Virgin Mobile offers $100 rebate to T-Mobile turncoats, now through May 31st

Virgin Mobile offers $100 rebate to TMobile turncoats, now through May 31st

In the wake of T-Mobile's recently unveiled Simple Choice plans, Virgin Mobile is capitalizing on the shakeup by playing a value card of its own. Now through May 31st, the Sprint-owned MVNO is offering $100 credit to all T-Mobile subscribers willing to port their number to Virgin Mobile. Study the numbers for yourself and the deal seems a no-brainer, as Virgin matches T-Mobile's unlimited scheme with a monthly bill of only $55, which rings in $5 less than the UnCarrier's $60 (2.5GB) alternative. Naturally, that's where Virgin Mobile hopes the conversation ends, but we don't need to tell you that there's quite a difference in speed between Virgin's EV-DO / WiMAX service and the speedier HSPA+ / LTE alternative from T-Mobile. That said, if your inner cheapskate is tingling, you'll now find an extra $100 incentive to make the switch.

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Via: Electronista

Source: Virgin Mobile

Nokia Lumia 720 starts shipping, costs £300 prepaid at O2 UK

Nokia Lumia 720 launches worldwide, available for free on O2 UK

Nokia courted fashionistas back at Mobile World Congress with the Lumia 720, and it's ready to embrace them more fully now that the slim Windows Phone is rolling out to its first countries. We've already seen it launch in Australia and the UK, where it's available for free when subscribing to relatively frugal postpaid plans of either $29 AUD (on Virgin Mobile Australia) or £22 (on O2 UK); Brits can also spend £300 at O2 to use the phone on a pay-as-you-go basis. Other countries will get their units in short order, including Italy next week (for €349 off-contract) and Russia. As a reminder, it's not coming to the US in an official capacity: while the mid-tier device made a visit to the FCC, the absence of LTE largely precludes American carrier deals. Some of us will have to gaze on the Lumia 720 from afar as a result, but many of those craving the most stylish of Nokia smartphones can get some satisfaction very shortly.

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Via: All About Windows Phone

Source: O2 UK, Virgin Mobile Australia

Sprint allows its prepaid carrier partners to de-brand Android phones, rid devices of bloatware

Sprint allows its prepaid carrier partners to debrand Android phones, rid devices of bloatware

In a move that could only be viewed as a step in the right direction, Sprint has just made a major move in the battle against bloatware. It's newly-unveiled Custom Branded Device Program is being introduced just as prepaid carriers are beginning to see something of a resurgence. In a nutshell, the initiative enables its MVNO partners (carriers like Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile) to customize white-label Android phones. In case you needed to hear it another way, it'll give those partners the ability to "completely de-brand devices from Sprint." Of course, this opens the door for said partners to litter these phones with their own software, but it also provides an option to see phones in a manner that Americans rarely see unless they opt for pricier global (and unlocked) models.

Sprint is hoping that the program will allow its MVNO partners -- carriers who sell phones under their own brand but actually rely on Sprint's network for service -- to "have greater, and potentially quicker, access to a large selection of completely de-branded marquee Android handsets out of Sprint and Boost Mobile device inventory with volume pricing included." Presently, Sprint has three devices available for this program -- LG Optimus G, LG Mach and Sprint Flash -- but additional devices are expected to be added by the month's end. Perhaps most interestingly, we reported back in July of 2011 that Sprint was making a "conscious decision to scale back bloatware on smartphones." Here's hoping that decision is soon realized.

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Source: Sprint

Mobile Miscellany: week of March 4th, 2013

Mobile Miscellany week of March 4th, 2013

If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, alongside smartphone leaks, admissions of data throttling and a power play at the NFC Forum, we're introducing a new, hand-picked selection of must-read mobile stories for the week. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of March 4th, 2013.

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Virgin and Boost add LTE handsets to their pre-paid rosters

Just because you don't have a contract tying you down doesn't mean you don't deserve LTE speeds, right? Boost and Virgin Mobile will be getting their very own 4G handsets, with help from Sprint's network. You can pick up Samsung's Galaxy Victory 4G LTE over on Virgin's site, starting today for $300 a pop (with more retailers getting in on the action in the middle of next month). Over on Boost, they've got HTC's One SV and the four-inch Boost Force, both dropping on March 7th. Those handsets will run you $300 and $200, respectively.

