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Virgin Mobile to Start Throttling Data in March

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Back in September, Virgin Mobile USA announced that it had delayed a policy in which it would start throttling its heaviest data users until next year. Well, the mobile carrier has now taken the unfortunate step of confirming that it still plans to start throttling users and that it will start doing so once March 23rd rolls around. That means that if you consume more than 2.5GB of data per month, you’ll be throttled.

According to Android Central, those exceeding that threshold have begun receiving notices from Virgin Mobile sending them to a page that outlines the new policy.

Come March if you somehow exceed 2.5GB, you’re going to be throttled down to 256Kbps for the rest of the billing period. The carrier does make a concession though as it will allow you to restart your billing immediately if you don’t want to wait for the new month to start.

Virgin Mobile

Not bad.

Here is the rest of it:

Virgin Mobile throttling terms

To make sure we can keep offering our Beyond Talk Plans at such great prices, we’re putting a data speed reduction in place for anyone who uses over 2.5GB of data in a month.

Will it affect me?
Based on your activity for your last plan month ending in December, you could be affected by this change.

If you continue to use the same amount of data as you did in your last plan month, you may see your data speeds reduced during a plan month when the data speed reduction is implemented on March 23, 2012. You can still use your phone to do everything you currently do, but you may experience slower page loads and file downloads and lags in streaming media.

This will not affect your ability to text or make calls with your phone.

How will it work?
Starting March 23, 2012, if you use over 2.5GB of data in a month on your Beyond Talk Plan:
• Data speeds may be reduced to 256Kbps or below for the rest of your month.
• If data speeds are reduced, they will return to normal as soon as your next plan month starts.
• If you’d rather not wait for your new month to start, you can restart your plan immediately through My Account.

How will I know if my data speeds have been reduced?
If you reach 2.5GB of data in a month, you will receive a text message letting you know your data speeds will be reduced for the rest of your plan month.

By putting this data speed reduction in place, we’re making sure we can deliver the same quality service you’ve come to expect from Virgin Mobile. We hope you understand.

*Data usage per activity is based on an average. Bandwidth varies by website, video, email and other Internet application

So, if you’ve been eating up data on Virgin Mobile’s network with your Motorola Triumph or something else, you might want to start curbing your habits a little bit. Like, now.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    01/20/2012 at 9:42 am

    I hope they start throttling from day one me now so I can get 256K. What a joke VM data service sucks!

    • Guest

      02/06/2012 at 6:32 pm

      Considering the the low price you pay for it the service is not that bad, as good as Sprint in my area.

    • Rickcary

      02/27/2012 at 3:54 am

      256 Kbps is around 30 KB/s , and that’s slow. I get 200 KB in Miami and that’s fast. Don’t confuse bits with Bytes, it’s? An 8x difference.

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