Lord knows the US data market needs a whack over the head and an injection of new ideas. WiMax is one pincer. Virgin Mobile could be the other.
Virgin Mobile Broadband2GO is a pay-as-you-go broadband service on the Sprint EVDO Rev A network available in 10-day or 30-day long packages. Overall the cost per MB is probably higher than other services and certainly higher than in Europe but this is just the start of it. Giving flexibility to test out mobile internet or to use it when away for business trips and pressuring the big carriers to re-think their stupid $60 / 24-month contracts. It’s great news.
I hope it’s possible to buy a SIM without having to buy the dongle. A MiFi option might be interesting too. I’m over in the U.S. in Sept so I’ll probably be needing this.
From Mobile Crunch:
When the service goes live later this month you’ll be able to purchase a Novatel Ovation MC760 USB dongle for $150 sans contract. Pay-as-you-go VM Top-Up cards can be purchased in the following increments: 100MB, 250MB, 500MB and 1GB. Here’s where it gets a little confusing; 100MB will cost you $10, but you have to use that within 10 days. For $20 you get 250MB, 500MB for $40 and 1GB for $60, which have to be used within 30 days.
Maybe AT&T will reconsider a more flexible GoPhone option now.
Virgin Mobile USA offers Broadband2Go service with no contract.
New article: Putting pressure on in the U.S. – Virgin Mobile USA Broadband2GO http://cli.gs/ta3RN7
No one else is selling pre-paid 3G broadband in the US?! What about in Europe?
In Australia, all the mobile operators (as well as several MVNO) have been selling pre-paid wireless broadband for a while now.
The Sprint uses CDMA. No SIM cards. Sprint does offer MiFi, so it’s not implausible that VM may offer a MiFi option some day. (I’d feel better about it if the MiFi weren’t locked in to a service provider though.)
Verizon offers a MiFi unlimited day pass for $15. You still have to buy the MiFi from them at the unsubsidized price. That’s about as close as we get to a pay as you go option with a MiFi AFAIK.
I’d love for US carriers to come out with more flexible data plans. Whether the VM plan will prod them there though is questionable. I don’t like that the bandwidth you purchase expires. It still strikes me as expensive. Then again, data plans in the US seem to be expensive, period.
Moscow WiMAX offers (speed up to 10Mbps):
$60 for USB-dongle and $30/month for unlimited data plan Yota operator)
$140 fro USB-dongle and $10/month for 1Gb (Comstar operator)
we don’t need 3G in Moscow ;-)
often the US has to pay more for the samething simply because “they can afford it” as it helps offset the much smaller profit margins in less developed/wealthy countries.
does it seem ridiculously unfair? thats because it is. it’s a very similar business model that the medicine industry has. sell your product to other counties for 50x – 100x less & gouge your own citizens living in the US.
there are no laws against it…
Not exactly, other countries have price fixing, the medicine industry would charge more but those other countries will ignore their patents and allow the sell of generic versions of their drugs. So rather then having a generic drug company get the money, they would rather sell it at a cheaper price, at the same time they are not making enough money from those other countries to cover R&D and marketing so they do charge more to countries that don’t have these laws.
Why is it that US carriers want to limit data plans so much (5GB even when they say “unlimited”). Helloooooo if they want to get more people to use their data networks why don’t they do:
100GB
250GB
1TB
1GB a month, please, give me a break.
$60 a gigabyte is crap. Cricket gives 5GBs for $40 a month in select markets. The Mifi daypass with Verizon is more reasonable.
A Virgin Mobile USA version of the Mifi would be OUTSTANDING.
But, I’m hoping Cradlepoint will offer this device on their compatibility chart soon. It’s a variation of the Novatel USB760, so hopefully it will be supported quickly.
I’d rather have the Mifi, but if what it takes to have a low-cost no-contract WWAN-to-Wifi device is to do it via Cradlepoint, that’s rather attractive to me.
I’ve been really happy just tethering my blackberry to my laptop. I have a few verizon mobile modems and they don’t seem to be as fast as direct tethering my phone.
It won’t be long before everyone can just plug into their phone and have unlimited data usage. I look forward to the day when I don’t have a 5GB limit, but for now I only use 1-2GB /mo max.
I’m fortunate enough to live in a Clear Wimax area, they offer unlimited Wimax coverage for 50.00 a month no contract for mobile Wimax, if you opt for no contract there is a 35.00 activation fee USB 4G modem will run 59.99 they also sell day passes for 10.00. They are in Baltimare, MD, Portland, OR, Atlanta, GA, Las Vegas, NV, Boise, ID, Bellingham, WA, Abilene, TX, Amarillo, TX, Corpus Christi, TX, Killeen/Temple, TX Lubbock, TX, Midland/Odessa, TX Waco, TX, Wichita Falls, TX