By Harry McCracken | Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 8:02 am
David Pogue of the New York Times reviews Virgin Mobile’s pay-as-you go MiFi: Once you’ve paid $150 for the MiFi itself, you get unlimited wireless broadand on the Sprint network for up to five devices at a time. For an amazingly reasonable $40 a month. If I weren’t on contract with Verizon for a MiFi for the next 18 months–at $60 a month–I’d be on this deal in a nanosecond.
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:31 am
Do the math: at 18 months, you might be (close to) even by cancelling the MiFi. Particularly if you don't need the device active all the time, since you can stop and start similarly to the iPad data plan.
Also note that the device roams to Verizon if necessary, but only for a severely limited monthly allotment. Killing your MiFi contract, selling the MiFi, and switching work out well for you.
September 3rd, 2010 at 6:57 am
Stay with VzW: $60 x 18mos = $1,080.
Go to VM: $290 ETF (aka $350 – $10x6mos) + $150 for the VM Mifi + $40 x 18mos = $1,160.
The difference is $80 so if you had two months worth of time you weren't using the VM Mifi, its worth it to switch. As John Baxter mentions, you could sell the VzW Mifi for $80 to make up the difference.
@wolfmank Virgin's is actually unlimited, no throttling. VzW has a 5GB cap.
The VM Mifi will NOT roam to VzW and is Sprint only.