Roger Fingas
Just ahead of Apple's anticipated announcement of new iPhones, U.S. carrier Virgin Mobile has opened its offer of a year of unlimited service for $1 to existing iPhone owners switching over, not just people buying a new iPhone.
The deal will be available to people with an iPhone 5s or better for a "short period of time," Virgin Mobile said, without specifying an end date. After Sept. 29 however the company will no longer be shipping out free SIM kits, which could theoretically signal when the promotion will end and/or when Virgin expects the "iPhone 8" and "iPhone 7s" to become available.
The carrier rebooted itself in June, becoming iPhone-only and offering just a single "Inner Circle" plan, costing $50 per month after the initial year expires. The plan also includes unlimited talk and text coverage, but restricts video to about 480p, music to 500 kilobits per second, and "cloud gaming" to 2 megabits per second.
One perk that people upgrading to a new iPhone through Virgin automatically get six more months of service for $1.
Apple is expected to host its annual iPhone event next month, possibly on Sept. 12. Products should ship shortly thereafter, though the "iPhone 8" may be available in extremely limited numbers.
Andrew Orr
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5 Comments
I didn't find this information on Virgin's website. Could you please post a link?
I switched. Service is mostly fine. No Wi-Fi calling though. I'm certainly missing that.
Mobile service is now a loss-leader to sell hardware.
Virgin is on Sprint's network. 2 tin cans and some string are more reliable and cover more ground. And no WiFi calling, with that awful network? An absolute non-starter.