Virgin Mobile, a Sprint-owned no-contract wireless brand, will start offering what it claims a contract-free data-sharing wireless plan, according to a Jan. 16 USA Today news report. The company believes this is another industry first, at least for a “prepaid” operator: a contract-free data-sharing wireless plan.
Virgin’s plans will start at $30 per line. You can pay $90 a month for three lines, with unlimited talk, unlimited text and 8GB of shared data. A two-line plan with 4GB of shareable data fetches $65 monthly. Other Virgin so-called “Data Done Right” sharing options are also available.
The USA Today reported that the deals are exclusive to Walmart and limited at the moment to four specific 4G LTE-capable smartphones: the HTC Desire 510 ($99.88), LG Tribute ($79.88), LG Volt ($149.88) and Samsung Galaxy Core Prime ($129.88). Virgin says more devices are coming at the end of February. A read of the fine print reveals that video streaming may be limited to slower 3G speeds, and access to data ends once the multi-line threshold is reached, though you can purchase additional data at a cost of $10 for 1GB.
Customers can still purchase those special packages that give them unlimited data access to Facebook, Twitter or other designated social or streaming music apps. Such packages cost $5 a month with usage not counting against a customer’s data allotment.
These type of data sharing plans have been popular with the major U.S. wireless carriers.
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