Sprint-owned Virgin Mobile, will stop offering Android smartphones and will instead offer only Apple’s mobile phones. This move means that only iPhones will be available on offer from the carrier.
Virgin Mobile going exclusive for iPhones
The carrier stated that it will offer one single unlimited plan to its customers going forward. People would be able to purchase all of the iPhones that are currently on sale from the Virgin’s stores or websites. These handsets would be retailing at their normal prices, except for the slightly cheaper iPhone SE with 32 GB and 128 GB storage.
Virgin Mobile is also offering the new unlimited plan, dubbed the Inner Circle plan, as part of promotions to encourage people to switch to the network. People who buy an iPhone and sign up for the Inner Circle plan will receive a full year worth of unlimited call, text, and data for just $1. After the completion of the first year, users will have to pay $50 per month for continuing the same plan.
The $1 offer is valid until July 31, 2017, after which it will run out, so users who want to take advantage of the same should do so immediately. However, the offer is valid for both those customers who intend to port their numbers from other carriers and for those who are signing up for a new number.
A number of iPhones are available in the market and Apple is also expected to launch three new iPhones this fall.
Caveats for the Inner Circle unlimited plan
Like all plans that claim to be unlimited, the Inner Circle plan does not really offer an infinite amount of 4G LTE data usage. In fact, the user will throttle 4G speeds after a user spends 23 GB of data in a month.
Other limitations include non-HD video streaming. In its Inner Circle plan, users will be restricted to stream videos at up to 480p+ resolutions. This means that users would not be able to enjoy crisp HD videos on their iPhones.
Other limitations include music streaming speeds capped at 500kbps and cloud gaming will be restricted to 2Mbps.
Virgin Mobile will also eliminate a customers’ connection if their domestic roaming calls exceed 800 minutes. The service will also be canceled if the majority of calls and data received by a user come from roaming.
With this move, Virgin Mobile has now become the first and only carrier to support iPhones exclusively. Whether this is a move that will benefit the company, is something to be seen in the future. Currently, it seems Android users will no longer be able to use Virgin’s network.
