Virgin unlimited that isn't too

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http://www.t3.com/news/virgin-launches-'unlimited'-mobile-contract?=39959

Virgin launches 'unlimited' mobile contract

But by 'unlimited', Virgin actually means 'restricted', writes Al Warmington

Mobile addicts, listen up. This could be the contract you’ve been waiting for. Virgin Media has announced a new ‘unlimited’ phone contract deal , offering unlimited calls to other Virgin users, unlimited calls to non-Virgin users, unlimited internet access and unlimited access.

You’re probably wondering what the catch is. In fact there’s two. First is the price. It’s a princely £65 per month for all those free minutes, and it’s an 18 month contract. On top of that, you are only eligible if you already have a TV, landline or broadband package with Virgin Media.


Second and more importantly: it’s actually not unlimited at all. Virgin has instead chosen to hide the awkward truth behind a ‘Fair Use’ policy. In this instance, Virgin has deemed that it’s only fair for you to use up 3,000 minutes of Virgin-to-Virgin calls, 3,000 minutes of cross network calls and send 3,000 texts per month. Data is capped at a paltry 1GB.

Now, most ordinary mortals may struggle to find the time to spend 50 hours on the blower each month, in between eating and sleeping, nor might they manage to send so many texts without turning their fingers to bleeding stumps (although we’d probably get through the data allowance in a single train journey). But it’s a far cry from an dictionary definition of ‘unlimited’ that we’ve ever heard.

On the plus side you get a couple of tasty handset to choose from – the Samsung Jet and the Nokia N86.
 
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Whilst its hard to imagine how anyone could send more than 3000 texts the internet restrictions on these 'unlimited' plans are ridiculous. 1Gb is NOT a lot of data by anyones standards. Why are they allowed to do this?
 
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I use a lot of data on my phone - downloading music, browsing, mapping, email as well as uploading photo's etc.

Vodafone have 'warned' me on a couple of occasions but never actually charged me for going over. Yet. When i'm in a good 3G location with HDSPA I fly through my allowance.

Agree that an 'unlimited' plan shouldn't have a fair use policy - after all it's a phone ffs. If uou used your phone as a modem however that would be a different story. Voda know when I'm doing this and charge my for every kb - a lot.
 
Man of Honour
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1GB on a phone IS a lot of data, if you manically browse on a phone...get a laptop and an internet dongle.

No, its not much - why buy an internet dongle if you've got a phone that'll do the same job? I use my phone+laptop together in this way all the time.

If uou used your phone as a modem however that would be a different story. Voda know when I'm doing this and charge my for every kb - a lot.

I have never been charged a penny for doing this and neither would I expect to - data is data?
 
Man of Honour
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If you have a phone like mine 800x480 touchscreen, opera mobile, etc. and are in a high speed network area you could easily use 1gig...

If your on one of those phones with a 160x140 or whatever display and a cut down basic web browser then you'd have to be insane to use 100Mb let alone 1gig.
 
Soldato
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i manage to pass 1GB data usage on my phone in a week with audio streaming, app downloads and emails, i also use my phones internet connection on my laptop through a wifi tether so 1GB aint enough anymore, maybe 3-5GB would be a bit more reasonable
 
Soldato
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i manage to pass 1GB data usage on my phone in a week with audio streaming, app downloads and emails, i also use my phones internet connection on my laptop through a wifi tether so 1GB aint enough anymore, maybe 3-5GB would be a bit more reasonable

what network are you on? all the networks seem to have a no tethering/streaming(audio, video and voip) clause in their t&c that I've seen, I've been looking at o2 t&c as I'm thinking of taking the 12month simplicty 20 offer with the £100 quidco cashback(so ~£140 rather than the ~£240 over the 12month period).
 
Soldato
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im on t-mobile, they dont allow tethering but as the g1 accesses normal internet, they dont know that i am actually tethering so i dont get charged extra
 
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