These are some recent posts on the Virgin Mobile forum:
Introduction
Virgin Mobile Canada officially opened its doors on 2 March 2005 and thus is the newest service provider in Canada. Virgin does not have their own towers and equipment in Canada, but rather is acting as a reseller of Bell Mobility's CDMA services. Therefore there will be absolutely NO difference in coverage and service quality, but there ARE differences in both costs and phone choices.
Unlike Virgin Mobile services in other parts of the world that provide GSM mobile services, the Canadian company sells CDMA services. Therefore if your are an overseas Virgin Mobile customer, you will not be able to roam in Canada using Virgin services; likewise, Canadian Virgin Mobile users will not be able to use their CDMA phones overseas with Virgin services. The good news is that the American and Canadian Virgin Mobile companies are both using CDMA.
At present Virgin is offering services in BC, Alberta, Ontario and Québec. For BC and Alberta residents, Virgin will roam on the Telus network outside of Bell Mobility's coverage areas.
Plans
Virgin offers five different plan types (three monthly and two by-the-minute). The three different monthly plans include:
$10/month: 100 anytime minutes and extra minutes are 10¢
$20/month: 200 anytime minutes and extra minutes are 30¢
$30/month: 1000 evenings and weekends minutes, 100 daytime minutes and extra minutes are 30¢
$40/month: unlimited evenings and weekends minutes, 100 daytime minutes and extra minutes are 30¢
Their Pay by the Minute plans include:
40¢/daily base charge and then 10¢ per minute rate
No daily base charge and then 30¢ per minute rate
All plans include a lot of free extras, such as Voicemail, Call Display, Call Waiting, 3-way Calling, and Call Forwarding (charged as airtime). Long distance is 25¢ per minute anywhere in North America.
Phones may be purchased through their website (www.virginmobile.ca) or from selected retailers, including Future Shop, Mac's, London Drugs, Chapters, 7-11, Zellers, etc.
Virgin offers five different plan types (three monthly and two by-the-minute). The three different monthly plans include:
