The other day Virgin Mobile users let us know that the company was ditching unlimited data, imposing a 5GB cap on their previously-unlimited $40 broadband plan that if crossed -- results in users being throttled to 256kbps. That's really not all that bad, since many users prefer being throttled when they reach a cap as opposed to facing very steep per gigabyte overages. The problem was Virgin Mobile made this change while their website was still proudly proclaiming that the company "does not restrict your speeds based on data usage caps." Since our first story, the company appears to have removed that language from the site, and is making the rounds confirming unlimited service is history:

Virgin Mobile said today that it was abandoning its $40, all-you-can-eat 3G Broadband2Go data plan because "we need to implement network controls to ensure optimal experience."..."Customers who use BB2Go for typical email, internet surfing and reasonable downloading will likely not be impacted/notice any difference," Virgin Mobile's Corinne Nosal said to me in an email.

Considering the reliability and connectivity issues users have had on Virgin's bargain-basement plan, Nosal may very well be correct in noting that users won't notice much of a difference. Virgin Mobile's shift leaves one less carrier in the wireless broadband space that is truly bracing unlimited. That's not a particularly big deal, since many users who tried Virgin Mobile's service seem to prefer the truly-unlimited (though slightly more expensive) offerings provided by Millenicom. In the major league space, Verizon (at least for smartphones) and Sprint are also unlimited access holdouts.
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Original story here.

Tags: basement plan, connectivity issues, difference, millenicom, New, nosal, optimal, plan, space, virgin mobile

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