Virgin Mobile is running what sounds like a reasonable promotion: an extra 1GB of data a month on a handful of contract plans for Samsung phones. More data is clearly better than less, but there are potentially still cheaper ways and more flexible ways of getting to the same goal.
The promotion runs until November 30, and covers three handsets, all on 24-month contracts. Here’s what you get on each plan:
| Galaxy S II | Galaxy S III | Galaxy S III 4G | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan cost | $29.00 | $59.00 | $59.00 |
| Handset cost | $5.00 | $0.00 | $7.00 |
| Total cost | $816.00 | $1,416.00 | $1,584.00 |
| Data (MB) | 1250 | 4000 | 4000 |
| 2-min call cost | $2.38 | $2.38 | $2.38 |
| # of 2-min calls | 189 | 294 | 294 |
| Text | $0.28 | $0.28 | $0.28 |
| Data/MB | $0.03 | $0.03 | $0.03 |
The additional data certainly makes the cheapest plan look considerably more tolerable than its regular version, which has just 250MB of data. However, as with any contract plan, you’ll be locked in.
Consider the $59 deal for the S III. If you signed up for a $39.90 no-contract deal with Amaysim, you’d get unlimited calls and the same amount of data for $20 a month less. That would leave you with the equivalent of $480 or so to spend. The Galaxy S III hasn’t quite reached that price point yet for outright purchases, but it’s getting closer every day.
Bottom line? For contract deals, these aren’t terrible prices, but contract deals aren’t for everyone.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.