Is There Virgin Mobile Service On Maui

Customers of Virgin Mobile in the U.S. are about to get their wireless phone service from a new carrier.

Sprint, which owns and operates Virgin Mobile, has posted a annotation on the Virgin website alerting customers that it is shutting downward the disbelieve wireless service. Some Virgin customers may accept already gotten the news via text message.

In February, Virgin Mobile shuts down, and existing customers will exist transferred over to Boost Mobile, another discount carrier that Sprint owns and operates — at least for the moment.

The end of Virgin Mobile in the U.South. — wireless carriers operating under the Virgin name in other parts of the globe are alive and well — shouldn't come equally a surprise. Apart from an abortive attempt to rebrand itself as an iPhone-only carrier a few years ago, Virgin hasn't been firing on all cylinders for a while now.

Sprint is likewise trying to merge with T-Mobile — the bargain is waiting on the resolution of a court case brought by several state attorneys general looking to cake the merger — and one of the conditions for regulatory approval was for Sprint to sell off its discount brands to Dish Network. That's easier to do when there's merely Boost Mobile to spin off.

What happens to electric current Virgin Mobile customers

While Virgin'southward shutdown may make sense from a business perspective, that volition likely be of small comfort to Virgin customers wondering what becomes of their monthly data plans.

The FAQ on the Virgin shutdown tells those Virgin subscribers that their account "volition be transferred to Boost Mobile with your device, and a comparable or better Boost Mobile service plan at no extra toll to y'all."

Virgin currently offers three information plans: a 5GB plan for $35 a month, a 10GB plan for $45 a month and an unlimited data plan for $60 a month.

Unlimited-data users will probably like what they see from Heave's current information plans, where unlimited data starts at $50 a calendar month and includes 12GB of hotspot data, a vi-calendar month subscription to the Tidal streaming service and standard-definition-streaming limits on music, games and movies that Virgin customers already faced.

It'southward in the tiered data plans where displaced Virgin customers might have a beef. Boost offers simply i tiered data programme, a $35-a-month programme that includes but 3GB of LTE data. That's 2GB short of what Virgin customers paid for that carrier's cheapest plan.

More: Best prepaid wireless plans

Virgin customers who switch over to Boost can observe some consolation in the fact that Heave'south rates include taxes and fees, something that didn't happen at Virgin.

All the same, Virgin customers will have to make a few other adjustments if they go on with the transfer to Heave. PayPal isn't a payment option at Boost like information technology was at Virgin, so customers who set up automatic payments with PayPal will take to change that a few days earlier their accounts are moved over. Boost too doesn't offer 45- and ninety-twenty-four hour period acme-up payment options similar Virgin did.

Virgin customers volition get to go along their phone number, and their payment date will likely remain the same unless they make changes to their plan.

Another option for displaced Virgin customers will be to detect another carrier birthday. A number of discount wireless carriers offer cheap monthly plans, with more information for less money than what you'd pay at Boost.

Low-cost carriers that employ Sprint's network include Google Fi and Republic Wireless, which charge $10 and $5 per gigabyte of information, respectively. (That'south on top of the regular monthly fee you pay for talk and text — $25 at Google Fi, $xv at Commonwealth). Tello, TextNow and Ting all use Sprint's network, as well, with both Tello and TextNow offer at least 5GB of information for less than $30 a month.