Pour one out tonight, mobile geeks; one of the best deals in the mobile world died today. Back when Virgin Mobile announced their $40 Unlimited Broadband2Go plan, I said:
“If there’s a better deal on mobile broadband out there, I don’t know of it.”
Perhaps I cursed it; Virgin Mobile has confirmed the aforementioned plan is on the way out.
Word of the change comes via PCMag. Virgin Mobile told them “”we need to implement network controls to ensure optimal experience.” Instead of claiming “Unlimited” data, Virgin Mobile will cap the $40 plan at 5 gigabytes a month beginning February 15th.
In other words, it’s the same old story we’ve seen with just about every carrier besides Sprint at this point: as the number of users on the network grows (and said user’s expectations), the network’s bandwidth limits just can’t keep up with the “Unlimited” promise.
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This change also highlights one of the downsides of going with a month-to-month carrier: this change hits every Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go customer, regardless of how long they’ve been around. No contract, no being “grandfathered” into the deals you signed up for.
On the upside, it doesn’t look like Virgin Mobile plans to charge any overage fees if you do go over that 5 gigabyte allotment — they’ll just throttle your connection. It’ll still work… just considerably slower.