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ZTE Blade III reaches the UK through Virgin Media

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The ZTE Blade III has been slowly spreading its cost-conscious influence across Europe since the fall, yet it curiously danced around the UK. That elusiveness is over now that Virgin Media has picked up the entry-level Android 4.0 phone for itself. It's a match for mainland Europe's version with a 4-inch WVGA screen, a 1GHz Snapdragon, a 5-megapixel camera, 3G data and 4GB of built-in storage with a microSD slot for more. Virgin is mostly counting on pricing to make the difference: the Blade III costs just £80 to buy outright for pay-as-you-go service, and it's free for customers who pay as little as £18 per month (£13 for Virgin loyalists) on a contract. If you don't mind the irony of a Blade phone that isn't especially cutting-edge, it's a tempting deal.

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Source: Virgin Media

PSA: BlackBerry Z10 launches in Canada today

PSA BlackBerry Z10 launches in Canada today

BlackBerry's home turf of Canada didn't quite get the honor of carrying the BlackBerry Z10 first -- that went to the British -- but it's rectifying that today with a full-scale release. Bell, Rogers and Telus, as well as their respective Virgin Mobile, Fido and Koodo budget labels, are selling the inaugural BlackBerry 10 device now. Those subscribed to one of the Big Three will normally pay about $150 if they sign their lives away on a 3-year contract, or between $550 to $600 outright. Smaller carriers like Mobilicity, Videotron and Wind Mobile haven't yet launched the Z10 themselves, although they promise sales soon. BlackBerry fans south of the border, meanwhile, will just have to stare longingly until March if they're not bent on imports.

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Source: Bell, Rogers, Telus

Boost Mobile to start throttling data speeds in late January

DNP Boost Mobile to begin throttling data speeds in late January

Boost Mobile announced today that starting on or around January 20th it will begin throttling data speeds for its "Monthly Unlimited" customers who exceed 2.5GB of data use. Once this threshold is broken, the company will reduce users' download speeds to a snail-like 256kbps until they enter a new billing cycle. Earlier this year, Boost's sister carrier Virgin started throttling its customers under identical terms. Both companies operate on Sprint's network which currently offers "true" unlimited data to its postpaid subscribers. Boost claims that this change will affect a small percentage of its customers, but perhaps it should consider adopting a new campaign slogan when these changes go live. How about "Restricted: It's the new unlimited"?

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Via: The Verge

Source: Boost Mobile (Facebook)

Bell, Virgin Mobile Canada reportedly start unlocking iPhones, at a steep cost (update: Telus does too)

Bell, Virgin Mobile Canada to start unlocking iPhones, at a steep cost

Canadians have had the option to buy a factory-unlocked iPhone for awhile, but liberating Apple's handset after the sale has been officially limited to Rogers and Fido customers. As long as MobileSyrup's leak is the real deal, though, subscribers to Bell and its Virgin Mobile branch can spring for an unlock as of today. That's good news for many, although the hurdle is once again the carrier's desire to keep customers from jumping ship. Those pursuing an unlock will supposedly need to be out of contract, skip any prepaid plans and pay a $75 fee -- in short, they're more likely to derestrict an old, well-worn iPhone than the iPhone 5 they bought last week. We'll just be happy to have another route to hardware independence, and hope that the mention of widened unlock eligibility in 2013 is more than just a rumor.

Update: Telus lets you unlock as well, so this mostly completes the big three carriers. Thanks, Tim!

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Source: MobileSyrup

Mobile data gets even more piecemeal with 24-hour offerings from Virgin Mobile

Sure, you can already buy Virgin Mobile's Broadband2Go on a monthly basis, but what about when you want that data on a daily basis? For instance, what if you're Johnny Lee Miller in the hit '90s film Hackers? Exactly. Good thing, then, that Virgin Mobile is now offering a 24-hour daily plan for its Broadband2Go service, charging just $5 per day. Unfortunately, if you're only able to find 3G service, that broadband is limited to just 200MB of data -- those who can find 4G get unlimited data access (and much faster access to boot). Currently, Virgin's Broadband2Go is only offered via a proprietary ($70) USB stick or a proprietary ($120) mifi device, so don't think you're getting off too cheaply. It is, however, available right now.

Continue reading Mobile data gets even more piecemeal with 24-hour offerings from Virgin Mobile

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Mobile data gets even more piecemeal with 24-hour offerings from Virgin Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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