By Ermal Hajrizi
Virgin Mobile USA, the MVNO that runs on Sprint’s network, has announced that it will offer both the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S starting Friday, June 29th. While you’ll have too pay full retail price – $549 for the 8 GB iPhone 4 and $649 for the 16 GB iPhone 4S – the monthly plan rates are about as cheap as you can find here in the States. All plans include unlimited text messaging and unlimited data (although it’s throttled after 2.5 GB), and the differences in cost are all about voice minutes.
$35 a month will get you 300 minutes, $45 a month steps up to 1200 minutes, and if you’re a big talker, you can opt for the $55 a month plan which offers unlimited voice minutes. In addition, Virgin has stated that it will take off another $5 from each plan if you decide to auto-pay your bills. This brings the starting monthly cost of owning an iPhone down to $30 a month, which compared to the $100+ costs of the bigger carriers, is simply crazy. As with all other phones on Virgin Mobile USA, you can also choose to enable wireless hotspot on the iPhone for an extra $15 a month, which will snag you another GB of data, too.
All in all, this looks like a great deal. However, a few questions remain unanswered. For instance, how will GSM capabilities be affected, if at all? Will you be able to take it internationally and insert a SIM-card hassle-free? Also, no mention has been made the 32 and 64 GB versions of the iPhone 4S. Whether or not those will be available too is still unclear. If you’re interested, you can sign up for more information on Virgin Mobile’s website.
cool, i wish i could get one but im outta money