us wouldn't be using cell networks. But it's not going to happen. Europe is even worse; better hope there's a McDonalds near you when you want to make a call.

I'm going to bet that most people are just suckers for the brand-new expensive-yet-crappy smartphone and getting locked into another phone on another untested carrier isn't going to sway many of them. And Wifi on all the time? There goes your battery life.

(p.s. I don't know what kind of phone they're offering first, but that disassembled phone on their front page is identical to my LG Optimus V - from Virgin)

I haven't had any issues with the speed recently. Maybe that's because I'm in an area with pretty good Sprint service. There were significant network issues back when they first introduced the Optimius V, but those seem pretty well fixed by now.

same here and my speeds are excellent. I rarely have any complaints. I use GrooveIP for free GV voip, and the phones have great dev communities around them. I'm running cm 7.1 on my phone and for $100 phone it performs better than my old 3GS.

my biggest concerns would be-

Would loading custom roms effect their application/script?

Is it compatible with google voice?

Just to capitalize on some of the VM love: if you have an android phone, you should give my Minutes Checker app a whirl! (It is free. And open source too. And very very useful.) https://market.android.com/details?id=com.jaygoel.virginminu...

Thank you for not spamming anymore.

I use it, and thank you, good app!

I have the same $25/month plan, but they upped it to $30/month ($35?) for new subscribers. Still best deal on a smartphone/data plan.

If this uses Sprint's network as well, then I suppose it comes down to minutes/MBs. I don't use enough of either so for me the math is simple: $19 < $25.

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