In a perfect world, there would be no years long cellphone contracts that keep you tied to a certain carrier for a couple of years at a time. That perfect world would have us all paying for only the cellular service we needed and nothing more. Alas, we don’t live in that world. But, the good news is that you can get close to living the Utopian mobile phone dream with Virgin Mobile’s new “Beyond Talk” prepaid plans. The carrier has introduced new prepaid plans that offer unlimited text messaging and data (email, web surfing) on top of a generous allotment of anytime minutes – all without the contract strings with which post-paid carriers like to tie you down.
Starting today, all of Virgin Mobile’s new Beyond Talk plans include unlimited text and data. The carrier says that they include unlimited text, data, web, and email, but that’s mostly just marketing fluffery – web and email are data. But, we digress. For $25 per month, sans contract, Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk will serve up 300 anytime minutes. Bump that up to $40 per month, and you get 1,200 anytime minutes. And, should you feel like going all out on your prepaid plans, you can opt for the $60 per month Beyond Talk plan and get unlimited voice calls to bolster all the unlimited text messages and data that you’ll be pushing through your handset.
But, wait, there’s more! Virgin Mobile has, for the first time, announced a new BlackBerry data service option for its prepaid plans. No longer will BlackBerry users be stuck having to go the postpaid rate plan route. The carrier is offering a $10 BlackBerry service option to all Beyond Talk plans. The extra dough will give push-emailers the option to get BlackBerry email service, BlackBerry Messenger (which is probably the single biggest draw for consumers), and access to BlackBerry App World. To that end, Virgin Mobile has opened up pre-sales of their BlackBerry Curve 8530 for $299.99, intended for a May 23 delivery.
So, if postpaid just doesn’t do it for you, rest easy in knowing that Virgin Mobile has your back on prepaid service. The plans are actually fairly attractive, especially for budget-minded BlackBerry users.
[Via: VirginMobile]