711SO or Virgin??? | 7-Eleven Rates and Plans | Consumer forum

Hi;

Having been through this evaluation recently, I think you may have missed the thrust of the $10/month plan at Virgin. I believe this plan will cost you $10/month for the right to have all of your minutes of usage charged at .10c/min, there are no included minutes for the $10. In my case a family member ended up at Virgin (I'm a SO user) on the $20/month plan which gives you 200 use-it-or-loose-minutes/month. Check it out before you make a final decision .

I was previously a Virgin customer, but moved to Speakout after a year or two. I'm a very low-usage user, so for me, the "minimum cost per month to keep the phone active" is my primary deciding factor. When I first signed on, Virgin's vouchers and expiry dates worked out to a monthly cost of just $2.33 (or around that amount, I don't recall exactly). Later, they shortened the voucher expiry period, and the effective monthly cost rose to about $8.45, which was still not too bad. Then I learned about Speakout, which offered $25 vouchers that would last 365 days. I sold my Virgin phone and account with a pretty hefty unused balance, and bought a used Speakout phone. And here I am.

With that $25 voucher, you have about $13 in airtime and text available, which is plenty for my needs, but may not be enough for you. But, if you can predict and limit your monthly airtime use, you might find that one or two $25 Speakout vouchers per year will meet your needs.

One other advantage of Speakout is the ability to use Rogers or unlocked GSM phones. With Virgin, you can only use phones that they sell (or have sold in the past).

I had a similar decision. Was going to get a free virgin phone from a friend, but they ended up loosing it.

You can go on the virgin $0.30/minute plan (no fees, only pay for what you use). Which is more expensive obviously. But I figured that I only need a phone for emergencies only. If I need to make a call on a landline, I'd use it at work or go to my parents house. Or possibly pay $3/month for unlimited outgoing calls with skype since my computer is always on anyway. Also If I am at home, can text message online for free.

Since no free phone, debating paying the extra $0.05 per min/text message sent (assuming bonus airtime credit w $75 and $100 credits didn't exist). The free phone with the current promo has no camera, so would have to pay $40 for the 2720 so almost balances out the $50 virgin phone (the $50 activation credit ends after the first month of usage).

I know I would be saving money with so, but just not sure if I want to keep buying more credits for an added year or two to keep them active. Plus the upfront cost of $140 vs $50.

Another month of the speakout promo (assuming the 2720 show up by then). So I guess I have some time left to decide.

The idea behind wanting the camera is that I figure would get more usage out of that vs using it as an actual phone. If I had the free virgin phone, it would be a no brainer which to choose 🙂

Coverage in rural Manitoba is opposite to that in Ontario. The MTS CDMA network which Bell/Virgin uses in Manitoba has more and/or better coverage than Rogers. Within the city of Winnipeg you won't notice much difference. Rogers has areas in southern Manitoba where coverage isn't as good as MTS, and Rogers has no coverage in Northern Manitoba (yet). MTS and Rogers are patnering to extend GSM coverage to more of Manitoba. So the SO-711 phone will soon have the same coverage as the Virgin ones.

The one thing you want to be very careful with in Manitoba is that the new Bell/Telus GSM network will not work outside the city of Winnipeg for quite some time (if ever) as there is no infrastructure ready for that network. A Bell iPhone or a Telus iPhone won't work in rural Manitoba for quite a while.