Virgin Mobile has been one of the more popular MVNO options in the United States for quite a while, but the carrier has just announced a pretty big change that may shake things up quite a bit.
Virgin Mobile today has announced that it will be offering only one type of phone: The iPhone. Specifically, the carrier will be offering the iPhone SE, the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus. There won’t be any other options for subscribers to go with, which makes this the first U.S.-based carrier (and perhaps the only carrier in general) to only offer the iPhone to customers.
To mark the news, Virgin Mobile is also offering a year’s worth of “unlimited” service for only $1 — for a whole year. For that, you get unlimited data (with your data being reprioritized if it passes over 23GB in a month), talk, and text. However, there are caveats to be aware of:
“Mobile-optimized video streams at up to 480p+ resolution, music at up to 500 kbps, streaming cloud gaming at up to 2 mbps. Data deprioritization applies during congestion.”
So Virgin Mobile customers get unlimited 4G LTE data for most things, but your quality-of-content will be “mobile-optimized” when you play games, listen to music, and watch video.
The Virgin Mobile Inner Circle plan will cost $50 per month after the first year. And you’ll need to get a new iPhone to take advantage of it. Here’s how the pricing breaks down, with each handset starting at the below prices (going up for higher storage options):
- iPhone SE: $279
- iPhone 6: $319
- iPhone 6s: $549.99
- iPhone 6s Plus: $649.99
- iPhone 7: $649.99
- iPhone 7 Plus: $769.99
Virgin Mobile is also tossing in a lot of perks. If you sign up for the Inner Circle plan you’ll get the ability to buy a round-trip “companion ticket” for only taxes and fees, after you buy a round-trip ticket on Virgin Atlantic to the United Kingdom. Additionally, buy two nights at Virgin Hotel and you’ll get the third night free, and Virgin Mobile is also offering a discount to access to Virgin Wines.
So Virgin Mobile is switching to an iPhone-only carrier, and also offering unlimited service for $1 for 12 months of service. If you have service in your neck of the woods, that might be worth taking a look at.
[via Virgin Mobile]