Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go

In October 2010, I took a trip from Los Angeles to Tucson on Amtrak. While traveling, I met a woman sitting on the Observation Deck level with her laptop. While we were chatting, the subject of internet connectivity came up. She told me that she "absolutely loved" her Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go, and proceeded to tell me how easy-to-use and affordable it was. Information I filed away until I ended up relocating to Tucson a couple of weeks later. My cell phone provider is AT&T, so naturally they were the first place I looked for a mobile broadband modem. Once I found out that their minimum broadband plan was $60 per month, I quickly began researching other companies including Sprint, Cricket and Virgin Mobile. Out of the four, Virgin Mobile had the most enticing offer with its' $40 per month unlimited use plan. Here's my not-too-favorable journey with Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go thus far:

Initial purchase & signup
I chose to purchase the required USB broadband modem at WalMart - they had the best price (under $75), and purchased a $40 Top Up card at the same time. I have Windows Vista loaded on my laptop which is supposed to be an acceptable platform. However, after installing/uninstalling the program a total of three times, I finally called customer support. If English is your native language, be prepared. Not one of the four customer service reps that I've spoken to speaks English fluently. One needs a lot of patience to successfully deal with customer service or their technical support group. It took almost two days of calls to get Broadband2Go up and running. Here's another little quirk you should be aware of: the manual and troubleshooting guide is loaded onto the modem and does not come in a printed version with your modem purchase.

Signal strength and connectivity
For the first six weeks I must say I was pleased overall with the connectivity. I had no problems getting a connection anywhere I traveled in a 60-mile radius of Tucson and Southern Arizona. The signal strength on the other hand is rarely full strength for more than a few minutes, which leads to slower page loads and buffering of video that can take thirty seconds to a couple of minutes. Using one of the online speed testing sites, I found that over a two-week period, the actual speed for both upload and download was on average 35% of the advertised speeds, and at best, 75% max. Quirk alert: I've encountered dozens of times in the last two months that after plugging in the USB modem, I'll get a message stating it's an unrecognized device. Seems to be a problem many users have experienced according to comments and reviews I've seen posted elsewhere online.

Unlimited doesn't really mean unlimited
On January 13, 2011 I received an email stating Virgin Mobile was changing its usage plans. In short, the company announced they were doing away with the unlimited $40 a month plan as part of their "Fair Use" policy. As of February 15, 2011 unlimited mean under 5 GB per month. Yes, says Virgin Mobile, you'll still have access to the Internet should you go over the 5 GB amount. It'll just be really, really slow until you add more money to your account. They have even made revisions to their original change in contract terms to state that if you are currently using the unlimited $40 plan, you can't add to it with say, the $10 or $20 Walmart only/ 1 GB monthly plan to get you through till the next month. In fact, if you at any point switch from the $40 plan, you can never get back on it.
As someone who spends a minimum of 4-6 hrs. per day online, that is not acceptable.

Conclusion
It's unfortunate that mobile broadband carriers have yet to catch up with today's technology demands, and we're not talking video gaming here, we're talking pretty much average usage. 5 GB goes pretty quick if you're doing anything other than just checking your email. For instance, I logged onto my Twitter account, clicked a link to watch a news video on CNN, zipped through about half of my current 100 emails, sent two emails (one with an attachment), uploaded five photos to my Snapfish.com account, visited Amazon.com and edited a document on Google Docs. Time spent online: less than 2 hours. Usage incurred, according to Virgin Mobile's counter: more than 250 Mb. So for now, it's "Goodbye Virgin Mobile, hello Qwest." Such a shame. Unlimited mobile broadband was just a dream.