How's the reception for Virgin Wireless around here?

[xavier132487]

An add-on to parent plan(s) isn't cheaper? I'm no expert on cellular plans, that's for sure, however since husband and I already had Verizon, adding our teen to our Verizon account only costs $10 per month.

You gotta be careful for this though. That $10 a month can turn into many overages. I remember when I was in high school, I would spend 4000-5000 minutes per month on the phone, mainly w/ my bf. Most of them were nights and weekends, but if you're not careful, the person not paying the bill may use all the daytime minutes. Then BAM! Overages.

[YBF]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

An add-on to parent plan(s) isn't cheaper? I'm no expert on cellular plans, that's for sure, however since husband and I already had Verizon, adding our teen to our Verizon account only costs $10 per month.

That would be cheaper even if the OP had to take it away for a while but in this case the OP will have to share minutes...something you dont want to do with a teenager.

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by runningncircles1

You gotta be careful for this though. That $10 a month can turn into many overages. I remember when I was in high school, I would spend 4000-5000 minutes per month on the phone, mainly w/ my bf. Most of them were nights and weekends, but if you're not careful, the person not paying the bill may use all the daytime minutes. Then BAM! Overages.

Originally Posted by YBF

That would be cheaper even if the OP had to take it away for a while but in this case the OP will have to share minutes...something you dont want to do with a teenager.

Actually our teen is a pretty modest cellphone user, so we haven't had these issues. We did add an increased amount of texting, for her line only, for a few extra dollars a month. ($3 maybe? I don't recall exactly). She doesn't text a whole lot either. But you both raise good points ... our approach is cheap only if the teen is reliably restrained in their use of the phone.

[MilkMachine]

Originally Posted by runningncircles1

You could also look into metroPCS. They've had unlimited calling since 1999/2000. They have an unlimited everything package for $50 no contract, no activation fees, etc.. Downside is its local calling area, so if you travel alot, it may not be the best. Though Virgin's is that way as well. The coverage is decent and they control their own towers.

Actually, I found that Virgin had excellent national coverage and no roaming ever, which is why I chose it over metroPCS. I travel too much for MetroPCS. In the interest of full disclosure, I finally dropped Virgin and ended up piggybacking on a family member's Verizon.

[brook2ga]

Any updates on Virgin Mobile service? I'm considering it. My main concern is coverage. thanks.

[912]

StraightTalk. $45/mo for unlimited talk/text and web, prepaid. Runs on Verizon's network & is nationwide. Phones can be purchased at Walmart.

[GaBison2007]

I live in D.C. but used Virgin Wireless when I came to visit family...it worked perfectly fine in Atl however if you are traveling to south GA areas, it will NOT WORK AT ALL in some cities........which was a huge hassle and I eventually had to get a boost phone for my visits to those areas....for the entire state of GA I recommend Boost, if you don't plan on traveling much to other areas within GA then get Virgin

[brook2ga]

thanks for the responses.

[atlantagreg30127]

Update: I tried out a Virgin Mobile Blackberry to use as a second phone for selling on Ebay recently, and found the service to be pretty bad regarding anything other than voice. Texts and Picture messaging are VERY hit-and-miss, with there being many times my texts never were received by those I sent them to, or my not getting theirs.

This went on for 30 days at which time I returned the phone while I still could. I was told by one of their reps (in South America) that this issue "should be fixed soon", but it continued during the entire 30 days I used my phone. I found out a coworker had a different Virgin phone for their child, and they said they too, almost never had properly working text/picture messaging as well, and they had been using the phone for nearly a year. The Virgin Facebook page at one point was filled with thousands of user complaints about the texting issues going back quite a ways - eventually Virgin wiped all of those messages out and redid the wall to mask them.

Summing up: I did drop a couple of voice calls when testing out the Virgin service, but most of the calls went through. Texting/picture messaging was a nightmare.

As someone had mentioned above, the Walmart "Straight Talk" service is generally better. Many of their phones use the Verizon network, however, recently they have started introducing a few models that do use AT&T and it's been rumored some Sprint phones are in there as well - the SIM card inside determines the carrier. Somehow you can tell by the serial number on the phone box which carrier it uses, but I'm not sure the formula for that. The Samsung R355 keyboard phone (looks like a Blackberry) to my knowledge is a Verizon carrier phone though... and right now on their site it's free.