Tag Archives: Virgin Mobile

You Need A Backup Internet Plan

Posted on August 10, 2011 by in General

Sometime between 11:00am and 1:00pm today, my Internet provider’s service went down in the Dallas area (Time Warner Cable if you’re curious, and I confirmed the outage with their service reps on Twitter @TWCableHelp). That means no Internet and no phone service for my office, and Time Warner has no ETA on a fix.

But I’m still up and running with all of my web-hosted tools, including email, contacts, and my blog. I powered up my MiFi 2200 and bought a small data plan ($10 for 100MB) to get me through the service disruption. So everything I need over the web is still accessible. The MiFi supports five active WiFi connections, so I can share the Internet connection among my iMac, iPad, Macbook Air, and Acer laptop.

And what about my office phone line? That, too, is tied to my Internet connection, as it’s a voice-over-IP (VoIP) line. It’s dead.

But, my main number is connected to my Google Voice account, so all I need to do is enable my mobile phone as the primary phone to use (it’s typically active along with my office phone so I can receive calls anywhere). You call, get routed to my mobile phone, it rings, and I answer. You have no idea my office line is dead. And I don’t need to deliver excuses for not picking up your call.

So what’s your backup plan when your connection to the outside world is severed? Good luck dialing up your custodian’s trading line to verbally submit your trades in this market volatility!!!

Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go Drops $40 Plan, Rolls Out $50 2.5GB Plan

Posted on February 16, 2011 by in General

We logged in to our Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go account today to buy some bandwidth for our MiFi 2200, but were surprised to see the $40 unlimited plan we wrote about in September is no longer offered!

As of yesterday, Broadband2Go no longer offers the $40 “unlimited” plan. Instead, the large bandwidth plan has increased $10 to $50 and comes with the disclaimer that Virgin Mobile:

reserves the right, without notice, to temporarily limit throughput speeds when monthly data usage on the $50 Broadband2Go Plan exceeds 2.5GB

The full details on changes to the Broadband2Go plan can be viewed on Virgin Mobile’s website.

Oh well. $50 still isn’t bad considering most hotels where conferences are held (e.g. T3 and FPA Business Solutions) charge at least $9.99 a day for Internet, and usually one pays extra to connect via hotel Wi-Fi. So $50/month is still a competitive price if you use the device for more than a few days.

iPad Users Have More 3G Wireless Options

Posted on October 20, 2010 by in Technology

After a slow start, financial advisers and wealth managers are quickly warming up to Apple’s iPad (see our coverage on the iPad for financial advisors and wealth managers). Now that the product has been available for sale for six months, advisers have seen and experienced the unique interface the tablet device offers.

Because of its tablet form factor, the iPad is proving to be a powerful mobile device. It can be used while standing up, walking, or seated in a comfortable chair (and in an airplane seat, too, but those are far from comfortable), things that users of laptops and netbook computers find more difficult to do.

Since June, Apple has been selling a 3G wireless version of the iPad, but AT&T has been the exclusive service carrier for the device. That doesn’t excite many advisers due to AT&T’s reputation for spotty network reliability along with a monthly data plan requirement. In addition, iPad’s 3G wireless connection cannot be shared with any other mobile devices or netbook computers (without violating Apple’s terms of use, a.k.a. jailbreaking).

New 3G Wireless Options

Coming later this month, iPad owners will have a new option to use their device with the 3G wireless network. Verizon Wireless will start selling iPads on October 28 bundled with a MiFi 2200 mobile Wi-Fi hotspot device. Pricing for Verizon’s iPad/MiFi bundle is the iPad retail price (starting at $499) with an additional cost of $130 for the MiFi device.

A big advantage to Verizon’s offering is that there is no monthly commitment required for 3G wireless access. Data plans are offered in the pay-as-you-go format, priced according to the amount of data transfer desired.

Verizon’s data plans are $20 for 1GB, $35 for 3GB, or $50 for 5GB. All plans expire 30 days after activation.

Verizon is not the only provider to offer pay-as-you-go 3G data plans. Virgin Mobile also sells its own MiFi device for $149 and offers two data plans: $10 for 1GB (expires after 10 days), or $40 for unlimited data (expires after 30 days). I bought the Virgin Mobile MiFi 2200 device and will write about my experience with it in a future post.

So for advisers looking to adopt the iPad while avoiding getting locked in to a monthly wireless contract with AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Virgin Mobile both offer attractive alternatives to staying connected on the go and in control of data plan costs.