Mobile Industry Review - Latest Comments in Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

faraimpresii — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:32:45 -0000

Hair loss or Alopecia is a problem most of us are facing on a daily basis. Some studies say that men tend to "get" balder faster or that stress contributes to this problem or plainly we're just born with it - carried by genes that is. Nevertheless when it comes to hairloss or caderea parului we have to agree that women suffer the most and spend up a fortune to get rid of this problem. The thing is most products aren't even half good as they are marketed so what's a woman to do ? I think that natural remedies (using eggs and aloe vera) can help your hairloss problem but if people don't start eating and living healthy there's no stop to this issue.

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

technokitten — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:43:00 -0000

So what does 25MB look like to the average normob? What level of browsing, gmail, twitter, facebook does that give you? It might be easier to lobby for Virgin to make it clear what 25MB actually means than get them to up their limits.

I also think Virgin have to show customers when they're near their limit so they can choose to curtail their mobile internet usage so that billshock isn't the result.

Of course, if it could be aggregated over a month so that the charge was 30p a day up to a maximum of £9 a month or something it would be better.

It's very frustrating that mobile tariffs are so complex. How anyone is supposed to work it out is beyond me :/

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

technokitten — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:37:22 -0000

The full tariff table is here http://is.gd/dbd5

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

bensmith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:37:58 -0000

I think all the networks here offer something like this for up to £1.50 per MB, but this is the only one I know with such a low daily limit.

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

bensmith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:36:09 -0000

Ahhh... good spot - I missed this.

Wonder if trading standards would be interested instead (misleading sales material, rather than the advertising)?

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

bensmith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:34:31 -0000

...or 1 podcast
...or a few biggish apps
...or a party's worth og big pics
...or some QIK streaming

All of this is allowed by the T&Cs but makes it very easy to exceed 25MB...

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

goodygoody2 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:47:20 -0000

What a load of complete and utter twoddle!!

So basically you can print/broadcast whatever headline you like so long as the small print retracts the statement...?!?!?!

Imagine the chaos if this type of logic was applied to other industries?

"Go-away-Baldness

Hair Re-Growth Formula***

***Will not reduce the rate of your baldness"

What is the point in that??

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

goodygoody2 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:42:57 -0000

In Ireland with Voda you get 50MB per day for 99c, Since November last year (I think).

So that equates to 86p in the UK at today's rates. Erm........this post would looked a lot better a few months ago when exchange rates were in your favour...

Im gonna shut up now :)

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

Mark — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:17:54 -0000

I have t o go with Helen here... I think its a fantastic step forward and will take the fear away for the average user.

What would be great would be a text message from Virgin to say you are close to your daily limit.

Maybe it could be a tick box option that used some of your credit to send the message or something?

£2.10 for 175 meg of data a week is pretty cool if you ask me !

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

mostlythis — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:09:34 -0000

yep i used 60+MB yesterday downloading one album on nokia music store.

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

Simon Wilcox — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:58:15 -0000

ASA already ruled that it's OK to say unlimited as long as it's clear on the poster that it isn't really unlimited.

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/...

Worth complaining again though.

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

bensmith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:53:59 -0000

Commercial use - without any further qualification (there isn't) that means any use for commercial gain...

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

bensmith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:50:18 -0000

Helen: Saw you presentation. Loved it and agree... but...

30p is only a great deal if it is unlimited. 25MB is so low as a per day limit (note: it's not an average over a month) that consumers need to monitor use on this tariff even more carefully than the existing monthly ones.

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

bensmith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:18:18 -0000

Terrence - if taken across a month I'd agree with you... it's reasonable under the current mass-abuse of 'unlimited' (Voda included). But per day doesn't give any flexibility for one busy day and then a few quiet ones which I think is a more typical usage.

300MB per device is my 'heavy use' max too, but if I go to a party I'll exceed 25MB with pictures, google maps and the like fairly easily.

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

technokitten — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:00:23 -0000

30p a day is *revolutionary* and a great step forward bearing in mind it was only on Monday I was begging the operators to stop having silly tariffs [ video and blog post about it here http://technokitten.blogspot.com/2008/11/there-... ]. Yes, the small print is annoying and how you work out your megabyte usage anyway is a mystery to me and definitely to normobs. But looking at Terence's comments, it's going to be quite hard to kill your phone datawise unless you're downloading full fat video all day.
Also, how do you define 'work' email? Are they going to check every email in my gmail account then to work out which one is a work one and which is not?

Seriously though, 30p a day is a great start, with no contract, makes mobile internet usage much less scary for the average prepay normob in the street. A step in the right direction for sure.

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

TerenceEden — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:54:13 -0000

25 MB a day is ~750MB a month. More than Vodafone offer for "unlimited" data - less than some other operators' "unlimited" offer. Different pricing though.

Utterly shocking that all operators can get away with this. But the first to say "Get XYZ MB" will lose out to the unscrupulous ones saying "Unlimited".

That being said - have you ever taken a detailed look at how much mobile data you burn through?

I'm a really heavy data user on my BB8800. Lots of browsing, Google Maps, Games, ringtones, YouTube. I use it a lot. My total data usage for August was less than 100MB.

My N95 8GB - with its faster 3G radio - similar pattern of usage every day- less than 160MB.

I seriously cane these devices. The only think I use WiFi for on the N95 is downloading video podcasts. I may rethink that as I'm obviously not as heavy a user as I thought!

I don't know (and if I did, I doubt I could share) the average amount of traffic an "average" user get through. But I suspect it may be less than many of us hope.

All that being said - the number 25 is sooooo far away from unlimited it's not funny. I wonder if I could pay Virgin an "Unlimited" amount of money for cable tv...?

T
(Not speaking for Voda - or anyone else of interest)

Re: Virgin Mobile: More abuse of the word ‘unlimited’

AJ — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:50:45 -0000

Do work emails violate the non- commercial requirement. I am not 100% convinced about that.