Virgin Mobile unveils $40 unlimited talk and text plan
Talk and text all you want with Virgin Mobile's PayLo feature phones.
Not everyone craves a cutting-edge smartphone. For many, a simple device with which to make voice calls and send quick texts will do. Virgin Mobile's latest wireless plan directly targets this type of cell user.
Called PayLo, for $40 per month the service offers a bottomless bucket of voice minutes, messages including texts and e-mail, and 50MB of Web access. What's the catch, you ask? This compelling plan is only available on a select group of feature phones, including the $49.99 Samsung M575. The device is decidedly 3G, runs Samsung's proprietary software (sorry, no Android or iOS here), but does sport a slide-out keyboard.
Another benefit to going the Virgin Mobile route, besides a low monthly fee, is that there are no binding yearly contracts to sign. You can pay as you go and not be hit with dastardly Early Termination Fees (ETF) or late charges that the major post-paid carriers love to extort. Of course it's helpful to know that Virgin Mobile is technically owned by Sprint and operates on its wireless network.
PayLo sounds intriguing but I personally can't live without 4G or even 3.5G data and a true smartphone combo. Once I can get both on a reliable nationwide carrier, then maybe I'll be lured into the prepaid wireless world.