$35/mo WiMAX Sierra hotspot available on Virgin Mobile

[sparky222b]

Possibly old news, but a quick share for you all -

 

If you're one of the folks like me who upgraded to an LTE phone early, but live in an area where WiMAX was available and reliable, this might be interesting to you:

 

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband/overdrive-pro-hotspot.html

 

$35/month for 2GB 3G data and 10GB WiMAX data, the latter of which is interesting. This is a very interesting alternative to the new hotspot plans Sprint offers... $20 for 2GB, $50 for 6GB ... because there's no LTE yet in many of the big cities, whereas WiMAX is still available.

 

Here in the DC area specifically, WiMAX does and has always worked very well. I thought I would share this with you lot as I'm very tempted to drop the hotspot feature on my Sprint plan and pick up one of these instead...more data for less money, and as strange as it is to say this, having WiMAX again would be nice, at least until LTE goes live.

[xcharles718]

Looks interesting. My brother had the Overdrive about 2 years ago. Said overall, it worked pretty well. At this plan pricing, this is definitively more interesting that hotspot add-on(contingent on you living/work/play in WiMAX areas, of course).

[danielholt]

$35 is an attractive price for unlimited wimax.

[sparky222b]

It's worth noting that this is almost the same device as the now discontinued Clear Spot 4G+. In fact, Clear directly sells WiMAX plans, also available at $35/month, but at a fixed lower speed cap, or $50/month for truly unlimited WiMAX with no throttling. The main difference between Clear direct versus Virgin Mobile is that the Clear spots are WiMAX-only and do not have EVDO capabilities at all. (Personally, even that 2GB of EVDO data makes the VM offering more attractive...we all know how well WiMAX works indoors and downstairs...*cough*)

 

Clear direct: unlimited"]http://www.clear.com/plans

Edited June 29, 2012 by sparky222b

[xcharles718]

I know this is a long time out, but I wonder will Virgin Mobile allow grandfathering of the plan when WiMAX is phased out and LTE(eventually) makes it way to Virgin...

[4GHoward]

I wonder if Boost Mobile will start offering Mobile Broadband like Virgin Mobile.

[iansltx]

I wonder if Boost Mobile will start offering Mobile Broadband like Virgin Mobile.

 

My guess is "no" since Boost seems to have a different market focus (plan-wise, to an extent phone-wise) than Virgin. Could they? Sure, but why do so when your sister company has the exact same service? Besides, doing Shrinkage on a mobile broadband plan probably won't increase customer loyalty the same way that Shrinkage on a mobile phone plan does.

[irev210]

It's worth noting that this is almost the same device as the now discontinued Clear Spot 4G+. In fact, Clear directly sells WiMAX plans, also available at $35/month, but at a fixed lower speed cap, or $50/month for truly unlimited WiMAX with no throttling. The main difference between Clear direct versus Virgin Mobile is that the Clear spots are WiMAX-only and do not have EVDO capabilities at all. (Personally, even that 2GB of EVDO data makes the VM offering more attractive...we all know how well WiMAX works indoors and downstairs...*cough*)

 

Clear direct: http://www.clear.com/plans

 

This is a good point - it's also worth noting that they regularly have pretty good sales for various devices.

 

If you are in a clear service area and can get 4G, it's a really good deal for no contract 4G.