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RV-Dreams.com Home -> RV-Dreams Community Forum -> Technology On The Road -> air cards (Virgin Mobile)
Post Info TOPIC: air cards (Virgin Mobile)
tnac48


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air cards (Virgin Mobile)
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I AM NEW TO THIS SITE AND I'M TRYING TO FIND OUT IF ANYONE CAN TELL ME IF THEY USE A VIRGINMOBLE AIR CARD AND IF THEY HAVE BEEN SATISFIED WITH IT THANKYOU! TOM NACKE

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Weaverworks


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RE: air cards
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Read Howards blog posting this morning. Doesn't sound too good to me.

Also, welcome to forum. Usually don't use ALL CAPS in postings.....some say "you're yelling". Unless, of course, you have vision problems....:=)

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Howard


Host

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RE: air cards (Virgin Mobile)
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Welcome Tom!  smile

Here is the excerpt from today's Journal entry regarding Virgin Mobile.


Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go

A couple of folks have pointed out Virgin Mobile's unlimited 3g cellular broadband service.  It's $40 per month prepaid on a month by month basis.

Virgin Mobile is owned by Sprint, and their service is via Sprint towers.  But the Virgin Mobile coverage is worse than Sprint's because it does not include the extensive roaming coverage that Sprint has for its national customers where their towers don't exist.

This is one of the "Questions & Answers" from the Virgin Mobile website.

"What happens when I am in a roaming area and am trying to use my Virgin Broadband2Go?"

"It will not connect, there is no Roaming available for Virgin Mobile's services. Only Sprint's National Network (no roaming) is available to VMU customers."

It's pretty clear that Virgin Mobile does not include roaming, so it does not mirror Sprint's entire network which does include roaming coverage.  And, if it matters, the Virgin Mobile plan is only 3g - it does not take advantage of Sprint's 4g network.

Now, there is one other issue in dispute regarding Virgin Mobile.  The consensus seems to be that Virgin Mobile customers are not getting the same speeds as Sprint customers are getting on the same Sprint towers.  The theory is that Virgin can offer "unlimited" data because their customers are getting the "leftover" bandwidth from Sprint's primary customers.

Some say that Virgin Mobile speeds when tested from the same location as a Sprint test are not as good.  Others say the speeds are just fine.  This is just what I've read, so be aware.  The bigger issue for us would be the limited coverage area.

Virgin Mobile has many satisfied customers and some may chime in here, but for many of us RVers, the service just wouldn't be acceptable.



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Racerguy


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tnac48,I failed to welcome you before and would like to do that now .Howard is a reliable source in these matters.

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3Gstore_Matt


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Nice review on the Virgin service Howard. We wrote up a comparison of Sprint Vs Virgin Mobile back when the service launched and found some issues. I know that some of the people I've spoke with have been very happy with the service, but quite a few have had nothing but frustration. It seems to be hit or miss and dependent on location.

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mailman01


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I am using the Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go service in central Kentucky and have absolutely no issues with it.  There was a little confusion on the initial setup, called their service that walked me through the installation and all went very smoothly, with their assistance.  The service rep was very patient and friendly.  Don't know what the speeds are, but seem comparable to the Windstream Broadband I have in the house.  Have not had the opportunity to test it very much on the road but in the limited testing all seems OK.  I got the $40 Unlimited package with the Aircard costing $79 at Best Buy.  Their price was initially $99 but agreed to a price match with WalMarts' $79.  The store folks were very friendly and knowledgable of the product.

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bjoyce


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So far I have tried our Virgin Mobile 760 card in six places in California. At two places it did not work, at one place the speeds were great and the other three the download speeds were good (0.4 to 1.1MB/s) but the upload speed was often slow (0.03 to 0.08) though sometimes upload speeds were good (0.3 to 0.5). It does work in my Cradlepoint MBR-1000 router with recent firmware. We have had good Verizon speeds at all of these locations.

We picked it up to supplement Verizon both by increasing usable 3G locations and to give us more MB per month.  I am not sure it is working out.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Friday 24th of December 2010 10:14:41 AM

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