Can I Bring My Virgin Mobile Phone To Sprint

(Roberto Machado Noa / Correspondent)

Virgin Mobile'southward 18-year run in the US is over. The prepaid arm of Sprint just told its customers(Opens in a new window) that it volition be moving their accounts over to Heave Mobile, presumably in training for spinning Boost off after Sprint'southward merger with T-Mobile.

Every bit the two brands operate on the same network, Virgin says the transition will be smooth. Merely as the ii brands take different billing systems, I'd still check my bill closely in February and March to brand sure there are no screw-ups or surprises. The one major alter is that Boost does not support PayPal or 45/xc day payment plans, and so people using those payment methods will have to choose a different 1.

" In most instances, your existing business relationship volition be transferred to Boost Mobile with your device, and a comparable or meliorate Boost Mobile service plan at no extra price to you. You volition keep your phone number, and your monthly payment appointment will remain the same equally long equally you lot continue on-time payments until the transfer to Boost Mobile is complete," Virgin says on its support page.

If the Sprint/T-Mobile merger clears, Boost will be sold to Dish Networks, so what happens afterward that is anyone'due south gauge. Dish has a vii-year agreement to utilize the merged Sprint/T-Mobile network, simply prices, service plans, and device lineups could all change.

The Dart/T-Mobile merger has been approved past the federal government, but it is currently trapped in a lawsuit by state attorneys general trying to finish it on competitive grounds; endmost arguments are scheduled for January. 15, although there is no hard appointment for the judge to make a decision.

Other "Virgin Mobile" brands in other countries are unaffected, as they're run by other companies—in Canada, for case, Virgin Mobile is run past Bell, and in the Uk it's run direct past Virgin Media.

Virgin Mobile Usa launched in June 2002 every bit a virtual operator borrowing Sprint'south network; it was absorbed into Dart in 2009. Traditionally, Virgin appealed more than to younger, upscale consumers such as college students who didn't have the established credit for postpaid plans, as opposed to Boost Mobile's focus on inner-city locations.

The company also initially had retail distribution through Virgin Megastores, which at their height in the early on 2000s had 23 retail locations(Opens in a new window) in major Us cities. Virgin Megastores in the U.s.a. were close down in 2009(Opens in a new window) equally the wireless brand was sold to Dart.

The company did some innovative things over the years, such every bit offer extremely tweakable "custom" service plans, simply information technology always had trouble with device selection and differentiating itself with rates.

Virgin made a disastrous choice in 2017 to market itself equally an "iPhone-but" carrier, though, causing massive confusion among its Android-heavy user base of operations and doing a poor task of attracting new iPhone customers.

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Selling Boost, and its customer base, to Dish became office of T-Mobile and Sprint'southward plan to get their merger canonical. However, Mobile Globe Live points out(Opens in a new window) that T-Mobile U.s.a. COO Mike Sievert had previously said that both Virgin and Boost would survive as they target different customer segments.

Virgin says its customers will join Boost in February.

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